DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0146
Drawings of Hottentot women
91
degrees of development among various of the Bantu, Somali, and other African peoples,
but the author of this paper has never seen any photographic evidence supporting this
view. Steatopygia, however, certainly characterized some of the peoples who lived in
the Upper Palaeolithic in the European caves, and possibly certain neolithic populations
of the Mediterranean. In the case of the Bushmen and Hottentots it is not a sex-limited
character, although it is very much more pronounced in its development in women. It
is possible to regard it as a character developed by sexual selection, but it seems more
probable that this accumulation of fat has a utilitarian rather than an aesthetic origin.
Certain breeds of fat-tailed and fat-rumped sheep exhibit deposits which, it has
been remarked, are apparently analogous to steatopygia.
There are several breeds of the fat-tailed sheep. One, the Bokharan or Astrakan
dumba, may be taken as a representative of the fat-tailed group. This is especially
characterized by the accumulation of fat on the sides of the tail, which is usually of moder-
ate length and has the under side naked.19 The Bokhara and Kirghiz steppes are the
true home of this breed, which also occurs in Astrakan and the Crimea, in Persia, Syria,
and Palestine. In some of these sheep the weight of the tail will average ten pounds,
whereas the entire carcass will not weigh more than fifty or sixty. The Persian fat-
tailed sheep, which is allied to the Bokharan, commonly has a tail measuring ten inches
or a foot across and weighing from 20 to 30 pounds. The Africander fat-tailed sheep,
formerly kept in enormous flocks in Cape Colony, is probably due to a cross between a
fat-rumped African breed and the Persian or Indian fat-tail sheep. This breed was
admirably adapted to the African climate, and in summer the flocks used to be driven to
the high mountain pastures where they fed largely on the succulent and saline plants
which abound in such situations. At the commencement of the autumn they returned
to the plains, where they remained during the winter and spring. The shepherds were
Hottentots or slaves from Madagascar.20
Fat-tailed sheep are found in North Africa from Morocco to Egypt, and in the
Nile Valley occur as early as the XHth dynasty. It is probable that they entered Africa
by way of Mesopotamia and Syria and that they were introduced into Southern Europe
from North Africa. Lydekker remarks that if this is so the dispersal of this breed was
practically identical with that of the humped cattle or zebu, as is likewise their present
geographical distribution.21
Fat-rumped sheep are closely related to the fat-tailed sheep, but show a degenera-
19 R. Lydekker, The sheep and its cousins, New York, 1913, p. 171 sqq.
29 Ibid., p. 179 sq.
21 Op. cit., p. 184, Cf, R. Lydekker, The ox and its kindred, London, 1912.
91
degrees of development among various of the Bantu, Somali, and other African peoples,
but the author of this paper has never seen any photographic evidence supporting this
view. Steatopygia, however, certainly characterized some of the peoples who lived in
the Upper Palaeolithic in the European caves, and possibly certain neolithic populations
of the Mediterranean. In the case of the Bushmen and Hottentots it is not a sex-limited
character, although it is very much more pronounced in its development in women. It
is possible to regard it as a character developed by sexual selection, but it seems more
probable that this accumulation of fat has a utilitarian rather than an aesthetic origin.
Certain breeds of fat-tailed and fat-rumped sheep exhibit deposits which, it has
been remarked, are apparently analogous to steatopygia.
There are several breeds of the fat-tailed sheep. One, the Bokharan or Astrakan
dumba, may be taken as a representative of the fat-tailed group. This is especially
characterized by the accumulation of fat on the sides of the tail, which is usually of moder-
ate length and has the under side naked.19 The Bokhara and Kirghiz steppes are the
true home of this breed, which also occurs in Astrakan and the Crimea, in Persia, Syria,
and Palestine. In some of these sheep the weight of the tail will average ten pounds,
whereas the entire carcass will not weigh more than fifty or sixty. The Persian fat-
tailed sheep, which is allied to the Bokharan, commonly has a tail measuring ten inches
or a foot across and weighing from 20 to 30 pounds. The Africander fat-tailed sheep,
formerly kept in enormous flocks in Cape Colony, is probably due to a cross between a
fat-rumped African breed and the Persian or Indian fat-tail sheep. This breed was
admirably adapted to the African climate, and in summer the flocks used to be driven to
the high mountain pastures where they fed largely on the succulent and saline plants
which abound in such situations. At the commencement of the autumn they returned
to the plains, where they remained during the winter and spring. The shepherds were
Hottentots or slaves from Madagascar.20
Fat-tailed sheep are found in North Africa from Morocco to Egypt, and in the
Nile Valley occur as early as the XHth dynasty. It is probable that they entered Africa
by way of Mesopotamia and Syria and that they were introduced into Southern Europe
from North Africa. Lydekker remarks that if this is so the dispersal of this breed was
practically identical with that of the humped cattle or zebu, as is likewise their present
geographical distribution.21
Fat-rumped sheep are closely related to the fat-tailed sheep, but show a degenera-
19 R. Lydekker, The sheep and its cousins, New York, 1913, p. 171 sqq.
29 Ibid., p. 179 sq.
21 Op. cit., p. 184, Cf, R. Lydekker, The ox and its kindred, London, 1912.