Saharan Ethiopid
Group Ethiopid
- common
- occasional
- rare
Description
Ethiopid type that was more common during the Neolithic when the Sahara was still green. Today it extends from Chad to Niger, Northern Nigeria and even Cameroon. Found in its purest form in the Toubou of the Tibesti mountains in Northern Chad. More mixed in Hausa, Iravellans of the Tuareg, Kanembu, Buduma, Zande, Fur, even Eton.
Physical traits
Reddish brown-black skin, tight-curly hair. Rather tall, brachyskelic, ectomorph. Dolicho- mesocephalic, mildly hypsicranic. Nose mesorrhine, slightly depressed with a relatively high back. Face is broad and low with angular features. Eyelid openings are usually narrow.
Literature
Biasutti (1967) considered it a separate Ethiopoid branch "Sahariana". Has been described as West Ethiopid together with Fulani and Moors (Baumann, 1952) or as Central Ethiopid (Eickstedt, 1943). Even Knussmann (1996) places it in Ethiopid. Noel (1920) noted that its different components cannot be isolated anymore and that it is stabilised. Lundman (1967) considered it an admixed Saharid.
