Racial characteristics of ancient Egyptians
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Racial characteristics of ancient Egyptians
The racial characteristics of ancient Egyptians have been a subject of debate and controversy dating back to 18th century natural history, which first attempted to systematically classify human beings based on genetics. Controversy has centered around post-Enlightenment European notions of race which asserts that the ancient Egyptians were primarily a Caucasoid people, and the counterarguments made by late 20th century Afrocentrists who assert that the ancient Egyptians were of Negroid admixture, and that they also saw themselves as racially "black". In between are a number of varying positions and qualifications. Most mainstream scholarship steers a middle course, with data demonstrating a mixture of peoples and types. These suggest not only caution in assigning sweeping categories, but that modern racial controversies may have been alien to the ancient Egyptians themselves, given their unique culture and development. It should be noted however that Afrocentrists are not the first to raise questions about racial classifications in Egypt. While their emergence in the 1980s popularized the debate beyond the narrow confines of specialist academics, the field has been wrestling with a number of contentious issues since the 1960s, such as the "Hamitic Hypothesis" (see below).
[edit] Race and the peopling of ancient Egypt
[edit] Broad mix of peoples in the Nile Valley and throughout Africa
"Negroid" and "Caucasoid" influences. Many mainstream references allude to the racial complexity of North Africa and Egypt, going back to pre-dynastic times. These complexities do not yield easily to modern racial controversies or catch-all terminologies like "Mediterranean" or "Middle Eastern." Skeletal studies suggest both Negroid and Caucasoid elements in varying mixtures over the centuries. For example, one Encyclopedia Britannica article, "Populations, Human" states:
- "In Libya, which is mostly desert and oasis, there is a visible Negroid element in the sedentary populations, and at the same is true of the Fellahin of Egypt, whether Copt or Muslim. Osteological studies have shown that the Negroid element was stronger in predynastic times than at present, reflecting an early movement northward along the banks of the Nile, which were then heavily forested."<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica 1984 ed. Macropedia Article, Vol 14: "Populations, Human" - p. 842-844</ref>
Issues of physical anthropolgy bearing on Egypt. As regards mixed populations, the pattern of complexity holds outside Egypt and can be seen throughout Africa. The issue of arbitrary classifications remains however, particularly in view of the blending of ancient stocks in that region. To what group for example, will a mixed race individual be credited? Variability within individual groups also involves the question of arbitrary assignment. The "Negroid" grouping in the Saharan - Nilotic - Sudanic triangle has ranged from extremely short Pygmy tribes, to slender, seven-foot tall groups with wavy hair. Are the latter "Caucasoid" (as asserted in older histories), of "mixed" race, or simply just another variant within the group?
Similar variability occurs in European populations, with generally longer head shapes (dolichocephaly) seen in Scandinavian and Mediterranean populations, and shorter ones (brachycephaly) seen in central and eastern Europeans.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, op. cit.</ref> And yet it would be difficult to use such variation to biologically justify a rigid racial taxonomy for these European peoples. They are generally seen as simply variants within a larger European population. Some Afrocentrists question why the same broad approach is not also applied to Negroes who also vary in cranium shape and other physical indices. They argue that a double standard is in play, and that the use of such terms as "Mediterranean" or "Middle Eastern" conveniently allows more skeletal remains from Egypt to be classified as Caucasoid, but the same line is curiously drawn much more narrowly in defining "Negroid." Terms like "Mediterranean" it is also contended, sound more neutral but is really subtle code for "Caucasoid." Human remains are assigned to Caucasoid "clusters," interpreted as expansively as possible with a bearing on Egypt, covering the vast range of the Mediterranean zone from Portugal, to Morocco, to parts of Turkey. By contrast, the term "Negroid" is carefuly separated out, and defined in the narrowest sense as regards the Nile Valley. This manipulation of categories and definitions downplays the Nilo-Saharan and Sudanic roots of the Egyptian gene pool. <ref>Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History," Basic Books, 1997. See also "AFROCENTRISM: The Argument We're Really Having," by Ibrahim Sundiata, DISSONANCE (September 30, 1996 </ref>
Issues of subjective interpretation in Craniofacial Anthropology. Whatever the merit of this "double standard" argument, issues of subjective interpretation continue to affect the field. For a detailed review of the use of crania in ascertaining race, see Wiki article Races of Craniofacial Anthropology for a detailed discussion of the difficulties of racial classification using Craniofacial Anthropology. Quote:
- "Although their methodology is seemingly objective, forensic anthropologists agree that attempts to apply criteria from craniofacial anthropometry, regularly yield counter-intuitive results depending upon the weight given to each feature. Their application invariably results in finding some East and South Indians to have "Negroid" skulls and others to have "Caucasoid" skulls, for example, while Ethiopians, Somalis, and some Zulus have "Caucasoid" skulls, and the Khoisan of southwestern Africa have "Mongoloid" skulls."
Long standing issues of contention in Nile valley racial classifications. Such contentious issues fill the literature of human populations in Egypt and Africa as a whole, even before the popularity of Afrocentrism in the 1980s. Afrocentrics are not the first to question classification schemes or methodology. As the "Hamitic Hypothesis" and other physical anthropology issues show, such concerns about shifting definitions and categories have been in debate since the 1960s. As one older African history (circa 1970) puts it:
- "To many physical anthropologists Northeast Africa appears as a region where people of Caucasoid and Negroid stock meet and sometimes merge. But many Negroids of the region are markedly different in appearance from the Negroids of West and Central Africa, and as has been noted, some scholars would prefer to see in them traces of a third, distinct racial stock." (Robin Hallet "Africa to 1875", p 75)<ref>Robin Hallet "Africa to 1875", Ann Arbor Press: University of Michigan, 1970, p 75)</ref>
[edit] Indigenous peopling from Saharan - Sudanic zones
Indigenous nature of early peopling. Data on the peopling of the Nile Valley do not appear to support earlier historical notions of an initial wave of Caucasoid invaders entering from the North to introduce civilization. Data shows gradual movement and peopling from the Saharan zone, and parts of the Sudanic region, leading into the development of the well-known Egyptian kingdoms, not sweeping insertions from the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia or elsewhere. See Wiki article Predynastic Egypt for the now discounted Dynastic Race Theory. As one mainstream scholar puts it:
- "Indeed, the genesis and makeup of the very people who lived in these early Nile valley communities remains conjectural. On the site of Khartoum at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile, a village culture existed in the late fourth millennium that utilized a type of stone bead quarried far to the west in the Saharan mountains of Tibesti and also found in the Fayum settlements of the early fourth millennium. This Khartoum culture was preceded on the same site by the earlier fishing communities dating from the beginning of the fourth millennium which produced pots of a design found two thousand miles to the west in the full Sahara of southern Algeria.
- Some have argued that various early Egyptians like the Badarians probably migrated northward from Nubia, while others see a wide-ranging movement of peoples across the breadth of the Sahara before the onset of desiccation. Whatever may be the origins of any particular people or civilization, however, it seems reasonably certain that the predynastic communities of the Nile valley were essentially indigenous in culture, drawing little inspiration from sources outside the continent during the several centuries directly preceding the onset of historical times... (Robert July, Pre-Colonial Africa, 1975, p. 60-61) <ref>July, Robert, Pre-Colonial Africa, 1975, Charles Scribners and Sons, New York, p. 60-61</ref>
Commentary on Nile Valley racial classifications by Afrocentric critic Mary Lefkowitz. In her critical "Not Out of Africa" Lefkowitz notes: <ref>Lefkowitz, Mary "Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History," Basic Books, 1997</ref>
- "Recent work on skeletons and DNA suggests that the people who settled in the Nile valley, like all of humankind, came from somewhere south of the Sahara; they were not (as some nineteenth-century scholars had supposed) invaders from the North. See Bruce G. Trigger, "The Rise of Civilization in Egypt," Cambridge History of Africa (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982), vol I, pp 489-90; S. O. Y. Keita, "Studies and Comments on Ancient Egyptian Biological Relationships," History in Africa 20 (1993) 129-54."
The work of mainstream scholars therefore demonstrates that from early pre-dynastic times, Egypt was essentially peopled by indigenous elements closely associated with groups from the Saharan region moving up into the Nile Valley, and excluded any significant invasions from Caucasoids, Mediterraneans, Mesopotamians or others.
[edit] Continuity and uniformity of Egyptian racial stocks over extended periods
Modern skeletal and dental studies of ancient Egyptians show continuity between early racial or cultural types peopling Egypt, well into the dynastic period, and suggests that this uniformity extends into the post dynamic era. Such continuities make rigid racial taxonomies, sweeping genetic claims of outside influence, or vague groupings based on terminology like Middle Eastern problematic. <ref>Irish, J (2006). "Who were the ancient Egyptians? Dental affinities among Neolithic through postdynastic peoples." American Journal of Physical Anthropology 129 (4): 529-43. PMID 16331657.</ref> The issue of continuity with past Egyptian racial stocks has also been raised in older scholarship since the 1960s, most notably the case of the fellahin in Egypt. <ref>"In Libya, which is mostly desert and oasis, there is a visible Negroid element in the sedentary populations, and at the same is true of the Fellahin of Egypt, whether Copt or Muslim." Source: Encyclopedia Britannica 1984 ed. Macropedia Article, Vol 14: "Populations, Human" - p. 842-844</ref>
- "These findings are contrasted with those resulting from previous skeletal and other studies, and are used to appraise the viability of five Egyptian peopling scenarios. Specifically, affinities among the 15 time-successive samples suggest that: 1) there may be a connection between Neolithic and subsequent predynastic Egyptians, 2) predynastic Badarian and Naqada peoples may be closely related, 3) the dynastic period is likely an indigenous continuation of the Naqada culture, 4) there is support for overall biological uniformity through the dynastic period, and 5) this uniformity may continue into postdynastic times." J. Irish, "Irish J (2006). "Who were the ancient Egyptians? Dental affinities among Neolithic through postdynastic peoples", 2006)
[edit] Language as a way to classify Egyptian races
Such complications as to the "proper" racial assignment have also cropped up in the use of linguistics as a basis for racial categorization. The demise of the famous "Hamitic Hypothesis", which purported to show that certain African languages around the Nile area could be associated with "Caucasoid" peoples is a typical case. Such schemes fell apart when it was demonstrated that Negro tribes far distant also spoke similar languages, tongues that were supposedly a reserved marker of Caucasoid presence or influence.<ref>Greenberg, Joseph H. (1963) The Languages of Africa. International journal of American linguistics, 29, 1, part 2</ref> These and other difficulties have caused some scholars to abandon the notion of race altogether when discussing peoples of the Nile/Saharan region, and indeed human populations in general. See Scholarly Dissent section below. For work on African languages, see Wiki article Languages of Africa and Joseph Greenberg.
[edit] Cultural linkages as a way to classify races of Egypt
[edit] Cultural and religious linkages between Egypt and the Sahara and Sudan
Questions of cultural linkages between Ancient Egypt and black Africa have been a matter of controversy. Afrocentric writers such as Cheikh Anta Diop assert cultural and material ties from Egypt stretching across the continent, arguing that they provide a building block for viewing the Ancient Egyptians as racially "black." See Wiki article Afrocentrism. More mainstream scholars hold that the Egyptians had linkages with a variety of cultures, including Mesopotamia, the Near East, the Mediterranean, the Levant and Black Africa. As regards Black Africa, Negroid skeletal remains in ancient times, old artifacts in Egypt showing similarities with Negroid tribes of the Saharan or Sudanic region, trade and conquest involving the Nubian/Sudanic zone, and various other similarities have been broadly accepted by mainstream writers. Religious practices in particular seem to show greater affinity with that of the peoples or northeast Africa, rather than the Mediterranean or Mesopotamia. The following mainstream excerpts from the Encyclopedia Britannica acknowledge a number of cultural links with black Africa, (particularly in the area of religion):
- Encyclopedia Britannica 1984 ed. Macropedia Article, Vol 6: "Egyptian Religion" , pg 506-508
- "A large number of gods go back to prehistoric times. The images of a cow and star goddess (Hathor), the falcon (Horus), and the human-shaped figures of the fertility god (Min) can be traced back to that period. Some rites, such as the "running of the Apil-bull," the "hoeing of the ground," and other fertility and hunting rites (e.g., the hippopotamus hunt) presumably date from early times.. Connections with the religions in southwest Asia cannot be traced with certainty."
- "It is doubtful whether Osiris can be regarded as equal to Tammuz or Adonis, or whether Hathor is related to the "Great Mother." There are closer relations with northeast African religions. The numerous animal cults (especially bovine cults and panther gods) and details of ritual dresses (animal tails, masks, grass aprons, etc) probably are of African origin. The kinship in particular shows some African elements, such as the king as the head ritualist (i.e., medicine man), the limitations and renewal of the reign (jubilees, regicide), and the position of the king's mother (a matriarchal element). Some of them can be found among the Ethiopians in Napata and Meroe, others among the Prenilotic tribes (Shilluk)."<ref>:Encyclopedia Britannica 1984 ed. Macropedia Article, Vol 6: "Egyptian Religion" , pg 506-508</ref>
[edit] Theories of outside dynastic races in Egyptian development questionable
If therefore, ancient Egypt had a number of cultural similarities and links, with the Saharan or Sudanic tribes, the notion of sweeping invasions by Caucasoids as a source for civilized developments is questionable. Data suggests that numerous material and religious elements unique to Egyptian civilization were already in place, forming a basis for the rise of more elaborate cultural developments, as opposed to having them substantially introduced by outsiders from the Mediterranean or elsewhere. Indeed the early dynastic kingdoms of Egypt saw the accession of peoples from the South, bordering the Saharan and Sudanic regions, with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt traditionally credited to Menes.
This does not displace the influences or trade from Mesopotamia, which can been clearly seen in trade artifacts, nor does it mean other influences or indeed peoples were not present. Modern archaeology has shown a significant trade of goods, ideas, and even people throughout Egypt, the Levant, and Mesopotamia, as well as the Saharan and Sudanic zones.<ref>Redford, D. B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. p. 23ff. Princeton University Press, 1992.</ref><ref>Shaw, Ian. The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. p. 109. British Museum Press, 1995.</ref> Scholar Robert July also shows such linkages, but holds that outside influences appear to have had little significant impact on the early development of Egyptian civilization. Quote by July:
- "Middle Eastern influences nevertheless seem to have found their way to Egypt at the end of the predynastic era, very probably brought in along the increasingly active trade routes.. It seems unlikely, however, that external factors produced the sudden emergency of Egyptian civilization at the end of the fourth millennium before Christ." <ref>"Pre-colonial Africa", op. cit.</ref>
[edit] Claims of massive cross-continent black Egyptian influence also questionable
This point at the same time, negates the sweeping notions of some Afrocentrics of a unified cultural set from Cape to Cairo<ref>Stolen Legacy, George James, 1953</ref>, since it stresses the uniqueness of the Egyptian achievement. Just as alleged Caucasoid or "Mediterranean" invasions do not define Egyptian civilization, neither do things like Egyptian funerary practices or kingships define such far flung African peoples as the Khosians of Southern Africa or the Bantu of Central Africa. Such influences can be more directly traced to locations close to Egypt like Meroe and Nubia. Afrocentric critic Mary Leftkowiz argues that sweeping claims of Egyptian influence across the board have their origin in white esoterics, Free Masons and mystics concerned with Egyptian religious practices, particularly the Egyptian Mystery System.<ref> Leftkowiz, op. cit.</ref>
[edit] Visual images of the ancient Egyptians and racial characteristics
Visual images of the ancient Egyptians are also a matter of controversy, with a mixture of depictions. For example, in the United States, three teams of scientists (Egyptian, French and American), in partnership with the National Geographic Society, developed a new facial likeness of child pharaoh Tutankhamun, that drew protests as not being accurate on skin tones. See Wiki article Tutankhamun. This visual image was depicted in a National Geographic magazine article in 2005, with some commenters maintaining that the depiction showed the Egyptians were primarily a light-skinned to brown-skinned group of people with features that resembled more a multiracial society leaning more towards an appended that is depicted by Tut. Afrocentrics often present other images, such as Menes, founder of the initial Egyptian kingdom, holding that the ancient Egyptians were black and viewed themselves as such.
Whatever the accuracy of these depictions, the Egyptians quite clearly distinguished between non-Egyptian peoples like Nubians or Phoenicians and themselves in visual imagery, suggesting they viewed themselves as a unique people apart from other nations.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, 1984 ed, Egypt, History of"</ref> Categories as "Mediterranean" or "Middle Eastern" or "Caucasian" or "Negro" do not capture or define what these ancient peoples thought. Most modern Egyptologists believe the Egyptians thought of themselves as Egyptian people, not African, Mediterranean, White, or Black people. Some sample images of this are linked here, contrasting Egyptian [1], Nubian [2], Berber[3], and Semitic peoples [4].
[edit] Scholarly dissent on the notion of race
Race is an unscientific concept because racial designations are primarily based on phenotype, geographic origin, lineage, as well as cultural milieu and self-identification. As a result of the subjective and mutable nature of certain racial criteria, in addition to racialist and racist dogma often associated with them, the concept of race has been abandoned by most modern scholars, especially in the fields of biology, anthropology, and sociology. This position was probably most clearly expressed when Luigi Cavalli-Sforza wrote, "The classification into races has proved to be a futile exercise for reasons that were already clear to Darwin. Human races are extremely unstable entities in the hands of modern taxonomists, who define from 3 to 60 or more races ... [and] the level at which we stop our classification is completely arbitrary."<ref>Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca; Menozzi, Paolo; and Piazza, Alberto, The history and Geography of Human Genes. p.19 Princeton University Press, 1994.</ref>
[edit] Background to racial classifications
François Bernier created the earliest known system to classify the entire human population into mutually exclusive races in 1668. He used four races (East Asian and Southeast Asian; European, North African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian; Lapps; and Sub-Saharan Africans) based on skin color at birth, facial features, cranial profile, hair texture, hair location, hair color, and body type. Bernier openly stated in Nouvelle division de la terre par les différents espèces ou races qui l'habitent that he intended for his system of division by race, to replace the older systems of division by region or nation. <ref>http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant275/reader/bernier.PDF</ref>
[edit] Scientific racism
In the 19th century, supporters of slavery and colonialism began to use racism to justify the exploitation of African and Native Americans. They argued that the harsh northern climates had forced Europeans to develop a greater intellect than any other race. They also argued that people such as Sub-Saharan were incapable of living freely in a civilized world and were naturally inclined towards slavery. Writing from this period frequently tries to belittle the accomplishments of other races or attribute them to Caucasian peoples.
The highest civilization and culture, apart from the ancient Hindus and Egyptians, are found exclusively among the white races; and even with many dark peoples, the ruling caste or race is fairer in colour than the rest and has, therefore, evidently immigrated, for example, the Brahmins, the Incas, and the rulers of the South Sea Islands. All this is due to the fact that necessity is the mother of invention because those tribes that emigrated early to the north, and there gradually became white, had to develop all their intellectual powers . . . <ref>(Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays, Volume II, Section 92)</ref>
[edit] Red men
As more information on ancient Egypt became available, many racists began to move away from the theory that the ancient Egyptians were white. They moved more towards the idea that the ancient Egyptians were a completely separate race, racially different from the Blacks to the south."The ancient Egyptians were red men. They recognized four races of men--the red, yellow, black, and white men. They themselves belonged to the "Rot," or red men; the yellow men they called "Namu"--it included the Asiatic races; the black men were called "Nahsu," and the white men "Tamhu." (Ignatius Donnelly, Atlantis, the Antediluvian World, 1882, p. 195)
Ancient Egyptian paintings were translated as depicting the modern races (red, yellow, black, white). Reproductions of these paintings from this time frequently show exaggerated differences in skin tone.
[edit] Pan-Africanism
Henry Sylvestre-Williams created the Pan African Organization in 1897. One of the organization's stated goals was to "promote and protect the interests of all subjects claiming African descent, wholly or in part, in British colonies and other places especially Africa, by circulating accurate information on all subjects affecting their rights and privileges as subjects of the British Empire, by direct appeals to the Imperial and local Governments."
In 1900, he held the first Pan African Conference. The three-day conference took place on July 23 to July 25. After the conference was over Williams began touring, lecturing, and starting new branches of his Pan African Organization.
One of the attendees of the 1900 conference and the most influential early proponents of Pan-Africanism was W.E.B. Dubois. DuBois researched West African culture and attempted to construct a pan-Africanist value system based on West African traditions. Dubois's ideas were able to reach a wide audience, because of his prolific writing. He wrote weekly columns in the Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier, the New York Amsterdam News, and the Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle. He also worked as Editor-in-Chief of the NAACP publication, The Crisis.
[edit] Twenty-first century
| km biliteral | km.t (place) | km.t (people) |
| <hiero>km</hiero> | <hiero>km:t*O49</hiero> | <hiero>km:t-A1-B1-Z3</hiero> |
[edit] Names for ancient Egypt as a source for racial classifications
One of the many names for Egypt in ancient Egyptian is km.t (read "Kemet"), meaning "black land". More literally, the word means "something black". The use of km.t "black land" in terms of a place was generally in contrast to the "desert" or "red land": the desert beyond the Nile valley. When used to mean people, km.t "people of Kemet", "people of the black land" is usually translated "Egyptians". This word that the Egyptians used to describe themselves was never used to describe other peoples of Africa.
[edit] Science
Most modern scientists have abandoned the use of mutually exclusive races. This is in large part because DNA evidence has shown that there is little genetic basis for race.
There is greater genetic diversity within populations than between them. There are greater genetic differences between different groups classified as "black" than between the other races. Some groups of people classified as black are more closely related to white or Asian peoples than other black people. [citation needed]
[edit] Anthropology
The concept of race has been abandoned by many modern scholars, especially in the fields of biology, Anthropology and sociology. This position was probably most clearly expressed when Luigi Cavalli-Sforza wrote, "The classification into races has proved to be a futile exercise for reasons that were already clear to Darwin. Human races are extremely unstable entities in the hands of modern taxonomists, who define from 3 to 60 or more races ... [and] the level at which we stop our classification is completely arbitrary."<ref>Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca; Menozzi, Paolo; and Piazza, Alberto, The history and Geography of Human Genes. p.19 Princeton University Press, 1994.</ref>
Historical research has shown that the idea of "race" has always carried more meanings than mere physical differences; indeed, physical variations in the human species have no meaning except the social ones that humans put on them. Today scholars in many fields argue that "race" as it is understood in the United States of America was a social mechanism invented during the 18th century to refer to those populations brought together in colonial America: the English and other European settlers, the conquered Indian peoples, and those peoples of Africa brought in to provide slave labor. [5]
[edit] Archaeology
Most archaeologists now use the Out-of-Africa model of human evolution. According to this model, all humans alive today are the descendants of people who once lived in Africa. All modern North African, Horn African, and Non-African peoples are the descendants of people who once lived in modern day Ethiopia.
[edit] Bibliography
- Noguera, Anthony (1976). How African Was Egypt?: A Comparative Study of Ancient Egyptian and Black African Cultures. Illustrations by Joelle Noguera. New York: Vantage Press.
- Raymond Faulkner. "Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian". Griffith Institute; Rep edition (January 1, 1970) ISBN 0900416327
- James P. Allen. "Middle Egyptian : An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs". Cambridge University Press (November 4, 1999). ISBN 0521774837
[edit] References
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