Sexually dimorphic traits are associated with subsistence strategy in African faces from the Sahel/Savannah belt

Abstract

ObjectivesPrevious research revealed that in some African populations, food‐production strategies are associated with facial shape. Nomadic pastoralists living in the African Sahel/Savannah belt have a different facial morphology than their sedentary neighbors. We investigated whether the lifestyle associated with a subsistence pattern has an impact on sexual dimorphism in the facial structure.MethodsWe employed several methods from geometric morphometrics and demonstrated such effect in four ethnically distinct populations that share the same geographic space.ResultsWe show that the facial traits which correlate with a subsistence strategy are systematically associated with levels of facial sex‐typicality. In particular, we found that faces with more pronounced pastoralist features have on average more masculine facial traits and that this effect is more pronounced in men than in women.ConclusionsIn general, though, the magnitude of overall facial dimorphism does not differ between pastoralists and farmers. Pastoralists (in contrast to farmers) tend to have a more masculine facial morphology but facial differences between the sexes are in both groups the same.

Population History and Admixture of the Fulani People from the Sahel

“…This large nomadic group is distributed in scattered locations across sub-Saharan Africa, and their widespread presence and concentration in the Sahel/Savannah belt likely mirror the geographic origins of their ancestors 2 . The originally pastoral nomadic lifestyle of the Fulani, along with their physical features 74 , has often led neighboring communities to perceive them as transient. This perception has fueled the misconception that the Fulani are in perpetual migration and originated from elsewhere.…”