Perhaps our ancestors’ sense of aesthetics contributed to the beauty of those iconic Ankole cattle?
22 June 2022 - 13:33
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It’s the “aesthetic sense” that drives romantic love and “launched a thousand ships” to retrieve Helen from Troy. In this case it’s the African pride of President Cyril Ramaphosa, drawing on the aesthetic sense of a subcontinent whose ancestors counted their wealth in cattle, as much as they counted their blessings in pula (rain).
We can’t be sure whether those beautiful horns evolved by natural selection, like the magnificent plumage of peacocks, bred by Darwin’s “sexual selection”. Perhaps our ancestors’ sense of aesthetics contributed to the beauty of those iconic Ankole cattle?
They are stunning, aren’t they? And they must have a history that might go back further than the pyramids of Egypt. Perhaps our genetic scientists can cast more light on that, as they have on Philip Tobias’s African genesis?
Siegfried Hannig Via email
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Ankole cattle embody SA’s ‘aesthetic sense’
Perhaps our ancestors’ sense of aesthetics contributed to the beauty of those iconic Ankole cattle?
There’s much more than bluff and bluster behind the president's Ankole cattle (“Are Ankole cattle really worth millions, or is it all bull?”, June 20.
It’s the “aesthetic sense” that drives romantic love and “launched a thousand ships” to retrieve Helen from Troy. In this case it’s the African pride of President Cyril Ramaphosa, drawing on the aesthetic sense of a subcontinent whose ancestors counted their wealth in cattle, as much as they counted their blessings in pula (rain).
We can’t be sure whether those beautiful horns evolved by natural selection, like the magnificent plumage of peacocks, bred by Darwin’s “sexual selection”. Perhaps our ancestors’ sense of aesthetics contributed to the beauty of those iconic Ankole cattle?
They are stunning, aren’t they? And they must have a history that might go back further than the pyramids of Egypt. Perhaps our genetic scientists can cast more light on that, as they have on Philip Tobias’s African genesis?
Siegfried Hannig
Via email
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
No record prices for Ramaphosa’s Ankoles at national auction
POLITICAL WEEK AHEAD: A long slog ahead for Ramaphosa
As robbery allegations rage, Ramaphosa’s Ankole will go on auction at Phala Phala
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