ABSTRACT
Except where they have most obviously intermarried with other stocks, the Nilotic peoples show a remarkable physical uniformity. The difference in type from other negro peoples of Africa was noted by the earliest travellers who r~netrated the Upper Nile valley regions and Northern Uganda and Kenya. Since then physical anthropologists have speculated on the nature of these physical differences without coming to a satisfactory conclusion. Seligman' s theories concerning the Hamitic influence in East Africa is one of the main solutions which have been proposed. In his own words his theory is as follows: "Wherever they (i.e. the Hamites) originated, there is no doubt that they entered Negroland in a succession of waves, of which the ear liest may have been as far back as the end of the pluvial f~riod, and so gave rise ..... to nunerous groups of hamiticised Negroes. The manner of origin of the Negro-Hamitic peoples will be understood when it ü; realized that the incoming Hamites were pastoral Caucasians, arriving wave after wave, better armed and of sterner cltaracter than the agricultural Negroes. Diagrammatically we may picture the process somewhat as follows. At first the Hamites, or at least their aristocracy, would endeavour to marry Ilamitic women, but it cannot have been long before aseries of peoples combining Negro and Hamitic blood arose; these, superior to the pure Negro, would be regarded as inferiors by the next incoming wave of llamites and be pushed further inland to play the part of an incomin~ aristocracy vis avis the Negroes on whom they impinged, and this process was repeated with minor modifications over a long J-.eriod of time ..... " ( 1)
Whatever may be thought of this proposition, it is generally agreed among ethnologists and physical anthropologists that the pastoral peoples of the Sudan and East Africa have characteristics which can only be explained in terms of Caucasian affinities. Seligman classified the hamiticised Negroes ef the Sudan into two great groups, the Nilotes and Nilo-Ilamites. (2) This provides a generally accepted terminology for anthroJ>ologists, whether speaking in physical or in cultural and other terms, though as • halllitic' is properly employed as a linguistic term we should beware of confusion in its use. 30th groups ha-ve certain' physical characteristics in common, such as tall stature and dolichocephaly, but these are more marked in the Nilotes, while the Nilotic group is more uniform in type than the Nilo-lIamitic. General characteristics of the Nilotic type are summarised as follows:-
(1) Se] igrnan. P"!1:rln Tribes of the Ni lot ic Sudan. lQ12, p.4. (2) Ibid.
