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This article is about the ethnic groups subsumed under the term "Khoisan". For the language families subsumed under "Khoisan", see Khoisan languages.
Khoisan (increasingly spelled Khoesaan, Khoesan or Khoe-San) is a unifying name for two major ethnic groups of Southern Africa.[1] Historically, they have been referred to as the Capoid race because they can be visually distinguished from most other sub-Saharan Africans by way of their relatively lighter skin color and their epicanthic folds. From the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period, hunting and gathering cultures known as the Sangoan occupied southern Africa in areas where annual rainfall is less than 40 inches (1016mm)—and today's San and Khoi people resemble the ancient Sangoan skeletal remains. The Khoisan people were the original inhabitants of much of southern Africa before the southward Bantu expansion — coming down the east and west coasts of Africa — and later European colonization. The Khoi and San people share physical and linguistic characteristics. It is generally assumed that the Khoi (actually the Khoikhoi, as most Khoi-speaking peoples are classified as San) branched from the San by adopting the practice of herding cattle and goats from neighboring Bantu-speaking groups; however, more recent evidence has suggested that the ancestors of the Khoi peoples are relatively recent pre-Bantu agricultural immigrants to southern Africa, who abandoned agriculture as the climate dried and either joined the San as hunter-gatherers or retained pastoralism to become the Khoikhoi.
[edit] HistoryThe Late Stone Age people in parts of southern Africa were the ancestors of the Khoisan people who inhabited the Kalahari Desert. These early hunter gatherers[2] lived here at least as late as the first century AD.[3] Over the centuries San peoples were absorbed, killed, or displaced by Bantu speaking societies who were migrating south in search of new lands, most notably the Xhosa and Zulu. Both have adopted some Khoisan clicks and loan words into their respective languages. The Khoisan survived in the desert or in areas with winter rains which were not suitable for Bantu crops. During the colonial era they lived in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. Today many of the San live in parts of the Kalahari Desert where they are better able to preserve much of their cherished culture.  Generically Khoisan are known as Bushmen, which is the currently preferred term in several countries (although considered derogatory by some). Culturally the Khoisan are divided into the hunter gatherer San (originally a derogatory term used by the Khoi) or Bushmen, and the pastoral Khoi (also known historically as Hottentots, a term now considered obsolete and sometimes offensive). The various Khoisan languages, which are not all related to each other, are noted for their click consonants. [edit] See also[edit] References[edit] Bibliography
[edit] External links
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