The "ostrich-footed" Vadoma of Zimbabwe
Joshua Foer is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Joshua is a freelance science journalist and the co-founder of the Atlas Obscura: A Compendium of the World's Wonders, Curiosities, and Esoterica, with Dylan Thuras.
A user named Sam E. just added the "ostrich-footed" Vadoma tribe of Zimbabwe to to the Atlas Obscura. Due to a single autosomal dominant mutation on chromosome seven, a significant portion of the population is ectrodactylous, or two-toed:
Derogatorily referred to as the "ostrich people," the Vadoma of western Zimbabwe suffer from a rare genetic condition called ectrodactyly, which affects one in four children within the population. Ectrodactyly, or "lobster claw syndrome," can effect either the hands and feet. In the case of the Vadoma, the middle three toes are absent and the two outer ones are turned inward... Some have theorized that the mutation may have adaptive benefit if it aids in tree climbing. However, it's more likely that the defect remains prevalent because of rampant inbreeding. It is against tribal law for members to marry outside the group.
My cursory Google Scholar search only turned up a single 24-year-old journal article [pdf] on the Vadoma (sometimes spelled Wadoma). Anyone know anything else about them?
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Ah, you might go read the first sentence of the quote and then reconsider the post title...
I don't know much about this tribe, but my friend Black Scorpion currently appearing at Coney Islands Sideshow by the Seashore has similar feet (also hands) with which he dances on broken glass and is a very funny and talented performer that everyone should go see.
I was actually just about to leave a comment on the Black Scorpion! I caught the show last weekend and loved it.
I saw a show on these guys once. They even make specialized footwear.
So calling them "ostrich-footed" is derogatory but referring to the condition as "lobster claw syndrome" is not? At least ostrich is Kosher... not to mention more geographically appropriate. (No offense intended, Lobster.)
> it's more likely that the defect remains
> prevalent because of rampant inbreeding.
Inbreeding isn't a direct explanation for the prevalence of an autosomal dominant trait.
A lack of available mates due to tribal laws regarding marriage would contribute to it, but it's not due to marrying close relatives.
Autosomal dominant, but prevalent because of inbreeding? doh!
I'll bet John Sayles knows about them. I am thinking of his movie The Brother from Another Planet,
I remember seeing a TV show (or show segment) about them when I was a kid (in the '70's).
This is the same condition former LA TV reporter Bree Walker has.
On the topic spelling...
When you get into old social and anthro texts a lot of the verbiage was created before spelling standardization; or it may be that there are phonemes or sounds in the native lang that aren't easy for westerners to make. (as an exercise try to think of an english word that starts with the sound made by xt or ng or whathaveyou).
Kay, you also then get into what it may now be epithetical to refer to the people as. The most common of that would probably be the whole hottentot/!kung san/san/bushmen debacle. (extra anthro points when you find out what the ! means) Which for an anthro undergrad would make a classic paper to impress your prof.
So get ready to have W be V and there be lots of crazy old german expressions nobody uses anymore. I thought this might be useful.
And I'm no geneticist, but a phenotypic expression like that could be reinforced by in-group marriages. It could also be photoshop. It would not, I'd think, be of any use to a complex organism in an adaptive manner.
no kidding. Remember the "Quack-a-doodle Indians"?
In the Wilbur Smith book "The Sunbird" one of the African characters had this deformity, and was supposed to be from a long line where the first one had also had the same feet features. I never thought that it was real, though!
*Not* autosomal dominant, and not even frequent. The 2 journal articles from 1985 on the first page of Google are less than 2 pages each. They clearly show less than a dozen people from a single family, recessive inheritance, and hands also affected.
The stupid tv piece from the 70s was probably an episode of Ripley's, and a classic example of jumping on the hype bandwagon before the inevitable (silent) discredit. It's like organ theft or satanic ritual abuse.
My friend has this in both hands and feet, and so does her young daughter. They were both born and live in southern California.
I remember a story about these people in the Los Angeles Times circa 1960. It made quite an impression, and I have tried to verify it several times over years, to no avail.
Thank you for providing some evidence that my memory has served me well, and that this is not just a flight of fancy.
There are two locus that are affected by this syndrome and both are autosomal dominant in inheritance. The penetrance and symptomatic/asymptomatic features may not show affect.
And of course hands are affected, it is called split hand/split foot malformation
As previously mentioned, this is the same condition that former LA news anchor Bree Walker is living with. She has two children who also suffer from what they themselves refer to as "lobster claw syndrome". There was a documentary made for TLC in which Walker discusses her decision to have children despite knowing that they would also be born with the condition and speaks about the criticism she faced as a result.