The biocultural evolution of Khoisan populations of Southern Africa.

Abstract

The research presented here offers new information on the recent evolution of Khoisan populations of southern Africa through the new study of Holocene skeletons. When combined with subfossil and historical remains, these archeological specimens provide a skeletal record for the last 5000-9000 years of southern African prehistory. Multivariate statistical analyses of cranial measurements were used to determine patterns of morphological variation in the skeletal record with which hypotheses of biocultural evolution were tested. These analyses yielded the following results. First, the traditional distinction between Bushmen ad Hottentots holds for recent inland individuals. Second, there is a suggestion of a morphologically distinct San population living on the coast of South Africa. The idea of a "Strandloper" population suggested by early scholars is here revived. The third results is that there is little evidence of complete population succession on the coast of South Africa,, suggesting that there were to massive population movements associated with the spread of Hottentot pastoralism throughout southern Africa.