Browsing by Subject "Xhosa (African people)"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    HLA DRB1, DQA1, DQB1 and DPB1 polymorphisms in Namibian Khoi and San and in the Xhosa and South African mixed-ancestry population
    (2003) Rousseau, Jeanne; Williams, Jeanne; Creemers, Pauline
    We have analysed the HLA allele distributions in unrelated Namibian Khoi and San and South African Xhosa and mixed-ancestry (so-called Cape coloured) populations. The allelic specificities of the DRB1, DQA1, DQB1 and DPB1 loci were determined. We found loss of allelic diversity and predominance of certain alleles to be more pronounced in the San than in the Khoi. By contrast, the Xhosa indicated wide allelic diversity especially at the DRB1 and DPB1 loci. We found evidence that the Caucasoids may have been derived from an early migration wave, whereas African blacks arose from a later migration wave of an ancestral population pre-dating ethnic diversity. Frequencies in the Xhosa for the DRB10302, 1101, 1302 and 1304 alleles revealed clinal variation in a north-south direction across the African continent. For the DRB1, DQA1, DQB1 haplotypes there was greater variation in the Khoi than in the San, in whom certain haplotypes predominated. We found 13 previously unreported haplotypes. In Xhosa we found 30 different DRB1, DQA1, DQB1 haplotypes. Allele and haplotype characteristics and frequencies in the South African mixed-ancestry population were mostly intermediate between those found in Xhosa and reported for Caucasoids, and three possible ancestral southern African DRB1, DQB1, DPB1 haplotypes were found. We discuss the implications of our findings for organ donor transplantation in Xhosa and in the South African mixed-ancestry population.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Ntsikana : history and symbol studies in a process of religious change among Xhosa-speaking people
    (1985) Hodgson, Janet; Cumpsty, John S
    The figure of Ntsikana, both as a man of history and as an historical symbol, is the focus of this study. I argue that change may come about by giving new meanings to old forms and images or by taking the new forms and content and filling them with the old, and that these two sets continue to exist side by side for a long time. Cumpsty's "Model of Religious Change in Socio-Cultural Disturbance" is used to identify the dynamics in the process and to explore the nature of the dialectic between innovation and assimilation of the new on the one hand, and continuity with the old on the other. The Ntsikana tradition is followed ever a period of two hundred years and well illustrates the need to see religious change as part of an ongoing process within a particular social and historical context.