The white race
is also stated to show the greatest curvature of the sacrum, the yellow
race next, while the black race has the flattest sacrum.[140] The black
race thus possesses the least developed pelvis, the narrowest, and the
flattest. It is certainly not an accidental coincidence that it is
precisely among people of black race that we find a simulation of the
large pelvis of the higher races admired and cultivated in the form of
steatopygia. This is an enormously exaggerated development of the
subcutaneous layer of fat which normally covers the buttocks and upper
parts of the thighs in woman, and in this extreme form constitutes a kind
of natural fatty tumor. Steatopygia cannot be said to exist, according to
Deniker, unless the projection of the buttocks exceeds 4 per cent of the
individual's height; it frequently equals 10 per cent. True steatopygia
only exists among Bushman and Hottentot women, and among the peoples who
are by blood connected with them. An unusual development of the buttocks
is, however, found among the Woloffs and many other African peoples.[141]
There can be no doubt that among the black peoples of Africa generally,
whether true steatopygia exists among them or not, extreme gluteal
development is regarded as a very important, if not the most important,
mark of beauty, and Burton stated that a Somali man was supposed to choose
his wife by ranging women in a row and selecting her who projected
farthest _a tergo_.
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