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Originally Posted by Nukapei
I've been wondering -- how do people in Middle-earth tell which species a stranger belongs to?
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Biologically speaking, Elves and Men must have been the same species, since they were able to inter-breed (as I recall, Tolkien addresses this in one of his
Letters). Orcs too, it seems, were able to breed (or be bred) with Men and were also (on one analysis) corrupted Elves. Hobbits are said to be related to Men and were therefore, probably, the same species. Dwarves are more difficult, given their different origins, but I would speculate that they too were the same species because of their broadly similar humanoid appearance. Maiar apart, who were able to take on any physical (and therefore biological?) form, the only sentient beings (other than animals) that I would class as possibly belonging to separate species are Ents and Trolls (although the two of these might themselves have belonged to the same species, if Treebeard's explanation of Trollish origins is to be believed).
So I would class Men, Elves, Hobbits, Dwarves and Orcs as one species split into different races. How do we tell races apart in our own world? Well, there are clear physical differences between many races - in skin colour, features, height etc. With Orcs, Dwarves and Hobbits, their differing physical appearances are, as you say, clear. But it may well be that Elves and Men could also be told apart by means of distinctive physical differences, their facial features for example.