Byssus
03-19-2008, 02:38 AM
History:
The word "hottentot", applied by 17th century Dutch settlers to the KhoiKhoi they encountered about the Cape of Good Hope and Namibia, meant "stutterer" (a clear reference the click consonants). I see this term as an interesting parallel to the Greek "barbarian" ("bar-bar" being the Greeks' onomatopeic impression of stammering foreign tongues).
Khoisan peoples, it's believed, may be the most basal of all extant human populations. Their predecessors appear to have been the original inhabitants of much of Africa, and certain anthropologists detected persisting hints of physical influence as far afield as the Maghreb. These yellow-skinned, peppercorn-haired men were confined to their present Southern African stronghold by the Bantu expansion, whereby technologically superior blacks, equipped with agriculture and metalworking, exploded outward from the Niger Delta to intermingle with, absorb, and exterminate the autochthones. This great migration began some 5000 years ago and in spurt and surge reached KwaZulu-Natal Province by 500 AD.
The "Khoisan" label (Khoesan or Khoe-San) reflects a bifurcation between the Khoi (Hottentots) and San (bushmen proper). The more visibly admixed, pastoral Khoi (originally of northern Botswana) acquired animal husbandry from Bantu neighbors some 2500 years ago and arrived at Cape Horn some 500 years hence, where they encountered hunter-gatherer San, whose arrival predated them by several tens of thousands of years. The past few decades, I note, have seen the San increasingly turn to agriculture.
Morphology:
Physical peculiarities of the Khoisan include hair structure, skin pigmentation, facial orthognathy, and, in females, steatopygia and certain peculiarities of external genitalia. (As Stephen Jay Gould reports, "The labia minora, or inner lips, of the ordinary female genitalia are greatly enlarged in Khoi-San women, and may hang down three or four inches below the vagina when women stand, thus giving the impression of a separate and enveloping curtain of skin.") Such anatomical details, by way of travellers' tales and lurid human exhibitions, captivated and scandalized scores in 19th century Europe. For the most famous instance of the latter, look to Saartjie Baartman, the "Hottentot Venus".
Slanted eyes are probably an adaptation to desert glare (if I recall correctly, they're structurally distinct from the epicanthic folds of Mongoloids). Famously diminutive stature may, to some extent, have been a consequence of dietary limitation (early 20th century accounts speak of bushmen farm hands attaining noticeably greater dimensions than their foraging brothers). Reports of "Australoid" crania from Southern Africa may actually reference the somewhat pronounced brows still to be observed in some Khoisan (as in the last photo below).
Images:
The black-and-white photos are of the Kalahari San, while the remainder appear to be a mix of Namibian and South African Khoisan (tribal affinity unknown to me).
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/3645/bush3vz0.jpg
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/1012/bush4xa2.jpg
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/9571/bush7lz5.jpg
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/972/bush6gr5.jpg
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/9997/z2108mw9.jpg
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2752/namibiabushmanlandp353ef6.jpg
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2364/z274wj2.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7827/74211321d392ccea09mv5.jpg
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2039/24395685345802f628bwu1.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/1973/620bushmenta3.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5949/65128793640d7850eebnm7.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4259/24395670350e1f19834ez5.jpg
The word "hottentot", applied by 17th century Dutch settlers to the KhoiKhoi they encountered about the Cape of Good Hope and Namibia, meant "stutterer" (a clear reference the click consonants). I see this term as an interesting parallel to the Greek "barbarian" ("bar-bar" being the Greeks' onomatopeic impression of stammering foreign tongues).
Khoisan peoples, it's believed, may be the most basal of all extant human populations. Their predecessors appear to have been the original inhabitants of much of Africa, and certain anthropologists detected persisting hints of physical influence as far afield as the Maghreb. These yellow-skinned, peppercorn-haired men were confined to their present Southern African stronghold by the Bantu expansion, whereby technologically superior blacks, equipped with agriculture and metalworking, exploded outward from the Niger Delta to intermingle with, absorb, and exterminate the autochthones. This great migration began some 5000 years ago and in spurt and surge reached KwaZulu-Natal Province by 500 AD.
The "Khoisan" label (Khoesan or Khoe-San) reflects a bifurcation between the Khoi (Hottentots) and San (bushmen proper). The more visibly admixed, pastoral Khoi (originally of northern Botswana) acquired animal husbandry from Bantu neighbors some 2500 years ago and arrived at Cape Horn some 500 years hence, where they encountered hunter-gatherer San, whose arrival predated them by several tens of thousands of years. The past few decades, I note, have seen the San increasingly turn to agriculture.
Morphology:
Physical peculiarities of the Khoisan include hair structure, skin pigmentation, facial orthognathy, and, in females, steatopygia and certain peculiarities of external genitalia. (As Stephen Jay Gould reports, "The labia minora, or inner lips, of the ordinary female genitalia are greatly enlarged in Khoi-San women, and may hang down three or four inches below the vagina when women stand, thus giving the impression of a separate and enveloping curtain of skin.") Such anatomical details, by way of travellers' tales and lurid human exhibitions, captivated and scandalized scores in 19th century Europe. For the most famous instance of the latter, look to Saartjie Baartman, the "Hottentot Venus".
Slanted eyes are probably an adaptation to desert glare (if I recall correctly, they're structurally distinct from the epicanthic folds of Mongoloids). Famously diminutive stature may, to some extent, have been a consequence of dietary limitation (early 20th century accounts speak of bushmen farm hands attaining noticeably greater dimensions than their foraging brothers). Reports of "Australoid" crania from Southern Africa may actually reference the somewhat pronounced brows still to be observed in some Khoisan (as in the last photo below).
Images:
The black-and-white photos are of the Kalahari San, while the remainder appear to be a mix of Namibian and South African Khoisan (tribal affinity unknown to me).
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/3645/bush3vz0.jpg
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/1012/bush4xa2.jpg
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/9571/bush7lz5.jpg
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/972/bush6gr5.jpg
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/9997/z2108mw9.jpg
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2752/namibiabushmanlandp353ef6.jpg
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2364/z274wj2.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7827/74211321d392ccea09mv5.jpg
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2039/24395685345802f628bwu1.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/1973/620bushmenta3.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5949/65128793640d7850eebnm7.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4259/24395670350e1f19834ez5.jpg