The Hottentots are one of the oldest tribes in Africa. These people have always been distinguished by unusual features, for example, when they pronounce words, their throats seem to click.
However, in the 19th century, the term "Hottentots" began to be considered offensive for some reason. The name of the tribe has also changed and now it is Khoi-Koin.
It is believed that the people of the tribe belong to the Khoisan race. What are its features and differences from other races that are still incomprehensible to scientists?
Members of the Hottentot or Khoi tribe may fall into a state of immobility that resembles suspended animation.
When did the Hottentots appear?
Speaking about the age of the Hottentots, it is worth noting that archaeologists have found the remains of a man who is at least 17,000 years old.
They were found in the Nile region. Some also say that the analysis of the remains showed the location of the hip of an ancient person at an angle of not 90, but 120 degrees.
This may indicate that it was from the Hottentot tribe that other races began to develop. However, this theory is controversial.
Recently, there has been a controversy between scientists, since some were inclined to believe that the Hottentots are not a human race, but having a different origin, while others insisted on a different point of view, which speaks of the origin of all people from the Hottentots.
Disputable here are not only theories, but also facts: for example, in Europe, in ancient caves, the skeletons of women were found, whose hips were at an angle of 120 degrees. At the same time, women had no resemblance to the Hottentots in the rest.
Hottentot tribe
The tribe has a lot of characteristics and features. Among them:
- the ability to fall into a state resembling suspended animation, and it is completely controlled by each person separately. It has nothing to do with hypnosis. The state is achieved in the cold season, when people simply want to "sit out" the cold;
- The Hottentots lead a nomadic lifestyle. Many people who visited the tribe's habitat felt that it was unsanitary and excessively dirty;
- Coin-coin is distinguished by its own . Members of the tribe have a yellowish-brown skin color that resembles the skin tone of the Mongols;
- The Hottentots are aging rapidly. This is due to the peculiarities of their skin. Even middle-aged people are covered with wrinkles. First of all, the face, neck, chest area and hands age;
- the growth of the representatives of the tribe does not exceed 160 centimeters. Sometimes it can be 140 centimeters, and for Koi-coins this is absolutely normal. The small stature is thought to be the result of adaptation to an arid climate;
- the figure of the representatives of the tribe is unusual. Hips as if turned at an angle of 90 degrees forward.
Life of the Hottentots
Now the tribe is nomadic, but it was not always so. Some part of the exfoliated, forming settlements in South Africa.
In the same place, people began to engage in agriculture, brought livestock. Animal husbandry has become one of the main sources of livelihoods. However, neither the first nor the second retained the name. At the same time, the Khoi-Koins are considered a nomadic tribe, true Hottentots.
Modern Hottentots live in kraals - camp-type camps. The appearance of the dwellings is interesting - these are domes, which are surrounded on all sides by shrubs. Housing, although temporary, but quite comfortable. True, dirty.
The development of the tribe is far behind. Just 50 years ago, sharpened stone legs were used here. Today, representatives of the tribe have already switched to iron utensils.
Ostrich eggs, pots can be used as plates.
Hottentot women love. Yes, men do the same. Noisy accessories are loved here, for example, bracelets on legs that beat against each other and make a sound.
Necklaces, rings, bandages are used. Jewelry is made from fabrics, leather, iron, stone, copper.
Now, for the last 100 years, the Hottentots have not had polygamy. But before it was. Today every family is a husband and wife and their children who live in separate houses.
Wedding customs of the Hottentots
For those who plan to organize, it is worth saying that the women of the tribe look different.
Flabby bodies and saggy breasts are not all. Even representatives of small stature have labia about 15-20 centimeters long.
Why it happened so anatomically - no one knows, but the main pre-wedding rite of the Hottentots is to completely remove them.
The history of the removal of the labia was particularly scandalous.
The Pope officially allowed this to be done, but when the Hottentots began to be converted to Christianity, such operations were prohibited. And now women could not find a groom for themselves because of disgust for such a physiological nuance.
As a result, the girls sacrificed Christianity so that they could have an operation and get married.
Read also about with big eggs!
a tribe of South Africa inhabiting the English colony of the Cape of Good Hope (Cap Colony) and so named originally by the Dutch settlers. The origin of this name is not entirely clear. The physical type of G., very different from the type of Negroes and representing, as it were, a combination of signs of a black and yellow race with peculiar features - an original language with strange, clicking sounds - a kind of life, basically nomadic, but at the same time extremely primitive, dirty, rude , - some strange customs and customs - all this seemed extremely curious and already in the 18th century caused a number of descriptions of travelers who saw in this tribe the lowest stage of humanity. Later it turned out that this was not entirely true and that the Bushmen (see), relatives and neighbors of G., should be placed at a lower level, although they still know iron for a long time and make iron weapons for themselves. With the G. tribe, there are significant similarities in terms of physical type, language, way of life, and many others. others, tribes of the western. half of South Africa, distinguished by the names: bark (korana), herero, nama (namakwa), mountain damara, etc., the area of \u200b\u200bwhich together extends beyond the 20th degree south. lat. and reaches almost to the river. Zambezi. This circumstance was the reason for the extension of the name G. to the whole race, or breed, which some researchers tend to consider one of the indigenous, or main, races of mankind; others do not see the need to distinguish it from the dark-skinned and woolly-haired breed, but recognize it only as a variety of the latter, different from the Negro proper (Negroes and Bantu) and isolated in the region of South Africa, where it was indigenous or ancient. There is reason to believe that this race was formerly more widespread and that it was pushed to the southwest by the Bantu tribes, especially the Kaffirs, whose traditions speak of G. as the original inhabitants of the region they subsequently occupied. Some features of the G. language also indicate some kind of distant connection with the tribes of North Africa and, according to Gaug, testify to their long residence next to some more civilized tribe, and according to Lepsius, even to some kind of relationship with the ancient Egyptians. G. themselves have a vague tradition that they came from somewhere with S. or S.V. and, moreover, in "large baskets" (ships?), although since the Europeans recognized them, they have never been able to build boats for themselves.
Belonging to woolly-haired, thick-lipped, flat-nosed races, G. differ from Negroes in the lighter, swarthy-yellow color of their skin, reminiscent of the color of a dried, yellowed leaf, tanned skin, or walnut, and sometimes similar to the color of mulattoes or yellow-swarmed Javanese. The skin color of the Bushmen is somewhat darker and approaches copper-red. G.'s skin is distinguished by a tendency to wrinkle, both on the face and on the neck, under the armpits, on the knees, etc., which often gives middle-aged people a prematurely senile appearance. Hairiness is very poorly developed; mustaches and beards appear only in adulthood and remain very short, the hair on the head is short, finely curly and curling into separate small tufts the size of a pea or more (Livingston compared them with black pepper grains planted on the skin, Barrow with tufts of a shoe brush, with the only difference that these bundles are twisted spirally into balls). G.'s growth is below average; the Bushmen are especially small, in whom it is on average about 150 cm; among the tribes of Namaqua and Korana, there are also taller individuals, up to 6 feet tall. The build is lean, muscular, angular, but in women (and partly in men) there is a tendency to deposit fat on the rear parts of the body (buttocks, thighs), or to the so-called steatopygia , which, according to some observations, is caused by increased nutrition at a certain time of the year and noticeably decreases with more meager food. In general, in their constitution, the G. are inferior to their eastern neighbors - the Kaffirs, the Zulus - and are often distinguished by bonyness and some disproportion. Their hands and feet are relatively small, their head as well as the capacity of their skull, which has a narrow, long and somewhat flattened shape (dolicho- and platycephaly). G.'s face was exhibited by some observers as an example of ugliness, but young subjects sometimes have features that are not devoid of pleasantness; in general, G.'s physiognomy is often lively and intelligent. The peculiarity of the face is the prominent cheekbones, which form almost a triangle with a pointed chin; the upper half of the face also shows some approximation to the shape of a triangle due to the narrowing of the head in the forehead; instead of an oval, the face is a beveled quadrangle or rhombus. The nose is very short, wide and flat, especially at the root, as if flattened; the bridge of the nose is wide, the eyes are narrow. This width of the cheekbones, the plane of the nose and the narrowness of the eyes resemble the features of the Mongolian type, and the similarity is often further enhanced by the outline of the palpebral fissure - namely, the elevation of its outer corner and the roundness of the inner one, and the lacrimal tubercle is more or less covered by the fold of the upper eyelid. In adult G. (as well as among the Mongols), this feature is often smoothed out. Mentally and morally, ancient travelers already contrasted the narrow-minded, simple-minded, careless G. with the bold, intelligent, but wild and brutal Bushmen. The savagery of the latter is partly due to the fact that their neighbors G. - Kaffirs, Europeans - gradually took away their land, and with it the game, and the means of subsistence, and caused raids and theft of livestock from their side, for which they were persecuted and killed, like wild beasts, and made of them desperate enemies of the rest of the population. At the present time they have been considerably exterminated or pushed back into remote deserts; some of them converted to Christianity and became settled. G. have long been considered Christians, have adopted many European habits; many of them have even forgotten their language and speak only Dutch or English. They are counted alone in the colony - approx. 20,000, others up to 80,000; it is difficult to determine the exact number, since official statistics confuse them with Malay and Indian coolies and other foreigners, and since, on the other hand, they are so obsessed with Europeans and various other nationalities that it is quite pure G. it is not always easy to meet in the colony. The temperament of the Hottentots is sanguine; the most distinctive character traits are extreme frivolity, laziness, a tendency to fun and drunkenness. Their mental abilities cannot be called limited; they are easily learned, for example, foreign languages; their children in schools often turn out to be capable, especially at first, although they usually do not go far; among G. there are dexterous riders, jockeys, arrows, cooks; the English government of the colony has a fairly large detachment of mounted police or gendarmerie from them, which turn out to be very suitable as border guards or for finding criminals, fugitives, etc. In general, quite good-natured, G. easily succumb to instant temptations: stealing, often lying and boasting. The tribes of G., who live further in the north and have retained to a greater extent their independence and nomadic way of life, often wage fierce wars among themselves (for example, namakva from the Koran). Now some of them are in the power or under the protectorate of Germany (in southwestern German Africa, where there are about 7,000 Nama Hottentots, 35,000 mountain Damar, 90,000 Ova Herero, 3,000 Nama Bushmen and about 2,000 bastards, i.e. . hybrids of G. with other nationalities), or the Republic of South Africa, or the new English South African colonies. G. call themselves koi-koin, which supposedly means "people of people", that is, people par excellence. According to the latest news, however, this is how the Namaqua (or Nama-kua) call themselves, who give the other Hottentots the name Nama-Koin, and the mountain Damara - the name How-Koin; colonial G. call themselves, as it were, kena, and the Koran - kukyob. All of these names can only be approximated, as they are accompanied by indescribable clicking sounds. G. has four of these sounds, the Bushmen have seven; traces of them are also found in the Bantu language, and according to some reports, among other peoples of Africa, but to a lesser extent. These sounds, used in front of vowels and some consonants, are produced by the emphasis of the tongue in different parts of the palate and resemble those produced by some European peoples when prodding horses or when amusing small children, or caused by uncorking a bottle, etc. The missionary Gan, who grew up among G., could pronounce these sounds like the natives, and came up with different signs for their designation in writing. G.'s language is generally harsh, rough, and very different from the soft Kaffir language, reminiscent of Italian in harmony; it stands apart also in its type, since the change in the meaning of words is produced in it by the addition of suffixes, while the language of the Kaffirs and the Bantu tribes in general belongs to the category of those in which the change of the meaning of words occurs by the addition of prefixes. The Hottentot language distinguishes three numbers (there is a dual) and three genders. Having no inclination for the graphic arts (whereas the Bushmen deftly depict animals and people on the walls of their caves), the G. have many songs, fairy tales, fables about animals, etc., and in this respect differ from other African peoples. If their language itself is similar to the Bushmen, then, according to one researcher, only to the same extent as, for example, English and Latin. As for the life of G., then for the study of it in detail it is necessary to turn to ancient observers: Kolb, Levalian, Lichtenstein, Barrow, and others, since now he has completely changed under the influence of missionaries and European settlers in general. G.'s primitive beliefs have been little studied. Apparently, it was animism, connected with the cult of ancestors, but also recognizing some two gods: Hatsi-Eibib (apparently - the personification of the moon) and Tsui-Goap, the creator of man. Wed Ratzel, "Völkerkunde" (Bd. I, 1885), Fritsch, "Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika"s" (Bres., 1872), Hahn, "Die Sprache der Nama" (1870), L. Metchnikoff, "Bushmens et Hottentots", in "Bull. de la Soc. Neuchateloise de Geographie" (V, 1890).
- - a tribe of South Africa that inhabits the English colony of the Cape of Good Hope and was originally named so by the Dutch settlers. The origin of this name is not entirely clear...
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron
- - people living in the central and southern regions of Namibia and in South Africa. They speak Hottentot languages; many know Afrikaans. Religion is mostly Protestant...
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- - nationality with a total number of 130 thousand people. The main countries of resettlement: Namibia - 102 thousand people, Botswana - 26 thousand people, South Africa - 2 thousand people. They speak the Hottentot languages...
And the Hottentots. Today, their descendants live in the Kalahari Desert and nearby areas of Angola and South West Africa. They retreated to these places under the onslaught of the Bantu peoples and Dutch settlers.
Today there will be a story about who the Hottentots are. This is the oldest tribe in South Africa. The modern name comes from the Dutch hottentot - "stutterer", which is associated with the clicking pronunciation of sounds among this people. Since the 19th century, the term "Hottentot" has been considered offensive in Namibia and South Africa, where it has even been replaced by "Khoi-Koin", a derivative of the self-name of Nama. Like the Bushmen, the Khoi-Koin belong to the Khoisan race - the most peculiar race on the planet (I personally read about such a race for the first time).
Genetic studies have shown that among this people, the Y-chromosome type characteristic of the first people has been preserved. The people that is really ancient.
The first written information about the Hottentots is found in the traveler Kolben. He described them shortly after the emergence of the Dutch colonies in their country. Then the Hottentots were a numerous people, which included tribes under the control of leaders or elders. They led a nomadic pastoral life, lived in groups of 300 to 400 people, lived in portable huts made of stakes covered with mats. They allegedly dressed in sheepskins (and Africa! - it's hot); weapons were bows with poisoned arrows and darts or assegai. Livestock was the main sign of the wealth of this tribe, which they guarded and practically did not use for food.
The Hottentots have a very unusual appearance, which combines the features of the black and yellow races (which is why they apparently began to be attributed to a separate race). Representatives of this tribe are low - no more than one and a half meters tall. Their skin has a yellow-copper hue.
At the same time, the skin of the Hottentots ages very quickly. Already after twenty years, deep wrinkles appear on the face, neck and body, which gives them the appearance of deep old men.
Interestingly, body fat in Hottentots varies with the seasons. Very common pictures and photos with the so-called steatopygia. This is when he put the child on his floor, and let's go!
When the Europeans came
In the middle of the 18th century, the expansion of Europeans to southern Africa began. The Dutch East India Company began the construction of Fort Kapstad, which later became the largest port and base on the route from Europe to India.
The first people the Dutch encountered at the Cape of Good Hope were the Korakwa Hottentots. The leader of this Kora tribe concluded the first treaty with the commandant of Kapstad, Jan van Riebeeck. These were "years of cordial cooperation" when a mutually beneficial exchange was established between the tribe and the white aliens.
But the Dutch are Europeans. And European states do not tend to live in peace when somewhere is good. So it is in Africa. In May 1659, the Dutch broke the treaty by seizing land for the purpose of farming. On this occasion, a war began, during which the leader of the Hottentot tribe Kora was killed.
That war was not the only one. The second happened in 1673. Here the Dutch used another instrument of democracy - they set different tribes of the Hottentots against each other. And they killed each other, not completely, but significantly.
But an even more powerful blow to the Hottentot tribes was dealt by smallpox brought from Europe. During the XVII-XIX centuries, the Hottentot tribes that inhabited the southern tip of Africa were almost completely destroyed.
Hottentots now
Now some of the tribes are nomadic. But many settled locally, forming settlements in South Africa. There, people are engaged in agriculture, raising livestock. Animal husbandry has become one of the main sources of livelihoods. However, neither the first nor the second retained the name. The Khoi-Koin are considered a nomadic tribe, the true Hottentots.
Modern Hottentots live in kraals - camp-type sites. The appearance of the dwellings is interesting - these are domes, which are surrounded on all sides by shrubs. Housing, although temporary, but quite comfortable. True, dirty.
The development of the tribe is far behind. Just 50 years ago, sharpened stone knives were used here. Today, representatives of the tribe have already switched to iron utensils. Ostrich eggs, pots can be used as plates.
South Africa South Africa
Hottentot in a 1780s drawing.
Elderly Hottentot man
Hottentots(koy-coin; self-name: khaa, khaasen listen)) is an ethnic community in southern Africa. Now they inhabit South and Central Namibia, in many places living mixed with Damara and Herero. Separate groups also live in South Africa: Grikva, Korana and Nama groups (mostly immigrants from Namibia).
Name
Story
By the arrival of Europeans, the Hottentots occupied the southwestern coast of Africa, from the Fish River in the east to the central highlands of Namibia in the north. How long the Hottentots lived in these places is not known exactly. We can only say with certainty that the Bantu tribes found them several centuries earlier already in these same places. According to lexicostatistics, the Khoi Khoi branch separated from other Central Khoisan languages (Chu-Khwe branch) at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. However, the place of initial settlement of their common ancestors (the Kalahari Desert region or the Cape region) and the ways of further migrations are still unknown. The Khoikhoy branch itself fell apart presumably in the 3rd century AD. e.
Unlike the Bushmen, the Hottentots practiced nomadic pastoralism.
Traditionally, the Hottentots were divided into two large groups: the Nama and the Cape Hottentots, who in turn were divided into smaller groups, and those into tribes (!haoti).
Folklore
An ironic attitude to the brute strength of a lion and an elephant and admiration for the mind and ingenuity of a hare and a turtle are manifested in all these tales.
Their main characters are animals, but sometimes the story is about people, but people - the heroes of fairy tales - are still very close to animals: women marry elephants and go to their villages, people and animals live, think, talk and act together.
Nama
Self-name - namaqua. Before the arrival of Europeans, they were divided into two groups:
- nama proper(large Nama; Great Nama) - by the arrival of Europeans, they lived north of the river. Orange (south of modern Namibia, Great Namaqualand). They were divided into the following tribes (listed from north to south, given in brackets: variants of the Russian name; name in Afrikaans; self-name):
- swartbooi (lhautsoan; swartbooi; ||khau-|gõan)
- koper (khara-khoi, frasmanns; kopers, fransmanne, Simon Kopper hottentot; !kharkoen).
- Roinasi (gai-lhaua, "red people"; rooinasie; gai-||xauan)
- hrotdoden-nama (lo-kai; grootdoden; ||ō-gain)
- feldshundrachers (labobe, haboben; veldschoendragers; ||haboben).
- tsaibshi (kharo; tsaibsche, keetmanshopers; kharo-!oan).
- bondelswarts (kamichnun; bondelswarts; !gamiǂnûn).
- topnaars (chaonin; topnaars; ǂaonîn).
- eagles(small nama; orlams, little nama; self-name: !gû-!gôun) - by the arrival of the Europeans, they lived south of the river. Orange to the river basin. Ulifants (west of modern South Africa, Lesser Namaqualand). Five Orlam-Nama tribes are known:
- the Afrikaner tribe (Tsoa-ts'aran; Afrikaaners; orlam afrikaners; |hôa-|aran), should not be confused with the Afrikaners (Boers).
- lamberts (gai-tskhauan; lamberts, amraals; kai|khauan).
- witboys (tskhobesin; witboois ('white guys'); |khobesin).
- Betanians (kaman; bethaniërs; !aman).
- bersebs (tsai-tskhauan; bersabaers; |hai-|khauan).
They soon had a new common rival, Germany. In 1884, the territory north of the river. Orange was declared a German colony of South West Africa. Following this, land was taken from the Hottentots and other indigenous people, which was accompanied by many clashes and violence. In 1904-08, the Herero and Hottentots raised several uprisings, which were suppressed with unprecedented cruelty by German troops and went down in history as the Herero and Nama genocide. 80% of the Herero and 50% of the Hottentots (Nama) were destroyed.
After the suppression of the uprisings, the Nama were settled in special reserves (home-lands): Berseba (Berseba), Bondels (Bondels), Gibeon (Gibeon, Krantzplatz), Sesfontein (Sesfontein), Soromas (Soromas), Warmbad (Warmbad), Neuhol (Neuhol ), Tses, Hoachanas, Okombahe/Damaraland, Fransfontein. The system of reserves was also supported by the South African administration, which controlled the territory of Namibia from to. Inside them, they still make up the majority of the population, but they also live outside: in cities and on farms - mixed with Bantu and whites. The division into tribal groups is preserved, which are now strongly mixed.
Cape Hottentots
(Cape Koikoin; kaphottentotten) - no longer exists as a separate ethnic group. They inhabited coastal lands from the Cape of Good Hope in the southwest to the basin of the river. Ulifants in the north (where they bordered on Nama) and up to the river. Fish (Vis) in the east (modern Western Cape and western Eastern Cape). Their number is estimated at 100 thousand or 200 thousand. At the beginning of the 17th century, they were divided into 2-3 groups, represented by at least 13 tribes.
- Einikva(riviervolk; ãi-||'ae, einiqua). Perhaps they were closer to the Nama than to the Cape Hottentots.
- Western Cape Hottentots
- karos-heber (kaross-heber; ǂnam-||’ae)
- kohokva (tsoho; smaal-wange, saldanhamans; |'oo-xoo, cochoqua)
- huriqua (guriqua)
- horinghaiqua (goringhaiqua, !uri-||'ae)
- horahauqua (kora-lhau; gorachouqua (‘peninsular’); !ora-||xau)
- ubiqua (ubiqua)
- hainoqua (chainoqua; Snyer's volk; !kaon)
- hessequa (hessequa)
- attaqua
- auteniqua (lo-tani; houteniqua, zakkedragers; ||hoo-tani)
- Eastern Cape Hottentots
- inqua
- damaqua, not to be confused with damara
- hunheikva (tsoang; hoengeiqua; katte; |hõãn)
- harihurikva (hrihri; chariguriqua, grigriqua).
Most of the tribes were exterminated or assimilated by Europeans during the 18th and early 19th centuries, but by the beginning of the 18th century three new groups of mixed origin had formed: Gonaqua, Korakwa and Hrikwa, mainly outside the original Hottentot territory, to the east among the Bantu and among the Bushmen along the Orange River.
- Gonaqua(chona; gonaqua; ǂgona) - formed at the beginning of the 18th century east of the river. Cay (centre of the Eastern Cape) based on the Xhosa-influenced Eastern Cape Hottentots. Part moved to Betelsdorp (near Port Elizabeth). Disappeared to ser. XIX century.
Africa is the most ancient and mysterious continent of our planet, and the most ancient peoples of this continent, according to scientists, are the Bushmen and Hottentots. Currently, their descendants live in the Kalahari Desert and nearby areas of Angola and South West Africa, where they retreated under the onslaught of the Bantu peoples and Dutch settlers.
The Hottentots today are an extremely small nation, there are no more than fifty thousand people. But until now they have retained their own customs and traditions.
The language of nature
The name of the Hottentot tribe comes from the Dutch word hottentot, which means "stutterer", and was given for a special clicking kind of pronunciation of sounds. For European people, this was reminiscent of the speech of monkeys, and therefore they concluded that this people is almost a transitional link between the world of primates and humans. According to this theory, the attitude of Europeans towards this people was akin to the attitude towards domestic or wild animals.
However, modern genetic studies have established that among this people the Y-chromosome type characteristic of the first people has been preserved. This indicates that perhaps all members of the genus Homo sapiens are descended from this anthropological type. It is the Hottentots and related groups that belong to the main race of mankind.
We find the first information about the Hottentots from the traveler Kolben, who described them shortly after the establishment of the Dutch colonies in their country. The Hottentots at that time were still a numerous people, divided into many tribes under the leadership of leaders or elders; they led a nomadic pastoral life, in groups of 300 or 400, and lived in mobile huts made up of stakes covered with mats. Their clothes were sheepskins sewn together; weapons were bows with poisoned arrows and darts or assegai.
The traditions of this people and some etymological indications give the right to conclude that at one time the distribution of the Hottentots was incomparably more extensive. Memories of this are still retained in the Hottentot names of rivers and mountains. They once owned all of South West Africa.
Not black, not white
The Hottentots are characterized by a combination of features of the black and yellow races with peculiar features. Representatives of this tribe are low - no more than one and a half meters tall. Their skin has a yellow-copper hue.
At the same time, the skin of the Hottentots ages very quickly. A short moment of flowering - and after twenty years their face, neck and body are covered with deep wrinkles, which gives them the appearance of deep old men.
Interestingly, body fat in Hottentots varies with the seasons. Women of this nationality have anatomical features that the Europeans called the "Hottentot apron" (enlarged labia minora).
Until now, no one can explain the origin of this natural anatomy. But the sight of this "apron" was disgusting not only among Europeans - even the Hottentots themselves considered it unaesthetic, and therefore from ancient times the tribes had a custom to remove it before marriage.
"Venus of the Hottentots" - women of this nation had unusual forms
And only with the arrival of the missionaries introduced a ban on this surgical intervention. But the natives resisted such restrictions, refused to accept Christianity because of them, and even raised uprisings. The fact is that girls with such body features could no longer find suitors for themselves. Then the pope himself issued a decree by which the natives were allowed to return to their original custom.
However, such a physiological oddity did not prevent the Hottentots from practicing polygamy, which developed into monogamy only by the beginning of the 20th century. But even to this day, the custom of paying "lobola" - a ransom for the bride in cattle or money in an amount equivalent to its value has been preserved.
But the men of this tribe have a tradition of amputating one of their testicles, which defies scientific logic - this is done so that twins are not born in the family, the appearance of which is considered a curse for the tribe.
Nomads and artisans
In ancient times, the Hottentots were nomads. They moved with huge herds of cattle throughout the southern and eastern parts of the continent. But gradually they were forced out of their traditional territories by Negroid tribes. The Hottentots then settled mainly in the southern regions of modern South Africa.
Livestock was the main measure of the wealth of this tribe, which they guarded and practically did not use for food. Wealthy Hottentots had several thousand cows. Caring for livestock was the responsibility of the men. Women cooked food and churned butter in leather bags. Dairy food has always been the basis of the tribe's diet. If the Hottentots wanted to eat meat, they obtained it by hunting.
Representatives of this race built houses from twigs of African trees and animal skins. The technology of construction was simple. They first fixed the carrying poles in special pits, which were then tied horizontally, and covered the walls with either reed mats or animal skins.
The huts were small - 3 or 4 meters in diameter. The only source of light is a low door covered with a mat. The main furniture is a bed on a wooden base with interlacing leather straps. Dishes - pots, calabash, tortoise shells, ostrich eggs. Each family occupied a separate hut.
Hygiene of the Hottentots from the position of modern man seems monstrous. Instead of daily bathing, they rubbed the body with wet cow dung, which was removed after drying.
Despite the hot climate, the Hottentots mastered the production of clothing and jewelry. They wore cloaks made of dressed leather or skins, and sandals on their feet. Hands, neck and legs were decorated with all kinds of bracelets and rings made of ivory, copper, iron and walnut shells.
The traveler Kolben described their method of metal processing as follows: “They dig a quadrangular or round hole in the ground about 2 feet deep and make a strong fire there to heat the earth. When, after that, they throw ore into it, they kindle a fire there again so that the ore melts and becomes fluid from the intense heat. To collect this molten iron, they make another one 1 or 1.5 feet deep next to the first pit; and as a trough leads from the first smelting furnace into another pit, liquid iron flows down it and cools there. The next day, they take out the smelted iron, break it into pieces with stones, and again, with the help of fire, make of it whatever they want and need.
Under white oppression
In the middle of the 17th century, the expansion of Europeans to southern Africa (to the area of the Cape of Good Hope) began: the Dutch East India Company began the construction of Fort Kapstad, which later became the largest port and base on the way from Europe to India.
The first people the Dutch encountered in the Cape area were the Korakwa Hottentots. The leader of this Kora tribe concluded the first treaty with the commandant of Kapstad, Jan van Riebeeck. These were "years of cordial cooperation" when a mutually beneficial exchange was established between the tribe and the white aliens.
The Dutch settlers in May 1659 violated the treaty by seizing land (the administration allowed them to farm). Such actions led to the first Hottentot-Boer War, during which the leader of the Hottentot tribe Kora was killed.
In 1673, the Boers killed 12 Kochokwa Hottentots. The second war began. In it, the Europeans played on the differences between the Hottentot tribes, using one tribe against another. As a result of these armed clashes, the number of Hottentots was sharply reduced.
And the smallpox epidemic, which the Europeans brought to the Black Continent, almost completely wiped out the indigenous people. During the XVII-XIX centuries, the Hottentot tribes that inhabited the southern tip of Africa were almost completely destroyed.
Only a few small tribes survive today. They live on reservations and are engaged in cattle breeding. Despite the fact that some have lost all the features of life and culture and adopted Christianity, a significant part of them retain the cult of their ancestors, honor the moon and sky. They believe in the Demiurge (heavenly creator god) and worship the deities of the cloudless sky - Huma - and the rainy - Sum. They have preserved a rich folklore, they have many fairy tales, legends, in which memories of the past greatness still live.
