User:Taxico/drafts/Egypt

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The racial characteristics of ancient Egyptians have been a subject of varying research approaches and results in the specialist literature since the 1950s, including differences in classification, methodology, grouping of data, and taxonomy of cultural artifacts. Most mainstream scholarship steers a middle course, with data demonstrating a mixture of peoples and types. This article is heavily weighted towards mainstream research, and quotes extensively from the mainstream literature to demonstrate the varying approaches of different writers.

1 "Negroids", "Caucasoids" and other influences
- 1.1 Older approaches to the complexity of Egypt
- 1.2 Newer approaches: The Egyptians as simply another Nile Valley population
2 Issues of general methodology in classifying ancient Egyptians
3 Race and the peopling of ancient Egypt
- 3.1 Later peopling: the Levant and Maghreb sources
4 Continuity and uniformity of Egyptian racial stocks over extended periods
- 4.1 Continuity of Egyptian racial stocks
- 4.2 Continuity extends into dynastic period of kingship and nation building
5 Language as a way to classify Egyptian races
6 Cultural linkages as a way to classify races of Egypt
7 Visual images of the ancient Egyptians and racial characteristics
8 Scholarly dissent on the notion of race
9 Background to racial classifications
- 9.1 Scientific racism
- 9.2 Red men
10 Pan-Africanism
11 Twenty-first century
12 Bibliography
13 Background
- 13.1 Scientific racism
- 13.2 Red men
14 Pan-Africanism
15 Twenty-first century
16 References
17 Bibliography
18 External links
19 See also

[edit] "Negroids", "Caucasoids" and other influences

[edit] Older approaches to the complexity of Egypt

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," "North African" or "Middle Eastern." Earlier histories of Egyptian people as recently as the 1970s classified them as Caucasoid or "Hamites" who migrated to the Nile Valley, transmitting light and civilization to slower-witted negro tribes. (Wyatt MacGaffey, 'Concepts of race in the historiography of northeast Africa', Journal of African History)^[1]. Subsequent approaches have used such vague terms as "Mediterranean" even though many peoples of North Africa such as Ethiopians or Somalians would fall into this category.

[edit] Newer approaches: The Egyptians as simply another Nile Valley population

A number of current mainstream scholars such as Bruce Trigger, and Frank Yurco eschew a racial approach, asserting that the previous archealogical and anthropological approaches were 'marred by a confusion of race, language, and culture and by an accompanying racism'. ^[2] As to racial affinities of the people of northeast Africa, Yurco declares that all the peoples of the region are indigenous Africans and that arbitrary divisions into Negroid and Caucasoid stocks is misguided and misleading. To Yurco, the indigenous stocks are part of a continuum of physical variation in the Nile Valley. Just as Europeans are noted to vary between tall blonde Swedes, and shorter, darker Portuguese, or Basques with strikingly different blood types, so the Nile Valley populations are simply allowed similar variation. Other mainstream scholars such as Shomarka Keita applaud Trigger's and Yurco's approach but note the continued use of terms such as "Mediterranean" to incorporate the ancient Egyptians, and the continued use of classification schemes that screen out or deemphasize variability. (S.O.Y. KEITA, "Studies of Ancient Crania From Northern Africa) ^[3] The general consensus is captured in the words of mainstream Egyptologist Frank Yurco:

"The peoples of Egypt, the Sudan, and much of East African Ethiopia and Somalia are now generally regarded as a Nilotic continuity, with widely ranging physical features (complexions light to dark, various hair and craniofacial types) but with powerful common cultural traits, including cattle pastoralist traditions (Trigger 1978; Bard, Snowden, this volume)."(F. Yurco "An Egyptological Review", 1996) ^[4]

[edit] Issues of general methodology in classifying ancient Egyptians

[edit] Standards of interpretation on mixed or variable racial types in Egypt

The issue of "mixed" populations. As regards mixed populations, the issues of methodology remain, particularly in view of the makeup and variability 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 aquiline features and wavy hair. Are the latter "Caucasoid" (as asserted in older histories), of "mixed" race, or simply just another variant within the Nile Valley or Northeast African populations? 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.^[5] 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. In Northeast Africa however standards are applied differently according to some mainstream scholars.^[6] Some older histories assert a "third race"^[7]. A more specific reexamination of the early Nile Valley populations such as the Badari, show a range of types with the consensus showing hybrids or population variants. (Strouhal, E., 1971, ‘Evidence of the early penetration of Negroes into prehistoric Egypt’, Journal of African History, 12: 1-9)^[8]

Fossil remains and shifting terminology often make it hard to pin down "exact" races. Some researchers have moved away from the terms "Negroid" or "Caucasoid" in favor of formulations like "Saharan-Nilotic" or Africoid (see Trigger above and Keita below), which emphasizes the direct local area and indigenous populations in the Nile Valley. "Saharan-Nilotic" would include the Sudan, with its well established physical and cultural linkages with Nile Valley populations. Older formulations have included racial terminologies such as "Eastern Hamites" which basically substituted for "Caucasoid". Whatever the terms used, pinning down fossil evidence can be a problematic task. For example, there is a great deal of overlap in skeletal. Both Negroids and Caucasoids may have rounded foreheads for example, and some Negroid traits are not always preserved in fossil evidence. ^[9]

[edit] Objections to how racial categories are drawn

Some writers question why the same broad approach used with European populations is not also applied to Negroes who also show dolichocephaly, and also vary in 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 allow more skeletal remains from the Nile Valley to be essentially classified as Caucasoid, but the same line is curiously drawn much more narrowly in defining "Negroid."^[10] Terms like "Mediterranean" or "North African" it is also contended, sound more neutral but are, like the older "Eastern Hamite," really subtle code for "Caucasoid," and shows a tendency to appropriate as much as possible, even incorporating Ethiopians, as in the Mediterranean race theories of Giuseppè Sergi. Variable human remains (such as the aquiline features of some Northeast African peoples, or the rounded foreheads of many African peoples) are thus assigned to Caucasoid "clusters," using statistical aggregation techniques. These are interpreted as broadly and 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 variation in "Negroids" is carefuly separated out, and defined in a much narrower sense as regards the Nile Valley. This manipulation of categories and definitions (broad Caucasian -- narrow Negro), it is held, downplays the Nilo-Saharan and Sudanic roots of the Egyptian gene pool. ^[11] An assessment of the literature on these issues reveals several patterns:

[edit] Issues of minimizing variability

Modern re-analyses of previous studies shows a clear tendency deny or minimize variability within the ancient Egyptian population.^[12], As far as Negroid elements, ^[13]this takes the form of establishing a baseline determination for a "true negro" (generally a sub-Saharan type) and anything not closely matching this extreme type is disregarded or incorporated into a Caucasoid or "Mediterranean" cluster. Conversely the same selective classification scheme is not applied to groups traditionally categorized as Caucasoid. Scholars such as Carelton Coons report "Mediterranean" remains that seem to have "Negroid" traits but do not mention the opposite, nor do such scholars apply the same selective definition approach with populations of the Levant, Maghreb or those further north ^[14]Documentation shows researchers repeatedly excluding or minimizing certain skeletal remains in formulating approaches to the ancient Egyptian people. For example:

Nutter (1958), using the Penrose statistic, demonstrated that Nagada I and Badari crania, both regarded as Negroid, were almost identical and that these were most similar to the Negroid Nubian series from Kerma studied by Collett (1933). [Collett, not accepting variability, excluded “clear negro” crania found in the Kerma series from her analysis, as did Morant (1925), implying that they were foreign.].."^[15]

[edit] Issues of lumping under Mediterranean clusters

Re-analyses of scholarship show a clear tendency to lump remains under broad clusters or categories such as Mediterranean. Numerous studies of Egyptian crania have been undertaken, with many showing a range of types, and workers often describing substantial Negroid remains. Often this type has been lumped into a Caucasoid cluster, typically using the term "Mediterranean." A majority of these studies show the strong influence of Sudanic and Saharan elements in the predynastic populations and yet classifictions systems often incorporate them into the Mediterranean grouping. (Vercoutter J (1978) The Peopling of ancient Egypt)^[16]

[edit] Issues of specific methodology and interpretation in Craniofacial Anthropology

The heavy reliance on skeletal evidence or crania in classifying Egyptian racial classifications has a number of weaknesses, namely assumptions that racial characteristics do not change from one generation to another and that statistical aggregation could represent huge populations when in essence the aggregation serves to hide or eliminate variability within those populations. (Encyclopedia Britannica, Macropedia, 2005 ed. Volume 18, "Evolution, Human", pp. 843-854)^[17] See also Races of Craniofacial Anthropology.

[edit] Race and the peopling of ancient Egypt

Predominant Saharan-Sudanic nature of Nile Valley settlers. 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. Mainstream data shows gradual movement and peopling from the south- the Saharan zone and parts of the Sudanic region, fusing with indigenous Nilotic elements already in place, leading into the development of the well-known Egyptian kingdoms, not sweeping insertions from the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia or elsewhere. (AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 83:35-48 (1990)^[18]See Wiki article Predynastic Egypt for the now discounted Dynastic Race Theory. This general approach is conceded even by Afrocentric critics such as Mary Lefkowitz:

"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."^[19]

Sudanic threads. Elements from both the Sahara and associated Sudanic regions appear to have been involved in the peopling Egypt according to a number of mainstream references. The Khartoum Culture and other zones of the Sudan for example show significant influence as indicated by pottery, jewelry, tools and implements, raw materials such as certain typesof stone, and artistic designs. These elements (claimed as negroid in older histories), were clearly in contact with the predynastic culturesof Egypt. ^[20]

Saharan threads. The once fertile Sahara stretches in a belt from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. As noted above, fluctuating climate cycles acted as a "pump", pushing people from the south up towards the wetter, more fertile Nile Valley, or down, to zones of similar likeness. As regards the people, historic populations also appear to follow the same pattern of complexity noted above. Generally the pattern is in a "southern" direction, with early peoples being joined by other populations mixes like Berbers, who appear to have been clearly established by 1000, B.C. ^[21]

Limited outside inspiration needed by Nile Valley settlers. Whatever the exact mix of peoples on the ground, the work of mainstream research therefore demonstrates that from early pre-dynastic times, Egypt was essentially settled by indigenous elements closely associated with groups from the Saharan and Sudanic region moving up into the Nile Valley, and excluded any significant influx from Mediterraneans, Mesopotamians or others not indigenous to the area. As another mainstream scholar puts it:

"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) ^[22]

[edit] Later peopling: the Levant and Maghreb sources

Relatively late movement of elements from the Levant/Mesopotamia. The archealogy of the Predynastic and early Dynastic periods show relatively little significant movement of peoples from the Levant- the zone bordering the Eastern Mediterranean that includes parts of Turkey, and Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.^[23] There is clear evidence of trade contacts however, reflected in the increasing weight of trade material such as lapis lazulli, copper and silver. Some 1000 years after the first dynasty however, the influence of Levantine or Southwest Asian origin populations has been well established, most notably in the invasions or migrations such as the Hyksos, centered on northern and Middle Egypt. Native rule and foreign incursion wax and waned in the following centuries, but it is clear that these migrations changed the racial mix of Egypt in the later phases of its civilization. Additional incursions or migrations in subsequent centuries from the Mediterranean (Greece and Rome) and Arabia added even more to the ethnic mix that is now seen today.

Relatively late movements from the Maghreb into Egypt. The Maghreb includes modern day countries in North Africa like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. Peoples from these areas (long before the Arab conquest) also form part of the mix of Egypt but significant numbers seem to be part of later migrations, after the essential foundations of Predynastic and Early Dynastic/Old Kingdom Egypt had already been established. Under the Dynastic Race Theory, it was postulated that groups from these northerly areas swept into Egypt to spark advanced cultural and material developments among the more backward and darker populations. As discussed above this, this theory has failed, but as to the generic issue of population movements from the north, mass migration theories does not appear to be supported by the data ^[24]

[edit] Continuity and uniformity of Egyptian racial stocks over extended periods

[edit] Continuity of Egyptian racial stocks

Some current 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. ^[25] 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, which are referenced as an indicator of a more ancient genetic strand associated with Negroid or Sudanic/Saharan influences. ^[26]

Some older studies also suggest continuity of racial stocks in Egypt. A British analysis of craniometric traits from several Egyptian predynastic gravesites showed a wide range of physical variability, making it difficult to establish a rigid taxonomy of races. However the same study compared craniometric traits found on the Egyptian samples, to samples from other areas such as Caanan and found limited matches with the predynastic crania. It thus concluded that at no time did any non-Egyptian group provide a significant change to the Egyptian gene pool for the length of the Pharaonic monarchy. As noted with the example of the fellahin above, the genetic or racial elements on the ground (whatever the unique mix of racial types that made up Egypt), at least in the early millennia of Egyptian civilization, were thus not significantly affected by any influx of distant outsiders from Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean or elsewhere. Such outsiders, like the well known Hyksos, were to appear in significant numbers on the scene much later, about 1000 years after Eygptian dynastic civilization had been established. ("Genetical Change in Ancient Egypt," Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1967). ^[27]

[edit] Continuity extends into dynastic period of kingship and nation building

This continuity holds into the early dynastic period, in that elements from the South, (a region closer to the Sahara and the Sudan), brought about the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, ushering in the early Egyptian dynasties. This union is of monumental significance in Egyptian history, and was considered as such by the Egyptians themselves. It does not appear to be a crude tribal polity awaiting inspiration from Mediterranean or Near Eastern outsiders, as asserted by the now discredited Dynastic Race Theory. Union provided a stable umbrella that helped shape the creative and productive energies of their civilization for millennia to come. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1984 ed. Egypt, History of," p. 464-65) ^[28]

[edit] Language as a way to classify Egyptian races

Complications 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.^[29] For work on African languages, see Wiki article Languages of Africa and Joseph Greenberg.

Older linguistic classifications are also linked to the notion of a "Hamitic race", a vague grouping thought to exclude Negroes, but accommodating a large variety of dark skinned North and East Africans into a broad-based Caucasoid grouping. This Caucasoid "Hamitic race" is sometimes credited with the introduction of more advanced culture, such as certain plant cultivation and particularly the domestication of cattle. This scheme has also been discredited by the work of post WWII archealogists such as A. Arkell, who demonstrated that predynastic and Sudanic Negroid elements already possessed cattle and plant domestication, thousands of years before the supposed influx of Caucasoid or Hamitic settlers into the Nile Valley, Nubia and adjoining areas.^[30]

Modern scholarship has moved away from earlier notions of a "Hamitic" race speaking Hamito-Semitic languages, and places the Egyptian language in a more localized context, centered around its general Saharan and Nilotic roots.(F. Yurco "An Egyptological Review", 1996)^[31]

[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.

Anthropologist E. Strouhal who reexamined the data prior to the 1970s (a period sometimes marked by issues of selective analysis- see "General methodology" issues above), nevertheless lists several archaeological studies that suggest a migration of culture, practice and belief from African regions located to the west and south of the Badarian sites." (Strouhal, E., 1971, ‘Evidence of the early penetration of Negroes into prehistoric Egypt’, Journal of African History, 12: 1-9)^[32]

[edit] Nubia and Egypt in racial classifications and cultural links

Cultural links between Egypt and its nearby Nile Valley populations also appear in the matter of Nubia. Mainstream scholars such as F, Yurco note that among foreign peoples, the Nubians were closest ethnically to the Egyptians, shared the same culture in the predynastic period, and used the same pharaonic political structure. ^[33] Nubia also figures in the archealogical research of scholar Bruce Williams who suggests that Nubian influence underlying the establishment of the Egyptian state. Most scholars see limited evidence of Nubian statebuilding in the further north (Lower Egypt),The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Ian Shaw, ed. (Oxford University Press, 2000)p. 42-64</ref> but Williams focuses on the south, based on the initial predominant influence of the south, closest to Nubia, and various cultural linkages with the south such as discovery of the Qustul incense burner and of a city at Kerma dating back to 4,500 BCE.^[34]

[edit] Cultural/Religious links and racial classifications

Various cultural and religious practices in particular seem to show greater affinity with that of the peoples or northeast Africa, rather than the Mediterranean or Mesopotamia. These include numerous animal gods, the king as chief ritualist, the king's mother, ritual/ceremonial dresses, and regicide. (Encyclopedia Britannica 1984 ed. Macropedia Article, Vol 6: "Egyptian Religion" , pg 506-508)^[35] For more specialized reference on cultural links, see also (Strouhal, E., 1971, ‘Evidence of the early penetration of Negroes into prehistoric Egypt’)^[36]

[edit] Cultural markers of later Egyptian civilization found in early peoples

The Libyan area, particularly around the Fezzan, also shows a range of physical types. Of note is the mummified form of a Negro child, dated to around 3000 B.C, discovered at the Uan Muhuggiag rock shelter by a team of Italian archaeologists. What makes this skeleton interesting is that it is so well preserved that it challenges the notion that the Egyptians were the original pioneers of mummification. The Italian excavation suggests that many practices associated with Egypt, may have already been established on an indigenous basis in the areas adjoining the Nile Valley, prior to the rise of the Egyptian dynasties. ^[37] This finding is consistent with the general pattern noted above- the appearance of long-standing cultural and skeletal elements from a variety of indigenous peoples, in the areas close to Egypt. It is also consistent with a movement of peoples, up from the Saharan Zone into the Nile Valley, as noted by Afrocentric critic Mary Leftkowitz.

[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.^[38]^[39] 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.^[40]

A more recent survey (see Yurco above) sums up the consensus in the field: ^[41]

"In summary we may say that Egypt was a distinct North African culture rooted in the Nile Valley and on the Sahara. The dynastic race theory has been shown to be an outdated myth generated by the "Aryan Model."

[edit] Claims of massive cross-continent black Egyptian influence also questionable

The unique nature of many Egyptian cultural patterns also calls into question sweeping notions of a unified Egyptian umbrella or cultural set from Cape to Cairo.^[42], 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 the Sudan, or parts of Ethiopia. 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.^[43]

[edit] Visual images of the ancient Egyptians and racial characteristics

A controversial rendering of Tutankhamun exhibiting hazel eyes and a "mid-range" skin tone, as shown on the cover of National Geographic in 2005.

The Egyptians distinguished themselves from others. 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.^[44] 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].

Visual images: the case of King Tut (c. 1333–1324 BC).

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.

Visual images: the case of the Pharaoh Seqenenre (c. 1545 BC) While much popular attention has been paid to Tut and other icons such as Nefertiti, the case of the pharoah Seqenenre has attracted the attention of some mainstream scholars. Over 200 years before Tut, Seqenenre Tao II was a king of Egypt who according to tradition clashed with the West Asian/Semitic Hyksos invaders that had overrun much of the country. He was forced to live in the South, while the Hyksos dominated the north- Lower Egypt. As regards portraiture, mainstream scholars note the wide range of variability indicated in Seqenenre:

"Cephalometric work on Old and New Kingdom remains demonstrates variability in the ancient period, as noted in observations by Harris and Weeks (1973:123) of a Seventeenth Dynasty pharoah:

His entire facial complex, in fact, is so different from other pharaohs (it is closest to that of his son Ahmose) that he could be fitted more easily into the series of Nubian and Old Kingdom Giza skulls than into that of later Egyptian kings. Various scholars in the past have proposed a Nubian-that is, non-Egyptian-origin for Seqenenre and his family, and his facial features suggest this might indeed be true."

MacGaffey (1966) comments on variation in ancient Egyptian portraiture. 'Negroid' and 'Egyptian' were not mutually exclusive [see Petrie, (19061, plate xix.]"^[45]

[edit] Scholarly dissent on the notion of race

The population cluster approach. Some contemporary scholars hold that 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."^[46]

The localized approach. Other scholars prefer to place peoples into a more localized context, such as Nilo-Saharan, and note however that discussion of race may be unavoidable since much archealogical research uses certain terminology, and certain methodologies such as Mediterranean "lumping" and selective reporting. This earlier excavation and research in Egypt however contains valuable basic data. No serious discussion or attempt at getting a more accurate picture of the peoples and population movements involved can be made without reference to it. Mainstream scholar B. Trigger and S. Keita advocate terminology more directly based on the local variability of the data, and its changes over time, which allows for a wide range of types and variation:

"There is little demarcation between the predynastics and tropical series and even the early southern dynastic series. Definite trends are discernible in the analyses. This broadly shared "southern" metric pattern, along with the other mentioned characteristics to a greater or lesser degree, might be better described by the term Africoid, by definition connoting a tropical African microclade, microadaptation, and patristic affinity, thereby avoiding the nonevolutionary term "Negroid" and allowing for variation both real and conceptual."^[47]

[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. ^[48]

[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 . . . ^[49]

[edit] Red men

Illustration from Types of Mankind, which shows an engraving of an Egyptian wall painting.

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

1911 copy of the NAACP journal The Crisis

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 in Egyptian hieroglyphs

km biliteral

km.t (place)

km.t (people)

[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 in the field of anthropology.

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] American Anthropological Association: Statement on "Race" (May 17, 1998)

[edit] Archaeology

Map showing the different routes out of Cush.

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