Post by Noah on Aug 8, 2011 17:51:28 GMT -5
Here's a good overview of the Paleo-Hamites and Proto-Hamites (presented initially in the Origin of the Hamites thread), as well as how they relate to the modern Eastern and Western sub-divisions of the Hamitic people. From A Contribution to the History of the Hamitic Peoples of Africa by Kenneth Howard Honea:
"the modern Hamites exhibit a conglomeration of racial components which are accompanied, nevertheless, by a series of predominant and consistent physical characteristics that may feasibly be traced to a common ancestral stock. Through time this common ancestral stock has been adulterated by foreign elements, the type and extent of these admixtures depending on the area of habitation. If it is possible to speak of a basic Hamitic stock, then it would seem justified to assume that we are concerned with a non-Negroid, probably primitive Mediterranean stock whose area of origin must be sought beyond the continent of Africa[...]
The differentiation between current Hamites (Eastern and Western groups), Proto-Hamites (Early and Later groups), and Paleo-Hamites must be considered before proceeding. The natural division of modern Hamites into two primary groups is attested to either by direct historical documentation or eyewitness accounts that include reliable reports by cultural anthropologists, travelers or missionaries. The Eastern Hamitic group consists of a people exhibiting Hamitic physical characteristics whose language is, or was Hamitic and who now inhabit Northeast and East Africa. The characteristic economic form of this group is, or was prior to processes of acculturation, a pastoral nomadism such as that still practiced by the Borana Galla of South Ethiopia.
The Berbers and other related peoples of the Maghreb (Northwest Africa) and the Sahara are also of Hamitic physical type, but they are not included in the group of "Eastern Hamites" since they exhibit certain physical and cultural peculiarities that differentiate them from the Eastern Group. They have therefore been termed Western Hamites and are, as we shall see, more closely related to the Paleo-Hamites.
The Proto-Hamites, on the other hand, are the immediate ancestors of the "historical" Eastern and Western Hamites. The Proto-Hamites thus can be subdivided into an "Early Group" (ancestral Western Hamites) and a "Later Group" (ancestral Eastern Hamites). The characteristic physical features, the language and economy were essentially the same as those of their descendants. It is possible to delineate their former zone through a comparison of associated prehistoric cultural artifacts (stone implements and the like) and, above all, by an examination of the human remains from various sections of the African continent.
Present cultural, physical and prehistorical materials point to a primary migration of "later" proto-Hamitic pastoral nomads into Africa during the early Neolithic; the "early" proto-Hamitic peoples are recognized as the descendants of the Paleo-Hamites[...]
The oldest group of people in Africa exhibiting racial traits typical of the current Hamites are the Paleo-Hamites. Our knowledge of them is based almost exclusively on material collected and interpreted by prehistorians and physical anthropologists. It will be shown later that the economic system of the Paleo-Hamites was completely different from that of the modern Hamites. These people and their typical culture first appears during the Upper Paleolithic and is centered in East Africa. A particularly high development and expansion of the associated culture and racial stock took place in the Mesolithic. Individual elements were preserved not only into Neolithic times but some are even evident today."