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kimurhoThe races* of man are divided along ethnic origins; from the very general - Oriental, European, African, Polynesian, Australian, North American (Native), South American (Native), Caribbean - to the more specific country or region of origin.
* MOST people understand that all men are the same species.
Within a race, there are regional differences even more minute than specific country of origin. People ... humans can live in tents, on boats, in trees, in tenements/apartment buildings, in castles, in caves, in huts. They can live in desert regions, flooded areas, forests, jungles, islands, cities, towns, &c. Classifying a "race" distinction by the type of home seems far too precious and arbitrary. On the other hand, all the races of man breathe air and live above the water and earth. Not all the races of Otherfolk do so. Would water-breathers or amphibious races of Otherfolk be classified as "regional differences" or different species? I suppose ...
I was going to say it would depend on whether they could interbreed but that's a no-go because most races of Otherfolk can interbreed with Humankind.
I think it can be safely said that dwarvenfolk are not the same race as elvankind. I propose that they are as related as the wolf is to the coyote ... or the horse is to the ass. The difference being, of course, that coyote and wolf hybrids are fertile where horse and ass hybrids are not.
It also occurs to me that they'd rather be compared to the tiger and lion than horse and ass but the timer has just rung and I have to go.
* MOST people understand that all men are the same species.
Within a race, there are regional differences even more minute than specific country of origin. People ... humans can live in tents, on boats, in trees, in tenements/apartment buildings, in castles, in caves, in huts. They can live in desert regions, flooded areas, forests, jungles, islands, cities, towns, &c. Classifying a "race" distinction by the type of home seems far too precious and arbitrary. On the other hand, all the races of man breathe air and live above the water and earth. Not all the races of Otherfolk do so. Would water-breathers or amphibious races of Otherfolk be classified as "regional differences" or different species? I suppose ...
I was going to say it would depend on whether they could interbreed but that's a no-go because most races of Otherfolk can interbreed with Humankind.
I think it can be safely said that dwarvenfolk are not the same race as elvankind. I propose that they are as related as the wolf is to the coyote ... or the horse is to the ass. The difference being, of course, that coyote and wolf hybrids are fertile where horse and ass hybrids are not.
It also occurs to me that they'd rather be compared to the tiger and lion than horse and ass but the timer has just rung and I have to go.
Well ...
Date: 2019-01-05 02:52 am (UTC)* They cannot interbreed. Either it doesn't work at all or the offspring is sterile.
* They could but do not interbreed. This happens often with some birds that have such different mating signals, they don't cross over.
Everything that can and does interbreed is technicall a difference of subspecies, not species.
This is upsetting some humans now that we've found Cro Magnon, Neanderthal, Denisovan, and some other kind we don't even know what it is DNA blobbed together in the human genome. Those had been considered separate, but well, people fuck, and apparently the results were fertile, so the tree needs a bit of rearranging.
I imagine the same is true in worlds with multiple humanoid races. They fuck, the results are fertile, but most people feel really really awkward about it.
I did something a bit different with the Six Races in A Conflagration of Dragons. Some pairs are cross-fertile, others aren't. Hybrids used to be quite rare. But after the dragons flattened civilization, people mixed more -- and then the hybrids turned out to be fertile with each other. It's actually possible to rack up all four elements in one body, but it takes a few generations to get that far.