DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0148
Drawings of Hottentot women
93
can be invoked as the immediate cause of the analogous development in the Bushmen
and Hottentots.
It does not seem possible that steatopygia in these people can be due to an excess
of common salt in their diet, because salt is scarce and hard to get in the desert regions
of South Africa, so that ashes are often used for flavoring among the Hottentots and other
native tribes.22 Dastre has argued with some plausibility that salt was first used as an
aliment at the time of the transition from the pastoral and nomadic stages to sedentary
and agricultural life.23 He maintains that salt is a necessary compliment to a vegetarian
regimen, but that pastoral tribes who live on milk and meat, hunting-tribes who subsist
on the products of the chase, and fishing populations, often abstain voluntarily from salt.
He quotes G. L. Bunge’s hypothesis that the abundance of potash in vegetable foods is
responsible for the need for salt, but rejects it on the ground that many of the tribes of
Central Africa, who live on a largely vegetarian diet, substitute for common salt or sodium
chloride “ash salt” derived from certain plants and consisting principally of potassium
chloride.
It is certain that the diet of Bushmen and Hottentots includes a great many vegetable
foods that are very rich in potash. The Bushmen are practically omnivorous and feed
upon a great many plants generally considered inedible. It is, however, very doubtful
whether the anatomical character in question can be related directly to any specific
element in their diet.
In this connection it would seem that the analogous and possibly homologous devel-
opments in other far removed members of the Primate Order have not been considered
sufficiently. The mouse lemurs (genus Chirogale) ,u which are inhabitants of Madagas-
car, include some species that become torpid during the dry season, and sleep all the
time. During the summer a large amount of fat is deposited on the portion of the body
at the root of the tail, enlarging this part greatly. The creatures are sustained during
their period of hibernation by absorbing this storage of food. Similar developments
for the same purpose are found among the fat-tailed lemurs (genus Altilemur)25
It is of interest to note that the clearest cases of steatopygia occur in the represen-
tations of females from the Aurignacian Period of the European cave-cultures, and
among the modern Bushmen-Hottentots. The Bushmen are unquestionably a vestige
of a very archaic human stock, and by some have been considered descendants of the
22 G. W. Stow, The native races of South Africa, London, 1910, p. 240.
23 M. A. Dastre, ‘Salt and its physiological uses’, (Annual report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1901,
Washington, 1902, p. 562 sq.).
24 D. G. Elliot, A review of the primates, New York, 1913, vol. 1, p. 87.
26 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 112.
93
can be invoked as the immediate cause of the analogous development in the Bushmen
and Hottentots.
It does not seem possible that steatopygia in these people can be due to an excess
of common salt in their diet, because salt is scarce and hard to get in the desert regions
of South Africa, so that ashes are often used for flavoring among the Hottentots and other
native tribes.22 Dastre has argued with some plausibility that salt was first used as an
aliment at the time of the transition from the pastoral and nomadic stages to sedentary
and agricultural life.23 He maintains that salt is a necessary compliment to a vegetarian
regimen, but that pastoral tribes who live on milk and meat, hunting-tribes who subsist
on the products of the chase, and fishing populations, often abstain voluntarily from salt.
He quotes G. L. Bunge’s hypothesis that the abundance of potash in vegetable foods is
responsible for the need for salt, but rejects it on the ground that many of the tribes of
Central Africa, who live on a largely vegetarian diet, substitute for common salt or sodium
chloride “ash salt” derived from certain plants and consisting principally of potassium
chloride.
It is certain that the diet of Bushmen and Hottentots includes a great many vegetable
foods that are very rich in potash. The Bushmen are practically omnivorous and feed
upon a great many plants generally considered inedible. It is, however, very doubtful
whether the anatomical character in question can be related directly to any specific
element in their diet.
In this connection it would seem that the analogous and possibly homologous devel-
opments in other far removed members of the Primate Order have not been considered
sufficiently. The mouse lemurs (genus Chirogale) ,u which are inhabitants of Madagas-
car, include some species that become torpid during the dry season, and sleep all the
time. During the summer a large amount of fat is deposited on the portion of the body
at the root of the tail, enlarging this part greatly. The creatures are sustained during
their period of hibernation by absorbing this storage of food. Similar developments
for the same purpose are found among the fat-tailed lemurs (genus Altilemur)25
It is of interest to note that the clearest cases of steatopygia occur in the represen-
tations of females from the Aurignacian Period of the European cave-cultures, and
among the modern Bushmen-Hottentots. The Bushmen are unquestionably a vestige
of a very archaic human stock, and by some have been considered descendants of the
22 G. W. Stow, The native races of South Africa, London, 1910, p. 240.
23 M. A. Dastre, ‘Salt and its physiological uses’, (Annual report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1901,
Washington, 1902, p. 562 sq.).
24 D. G. Elliot, A review of the primates, New York, 1913, vol. 1, p. 87.
26 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 112.