Bushman, Hottentot and South African Negro crania studies by distance and discrimination

Revisiting historical Khoe-San skeletal remains in European collections: A search for identity through craniometric analysis

As the identity of a large number of Khoe-San skeletal material in European collections recently came into question during its documentation, a re-evaluation of the remains by employing a non-invasive method such as craniometrics was done to investigate the biological affinity. For this purpose, gene flow and population diversity present within the group, as well as between the study sample (N=63) and other modern and historic population groups from southern, central and east Africa were explored. Available comparative groups included the historic Khoe-San from Riet River (N=31), the Sotho-Tswana from southern Africa (N=61), the Basuku from central Africa (N=66) and the Bahutu (N=53) and Teita (N=24) from east Africa. Ten craniometric variables were selected and used to perform population structure analysis based on model bound quantitative genetics and multiple discriminant function analysis (MDA). Quantitative genetic distances revealed that the Khoe-San sample was closest to the Riet River group. Residual variance analysis performed on two-sample subsets of the Khoe-San group (Cape KS and Various KS) showed a higher level of heterogeneity in the Cape KS than seen in the Khoe-San from various other areas in southern Africa. MDA revealed that Khoe-San intra-sample variance is relatively high, with 44% of the sample (sexes pooled) classified into the Riet River group. The remaining individuals were classified (in decreasing order) into Bahutu (24%), Basuku (24%) and Sotho-Tswana (8%). Although the Khoe-San specimens are closest to the Riet River group, they are clearly not homogenous. Their high level of phenotypic diversity most likely originated from a complex population history involving many group interactions driven by social and political marginalization.

A New Paradigm: The African Early Iron Age without Bantu Migrations

Between 1000 BC and AD 1000, or so the story goes, sub-Saharan Africa was the setting for one of the all-time great population movements of antiquity—the Bantu migrations. Sweeping to and fro across the continent in a kind of grand migrationary gavotte, absorbing or brushing aside the autochthonous hunter-gatherers, the ancestral Bantu speakers carried with them on their march the seeds of a settled life fueled by food production and iron technology. Their movements are represented by large arrows scything across big blank maps of the African interior. How good is the evidence that any of it ever happened?

In this paper we shall examine some of the serious methodological and practical problems that bedevil the migrationary model. We shall also present an alternative model for the prehistory of sub-Saharan Africa: in brief, that the development of the Early Iron Age in Africa was a process rather than an event; that autochthonous populations gradually adopted the suite of traits that define the Early Iron Age, without any large-scale movement of peoples; and that increasing sedentarization actually led to a population decline which was only overcome after AD 500.

The model constitutes a new paradigm that emphasizes continuity and takes into account a few observations that are awkward for the migrationary paradigm: that sub-Saharan Africa has a difficult topography that may put certain constraints on population movements, and that the continent was slowly filling up on its own when events starting in the sixteenth century turned the autochthonous peoples' lives upside down.

Geometric morphometric study of population variation in indigenous southern African crania

Much of our understanding of population variation in southern Africa is derived from traditional morphometric research. In the search for new perspectives, this paper reports on new geometric morphometric data examining cranial variation in 12 modern human populations from southern Africa. In total, 298 male Bantu-speaking individuals were studied. In addition, a small Khoisan (Khoikhoi and San) series was also examined. The purpose of this study was to investigate Khoisan-Bantu morphological similarities and differences, and to examine variation within both the Bantu-speaking and Khoisan populations. The three-dimensional coordinates of 96 landmarks were analyzed, using the shape-analysis software morphologika. Interpopulation variation was examined by calculating Procrustes distances between groups; a cluster analysis was then used to summarize phenetic relationships. A principal components analysis explored the relationships between populations; shape differences were visualized and explored using three-dimensional rendered models, and further interpreted using thin-plate splines. Morphological differences are present within and between the crania of Bantu-speaking and Khoisan individuals. The Khoisan demonstrate features (e.g., a pentagonoid vault, more rounded forehead contour, and a small and less prognathic face) that clearly distinguish them from Bantu-speaking populations. Although southern African Bantu-speaking populations are clearly closely related, they show population-specific features (e.g., the crania of more southerly populations (Xhosa, Southern Sotho, and Zulu) are characteristically more brachycephalic and less prognathic). This study suggests that differential admixture with adjacent Khoisan peoples has contributed to diversity within southern African Bantu-speaking populations.

Three-dimensional technology for linear morphological studies: a re-examination of cranial variation in four southern African indigenous populations

In order to compare linear dimensions made by traditional anthropometric techniques, and those obtained from three-dimensional coordinates, samples of four indigenous southern African populations were analysed. Linear measurements were obtained using mathematically transformed, three-dimensional landmark data on 207 male crania of Cape Nguni, Natal Nguni, Sotho and Shangaan. Univariate comparisons for accuracy of the transformed linear data were made with those in a traditional linear study by de Villiers (The Skull of the South African Negro: A Biometrical and Morphological Study. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg) on similar samples and equivalent landmarks. Comparisons were not made with her Penrose (Ann Eugenics 18 (1954) 337) analysis as an apparently anomalous 'shape'-'size' statistic was found. The univariate comparisons demonstrated that accurate linear measurements could be derived from three-dimensional data, showing that it is possible to simultaneously obtain data for three-dimensional geometric 'shape' and linear interlandmark analyses. Using Penrose and canonical variates analyses of the transformed three-dimensional interlandmark measurements, similar population distances were found for the four indigenous southern African populations. The inter-population distance relationships took the form of three separated pairs of distances, with the within-pair distances very similar in size. The cranial features of the four populations were found to be overall very similar morphometrically. However the populations were each shown by CVA to have population specific features, and using discriminant analyses 50% or more of the individual crania (with the exception of the Sotho) could be referred to their correct populations.

The position of the Nazlet Khater specimen among prehistoric and modern African and Levantine populations

The morphometric affinities of the 33,000 year old skeleton from Nazlet Khater, Upper Egypt are examined using multivariate statistical procedures. In the first part, principal components analysis is performed on a dataset of mandible dimensions of 220 fossils, sub-fossils and modern specimens, ranging in time from the Late Pleistocene to recent and restricted in space to the African continent and Southern Levant. In the second part, mean measurements for various prehistoric and modern African and Levantine populations are incorporated in the statistical analysis. Subsequently, differences between male and female means are examined for some of the modern and prehistoric populations. The results indicate a strong association between some of the sub-Saharan Middle Stone Age (MSA) specimens, and the Nazlet Khater mandible. Furthermore, the results suggest that variability between African populations during the Neolithic and Protohistoric periods was more pronounced than the range of variability observed among recent African and Levantine populations. Results also demonstrate a general reduction in the degree of sexual dimorphism during the Holocene. However, this pattern of reduction pattern varies by geographic location and is not uniform across the African continent.

Superimposition and reconstruction in forensic facial identification: a survey

Forensic facial reconstruction, is the reproduction of the lost or unknown facial features of an individual, for the purposes of recognition and identification. It is generally accepted that facial reconstruction can be divided into four categories: (1) replacing and repositioning damaged or distorted soft tissues onto a skull; (2) the use of photographic transparencies and drawings in an identikit-type system; (3) the technique of graphic, photographic or video superimposition; (4) plastic or three-dimensional reconstruction of a face over a skull, using modelling clay. This paper sets out to review work done on both superimposition and plastic reconstruction, however, the authors believe that only the latter category can correctly be termed facial reconstruction. The survey is divided according to work done through anthropological evaluation of the skull, clinical examination and dissection of the soft tissues, as well as methods of measuring soft tissue thicknesses using tissue puncture, ultrasound, cephalometric radiography and magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, a method of the combined use of ultrasound and radiography to collect a wider range of facial soft tissue depths and a method of producing skull and face profiles are outlined.

On the genetic interrelationships of South African Negroes

This study addresses the comparative genetic interrelationships between South African Negro groups. For this the genetic distances between seven ethnically defined Negro subsamples (total of 998 individuals) based on 24 genetic loci/polymorphisms are calculated by applying standard distance formulae. These computations offer an opportunity to evaluate the different polymorphisms in terms of their effects on the genetic distances. The genetic interrelationships thus computed are illustrated by way of dendrograms and are discussed in terms of their comparative significance. It follows from the findings that the Ndebele, Northern Sotho (Pedi), and Tswana form a closely related subcluster and that the Zulu and Swazi as well as the Venda and Shangana-Tsonga form two additional, more distant, subclusters. These results are discussed and tentatively interpreted against the background of the reported Khoisan admixture of the populations concerned as well as their ethnological history. The data are also compared to those derived from metric and dermatoglyphic studies. It is concluded that whereas there is some agreement between these categories of variation (genetic, metric, and dermatoglyphic) as far as the comparative evaluation of South African Negro groups is concerned, there also are discrepancies. These conclusions need to be explained in terms of evolutionary mechanisms (such as historic origins, hybridization, natural selection, and genetic drift) in order to obtain a more consistent and comprehensive comparative picture of the physical anthropology of southern African populations.

Palatal analysis and osteology of the hard palate of the Kenyan African skulls

One hundred twenty-five dry skulls from Kenya that consisted of about 90% Bantu individuals were examined to obtain data on the gross anatomy of the hard palate. The palatine index showed that 43.2% of the total sample of skulls has narrow (leptostaphyline), 23.7% intermediate (mesostaphyline), and 33.1% wide (brachystaphyline) palates. The palatine height index showed that 40% skulls had low (chamestaphyline), 57% intermediate (orthostaphyline), and 3.0% deep (hypsistaphyline) palates. Mean palatal length, breadth, and height for the total sample was 4.92 cm, 4.02 cm, and 1.22 cm, respectively. The incisive foramen and canal was cone shaped in 80% where the diameter of the foramen was less than 0.4 cm, while it was cylindrical in 20% where the diameter was greater than 0.4 cm. Forty-nine per cent of the skulls had two-five lesser palatine foramina present. The greater palatine foramen was found to lie at the level of the third molar in 76%, intermediate between second and third molars in 13.6%, and opposite the second molar in 10.4%. The greater palatine foramen opened antero-medially in 74% and perpendicularly in 26% of the palates. Extensive longitudinal palatal grooves were found bilaterally in all the palates, 70% showed divisions of the grooves, 63.2% had crests along the border of the grooves, and 19.2% had bridges in the posterior part of the groove near the opening of the greater palatine foramen. The incidence of palatine torus was 4.8%. The incisive suture was present in 6.4% of the adult palates.

On the assumption of equality of variance-covariance matrices in the sex and racial diagnosis of human skulls

Many papers have been devoted to the assumption of equality of variance-covariance matrices (sigma g) with respect to the use of discriminant analysis. Most of them concentrate on the "effect" of inequality on the results, in particular on discriminant functions. In the present paper, the assumption of equality of covariances itself was investigated for measures on human skulls. Data for both sexes were compared, as well as data on several racial groups. A likelihood ratio test was used. It was concluded that the equality of sigma g between the sexes and among subraces was not questioned, whereas the results warrant some caution as to the equality of sigma g among the main racial groups.

Blood polymorphism frequencies in the Sara Majingay of Chad

Blood samples of 258 Sara Majingay of Ndila (Southern Chad) were analysed. Phenotype and allele frequencies are given for 22 polymorphisms. For each of these, the Majingay are compared to a number of other African populations. Then they are included in a set of 8 African populations between which multivariate distances for 25 alleles at 9 loci are computed. A two-dimensional representation is derived from the matrix of distances, and is discussed. It bears the stamp of gene flow in central Ethiopia, where an Arab admixture is evident, and in Southern Africa, where a reciprocal gene flow has marked the gene pools of Khoisan and Bantu speakers to a varying degree. The Majingay stand relatively near to the Bedik, another population of West-Central Africa. The non-Arab or non-Khoisan components of the gene pool of the other populations do not seem to differ largely from the gene pools of the West-Central African populations.

New studies of post-Pleistocene human skeletal remains from the Rift Valley, Kenya

Prehistoric human crania from Bromhead's Site, Willey's Kopje, Makalia Burial Site, Nakuru, and other localities in the Eastern Rift Valley of Kenya are reassessed using measurements and a multivariate statistical approach. Materials available for comparison include series of Bushman and Hottentot crania. South and East African Negroes, and Egyptians. Up to 34 cranial measurements taken on these series are utilized to construct three multiple discriminant frameworks, each of which can assign modern individuals to a correct group with considerable accuracy. When the prehistoric crania are classified with the help of these discriminants, results indicate that several of the skulls are best grouped with modern Negroes. This is especially clear in the case of individuals from Bromhead's Site, Willey's Kopje, and Nakuru, and the evidence hardly suggests post-Pleistocene domination of the Rift and surrounding territory by "Mediterranean" Caucasoids, as has been claimed. Recent linguistic and archaeological findings are also reviewed, and these seem to support application of the term Nilotic Negro to the early Rift populations.