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( Khoisan)
Khoisan (increasingly commonly spelled Khoesan or Khoe-San) is the name for two major ethnic groups of Southern Africa. 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. Both Khoi and San people share physical and linguistic characteristics, and it seems clear that the Khoi branched forth from the San by adopting the practice of herding cattle and goats from neighboring Bantu speaking groups. Culturally they are divided into the hunter gatherer San (commonly known as Bushmen, although this can be interpreted as derogatory) and the pastoral Khoi (sometimes known as Hottentots, although this is generally considered obsolete and sometimes offensive). The Khoisan languages are noted for their click consonants. Over the centuries the many branches of the Khoisan peoples were absorbed or displaced by Bantu speaking societies who were migrating south in search of new lands, most notably the Xhosa and Zulu, who 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, and were massacred in great numbers by Dutch, British, and German settlers in acts of genocide (e.g. the Herero and Namaqua Genocide).[1] But still the vast majority of the Khoisan were exterminated in most areas by the inward coming Bantu tribes who were responsible for their population decline and ultimately to their complete decline in almost everywhere except the Kalahari where they could not farm; thus the Bantu tribes are more responsible than the later Europeans in the great reduction of numbers of the Khoisan.[citation needed] They contributed greatly to the ancestry of some parts of South Africa's coloured population. Today many of the San live in parts of the Kalahari Desert where they are better able to preserve much of their cherished culture. According to Knight et al. (2003) Y-haplogroup A, the most diverse or oldest-diverging Y haplogroup transmitted purely by patrilineal descent, is today present in various Khoisan groups at frequencies of 12-44%, and the other Y-haplogroups present have been formed by recent admixture of Bantu male lineages E3a (18-54%), and in some groups, noticeable Pygmy traces are visible (B2b). The Khoisan also show the largest genetic diversity in matrilineally transmitted mtDNA of all human populations. Their original mtDNA haplogroups L1d and L1k are one of the oldest-diverging female lineages as well. However, analysis of neutral autosomal (inherited through either parent) genes finds that the Khoisan are similar to other sub-Saharan African populations.
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