Khoisan peoples

(noun)

A unifying name for two groups of peoples of Southern Africa who share physical and putative linguistic characteristics distinct from the Bantu majority of the region. Culturally, they are divided into the foraging San, or Bushmen, and the pastoral Khoi, or more specifically Khoikhoi, previously known as Hottentots.

Related Terms

Examples of Khoisan peoples in the following topics:

  • Namibia

    • Both the San and the Nama were Khoisan peoples, and spoke languages from the Khoisan language group.
    • The Damara do not relate to the other Khoisan peoples, although they share a similar language.
    • During the 17th century, the Herero, a pastoral, nomadic people keeping cattle, moved into Namibia.
    • In the 19th century white farmers, mostly Boers, moved farther north, pushing the indigenous Khoisan peoples, who put up a fierce resistance, across the Orange River.
    • Known as Oorlams, these Khoisans adopted Boer customs and spoke a language similar to Afrikaans.

  • The Bantu Migration

    • It seems likely that the expansion of the Bantu-speaking people from their core region in West Africa began around 1000 BCE.
    • Before the expansion of farming and pastoralist African peoples, Southern Africa was populated by hunter-gatherers and earlier pastoralists.
    • The Bantu expansion first introduced Bantu peoples to Central, Southern, and Southeast Africa, regions they had previously been absent from.
    • The proto-Bantu migrants in the process assimilated and/or displaced a number of earlier inhabitants that they came across, including Pygmy and Khoisan populations in the center and south, respectively.
    • Currently, 300-600 ethnic groups in Africa speak Bantu languages and are categorized as Bantu peoples.

  • The Germanic Tribes

    • West Germanic people eventually settled in central Europe and became more accustomed to agriculture, and it is the various western Germanic people that are described by Caesar and Tacitus.
    • Meanwhile, the eastern Germanic people continued their migratory habits.
    • Roman writers characteristically organized and classified people, and it may very well have been deliberate on their part to recognize the tribal distinctions of the various Germanic people so as to pick out known leaders and exploit these differences for their benefit.
    • Essentially, Roman civilization was overrun by these variants of Germanic peoples during the 5th century.
    • Germanic people were fierce in battle, creating a strong military.

  • The Rise of Egyptian Civilization

    • They appeared to be settled people, descended from the Khormusan people, and spawned the Ibero-Marusian industry.
    • People lived in small huts, created simple pottery, and had stone tools.
    • People lived in huts, and had undecorated pottery and stone tools.
    • Copper was used, pottery was simple and undecorated, and people lived in huts.
    • Its pottery was painted dark red with pictures of animals, people and ships.

  • The Mixtec

    • People still identify as Mixtec today.
    • The Mixtec are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca, which covers parts of the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Puebla.
    • Today there are approximately 800,000 Mixtec people in Mexico, and there are also large populations in the United States.
    • As of 2011, an estimated 150,000 Mixtec people were living in California, and 25,000 to 30,000 were living in New York City.
    • Distinguish between the Mixtec people and the Mixtec language and identify when they were most prominent

  • The Hittites

    • The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people of the Bronze Age, who manufactured advanced iron goods, ruled through government officials with independent authority over various branches of government, and worshipped storm gods.
    • The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who established an empire at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia around 1600 BCE.
    • The Hittites are usually depicted as a people living among the Israelites—Abraham purchases the Patriarchal burial-plot from "Ephron HaChiti" (Ephron the Hittite), and Hittites serve as high military officers in David's army.
    • In 2 Kings 7:6, they are depicted as a people with their own kingdoms.
    • After 1180 BCE, amid general turmoil in the Levant associated with the sudden arrival of the Sea Peoples, the kingdom disintegrated into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states.

  • The Valdivia Culture

    • They were a sedentary, egalitarian people, known for their early use of pottery, and feminine ceramic figures.
    • They were sedentary, egalitarian people who lived off farming and fishing, and occasional deer hunting.
    • The "Venus" of Valdivia likely represented actual people;  each figurine is individual and unique, as can be seen in the hairstyles.

  • The Indo-Aryan Migration and the Vedic Period

    • Different theories explain the Vedic Period, c. 1200 BCE, when Indo-Aryan people on the Indian subcontinent migrated to the Ganges Plain.
    • Scholars debate the origin of Indo-Aryan peoples in northern India.
    • Other origin hypotheses include an Indo-Aryan Migration in the period 1800-1500 BCE, and a fusion of the nomadic people known as Kurgans.
    • The most prominent of these groups spoke Indo-European languages and were called Aryans, or "noble people" in the Sanskrit language.
    • The Kurgan people may have been mobile because of their domestication of horses and later use of the chariot.

  • The Swahili Culture

    • This Bantu expansion first introduced Bantu peoples to central, southern, and southeastern Africa, regions they had previously been absent from.
    • The Swahili people are mainly united under the mother tongue of Kiswahili, a Bantu language. 
    • Around the 8th century, the Swahili people began trading with the Arab, Persian, Indian, Chinese, and Southeast Asian peoples—a process known as the Indian Ocean trade.
    • They grew in wealth as the Bantu Swahili people served as intermediaries and facilitators to local, Arab, Persian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian, and Chinese merchants.
    • Grains (principally millet and rice), meats (cattle and poultry), and other supplies necessary to feed the large city populations had to be purchased from the Bantu peoples of the interior.

  • Thomas Hobbes

    • Despite advocating the idea of absolutism of the sovereign, Hobbes developed some of the fundamentals of European liberal thought: the right of the individual; the natural equality of all men; the artificial character of the political order (which led to the later distinction between civil society and the state); the view that all legitimate political power must be "representative" and based on the consent of the people; and a liberal interpretation of law which leaves people free to do whatever the law does not explicitly forbid.
    • In such a state, people fear death and lack both the things necessary to commodious living and the hope of being able to toil to obtain them.
    • So in order to avoid it, people accede to a social contract and establish a civil society.
    • Since by our (human) nature, we seek to maximize our well being, rights are prior to law, natural or institutional, and people will not follow the laws of nature without first being subjected to a sovereign power, without which all ideas of right and wrong are meaningless.
    • Describe Thomas Hobbes' beliefs on the relationship between government and the people.