Physical anthropology and somatic origins of the Hottentots

Abstract

The history of studies on the physical anthropology of the Hottentots falls into three phases: (I) 1872–1923: recognition of the Hottentots as physically distinct (Fritsch to Broom); (II) 1923–37: recognition of the Boskop type as a component of the Old Yellow South Africans (Drennan, Dart, Galloway); (III) 1937–51: discovery of the Kakamas physical type and recognition of its contribution to the Hottentots (Dreyer, Meiring, Wells). It is demonstrated that the Hottentots are not a physically homogeneous group. A variety of racial elements can be recognized among those practising the Hottentot culture; of these, it seems that the Kakamas type actually brought the Hottentot culture to Southern Africa from East Africa, North‐Eastern Africa or Asia Minor. On their arrival in Southern Africa, these Kakamas people hybridized with the Bush‐Boskop already present, as well as with Gerontomorphic and Europsid strains which had reached the sub‐continent hybrids earlier. The resulting hybrids, still practising the Hottentot culture, were thus compounded of four or, possibly, five different stocks—Kakamas, Bush, Boskop, Gerontomorph and a less widespread, earlier Europoid strain. The Hottentot culture even diffused beyond the bounds of the Kakamas folk, to be adopted by the indigenes without obvious genetic contact between the physical types. There are thus regional differences in the proportions of the components: the Nama are mainly Kakamas and Bush; the Korana and the Gonaqua are mainly Bush, Boskop and Gerontomorph ; the Cape Western Hottentots are mainly Bush and Boskop. This physical diversity, attendant upon cultural diffusion with or without genetic diffusion, accounts for the widely‐differing conceptions of the physical structure of the Hottentot current from time to time.