Khoisan - Physical Appearance

Physical Appearance

Physically the Khoisan, with their short frames (149–163 cm/4'9-5'4;), copper brown skin, tightly coiled "peppercorn" hair, high cheekbones, and epicanthic eye folds are quite distinct from the darker-skinned peoples who constitute the majority of Sub-Saharan Africa's population, though both population are usually dolichocephalic (Huxley, 1870).

In his 1965 work The Living Races of Man, Carleton Coon wrote of the Khoisan that "hey have moderately long legs and longer abdominal muscles, traits that sharply distinguish them from the Pygmy and surrounding Bantu populations having muscles with short bellies and long tendons." In past ethnography, the Khoisan have been referred to as the Capoid race because they can be visually distinguished from the Congoid Africans of Bantu origin.

In the 19th century, a distinguishing feature of Khoisan women was considered to be their tendency for steatopygia. This belief contributed greatly to the European fascination with the so-called Hottentot Venus.