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The limb proportions of 686 subjects (461 men and 225 women)
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by zarahan- aka Enrique Cardova: [QB] [b]Distance runners are usually small and walkers tall. [/b] The notion of small distance runners is shaky because East Africans, who are among some of the tallest populations in the world, also produce the world's best distance runners. [b]White subjects can be explained by the relative sedentism associated with the adoption of agriculture. The hypothesis also explains the extreme physiques of Pygmies and Nilotics.[/b] ^^Dubious as to any rigid application. Of course sedentism will produce heavier, fatter, populations, for the physical effort of nomadism is not as extreme. But this is so not only among white populations but chubby Bantu ones like various Zulu as well, who practiced extensive pastoralism with only moderate agriculture. Right off the bat any rigid "rules" about Africa are rendered questionable by the diversity of the continent. In addition, one of the most sedentary people of all time, the people of the ancient Nile Valley show body proportions QUITE UNLIKE white populations, again casting doubt on any "alternative hypothesis" as applied to Africa. Other African peoples with heavy agriculture, such as the root crop, bananna crop, sorghum-fed peoples of certain parts of East Africa (parts of the interlacustrine region's grain and bananna economies) for example) ALSO show body plans QUITE UNLIKE whites even though they too are "sedentary" since the "adoption of agriculture". In ultra diverse Africa many of the "rules" than seek to pigeonhole Africans into rigid "types" just do not apply, and are contradicted by built-in native variation on the ground. [b]Northern populations, hunting megafauna over hilly terrain and sometimes through snow, need physiques of strength in body and leg. Southern populations, running down medium-size game, need the physique of distance runners. [/b] The hypothesis again is shaky as a rigid model. Africa has long had hunters of "megafauna". THey are called elephants. Africa peoples from short Pygmies and San, to both short, medium and tall Bantu have always hunted megafauna historically in Africa, right down to today's elephants, who are hunted by tall people routinely. Likewise if southern populations running down game were confined to the reputed "physique of distance runners" then stocky Bantu like Zulu king Cetaswayo should not exist. He certainly was not built like any "distance runner". Nor do skinny types fit the Zulu ideal of a beautiful woman, who had to be shapely with rounded curves, large breasts and a thick curved buttocks, that was, in the words of one who reported the classical Zulu preference: "firm enough to crack a flea on" (See Zulu War history of R.Edgerton, They FOught Like Lions, for the female specs). That certainly is no skinny Ethiopians distance runner type. According to the "athletic hypothesis" such people should not exist among the "Bantu", who should look like the theorized spindly East African distance types. The physical diversity of Africa encompasses a wide range, covering many phenotypical variants, making any rigid "athletic hypothesis" dubious. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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