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The controversy over racial characteristics of ancient Egyptians refers to the differing scholarly opinions on the racial identity of ancient Egyptians. These opinions have also changed over time from 18th century European studies of ancient history to current African-oriented and Western-oriented studies. Generally, the controversy has operated within post-Enlightenment notions of race similar to, but unrelated to, ancient Egyptian concepts of race. As the European scholars learned more and more about Egyptian history, their conclusions regarding the race of the Egyptians changed from disdainfully acknowledging that they were Black, to insisting that they were White and that the pharaohs and high officials were likely of a Nordic stock. The latter theory was abandoned in the 1960s when Afrocentric scholars successfully challenged the Nordic notion, first by referring to the earlier interpretations of European archaeologists like Champollion, then by reviewing the firsthand information, and successfully refuting any Nordic or European origin of the ancient Egyptians. In their zeal, many Afrocentricists eventually made unsubstantiated claims that compounded the controversy itself. These claims included insisting that the original Egyptians were physically and ethnically identical to the Ashanti and other Equatorial African people or that only true ancient Egyptians were of a phenotype identical to unmixed black dark-skinned Africans. The underlying motivation for the debate consists of the accomplishments of the ancient Egyptian culture and how they may testify to the historical contribution to the world (or lack thereof) of each side's protégés.

The present status

Currently, most Western mainstream scholars regard the ancient Egyptians as being a mixture of Black African and White (Semitic, and non-Semitic Caucasoid elements). This scholarly consensus is shown in the modern, scientific attempt to reconstruct the facial likeness of Tutankhamun that appeared on the cover of National Geographic in 2005. Similar to the general impression of Latinos (with the Semites fulfilling the role of the Native Americans), the Western mainstream scholarly opinion (not including the Afrocentric views) is that the Egyptians were a primarily light-skinned to brown-skinned group of people (like most African Americans) with features that resembled more a multiracial society leaning more towards a Caucasian appearance than a Negroid or Black African appearance.

Linguistically, Ancient Egyptian forms its own independent branch and root of the Afro-Asiatic family (an African language family with Semitic being the only member found outside of Africa), which does nothing to clarify this controversy but points to Egypt's African cultural roots. Mainstream Afrocentrists, who are in the minority among Western mainstream scholars, insist that the ancient Egyptians viewed themselves similarly to how Black Americans do today, i.e. as biologically mixed but unconsciously inclusive of the black African elements which would classify them as being undeniably Black. In addition, even a small trace of Black ancestry makes one Black in the eyes of a few members of society in North America. (The opposite is true in South America, for example.)

Scholarly dissent with premises

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 ... the level at which we stop our classification is completely arbitrary."

Beside general anthropological dissent, many Egyptologist tend to frown on the presupposition that predynastic Egypt was homogeneous such that there could have been any "one race" whatsoever. Prior to the time when race was no longer considered a scientific term, WMF Petrie identified five different races. Although the ensuing dynastic race theory, attributing the rise of the dynastic period to Mesopotamian invaders, has since been discounted, modern archaeology has shown such a significant trade of goods, ideas, and even people throughout Egypt, the Levant, and Mesopotamia, that the notion that Egypt was purely anything is equally discounted.

History

Precursors

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 his system of division by race to replace the older systems of division by region or nation. It is from this model that virtually all common understanding of races has been derived. Although this model was conceptualized by Bernier, most people in discussions regarding race treat the concept as a fact that has attained objective credibility. Because of this, both sides of the racial debate regarding the Egyptians often defy the very classification schema Bernier used even though they still retain a fundamental belief in his theory.

Scientific racism

Origins

In the 19th century, supporters of slavery and colonialism began to use racism to justify the exploitation of Africans 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 Africans were incapable of living freely in a civilized world and were naturally inclined towards slavery. Writing from this period frequently ignores or belittles the accomplishments of other peoples, or attributes them to whites.

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.

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.

African response

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 one of 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. Dubois and other pan-Africanists addressed both the Black people being discriminated against directly and the mainstream scholarly community.

Drusilla Dunjee Houston was one of the first writers to take a forensic or scientific look at the Egyptian culture from an Afrocentric viewpoint. Her book The Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire spawned the 20th century Afrocentric movement with regard to ancient Egyptian history. Her book was published in 1926 and along with her weekly syndicated column "Wonderful History of the Negro" laid the groundwork for the later historical Afrocentric studies.

Other movements

There were cultural movements in many other areas where Black people had been enslaved, colonized, or discriminated against, similar to the pan-African movement. While these movements usually tried to put a greater emphasis on African history and the accomplishments of African peoples, most did not focus so heavily on Egypt. For example, the Ethiopian Movement in southern Africa and the Rastafari Movement in Jamaica both put a great emphasis on Ethiopia. This was because Ethiopia had not been colonized and there was so much positive information about it in the Christian Bible.

Afrocentric arguments

People and culture

Afrocentrists cite evidence of African culture in ancient Egyptian society.

Ancient Egyptians themselves traced their origin to a land they called "Punt" (pwnt), or ta nṯrw (read "Ta Netcherew"), the "Land of the Gods". Punt is thought to have been located near the Somali border and northern Ethiopia, lands occupied in ancient times and today by black African peoples, albieit heavilly arabized.

A wall relief of Puntite royalty reveals a dark-brown-skinned king and queen, the latter exhibiting the characteristic attributes of a Khoisan woman. Commerce existed between Egypt and Punt, with Egyptian royalty mounting expeditions to what they regarded as their ancestral home. Among the items they brought back were whole trees of myrrh and other species, aromatic woods, incense, leopards, monkeys, ivory, ebony, panther hides, cinnamon, and gum.

Some scholars cite evidence of African culture in ancient Egyptian society. According to the 1974 Encyclopaedia Britannica:

"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." Fellahin, in fact, is the name Arabs traditionally gave to the indigenous peoples of the lands they conquered. The term means tiller or peasant.

Hair

As further proof that the ancient Egyptians were black, Afrocentrists cite authors of the period who describe the Egyptians as having woolly hair. One well known example is Herodotus's statement that he recognized someone as an Egyptian because of their "dark skin and woolly hair". However, this is in-line with Arthur Kemp's philosophy that the Ancient Egyptians were indeed originally white and through miscegenation with Arabs and Negroids by the 8th century, the white portion of Ancient Egypt was practically entirely gone. As such, this claim would seem to be relevant as Herodotus lived in the Fifth Century BC, 300 years after the last of the whites had disappeared in Egypt.

Detailed microscopic investigations of hair samples taken from several ancient Egyptian mummies suggest that "Only a minority showed evidence of structural characteristics traditionally called "Negroid"; even in these the "Negroid" elements were weakly manifested" (Titlbachova and Titlbach, 1977).

Joann Fletcher, a consultant to the Bioanthropology Foundation in the UK, in what she calls an "absolute, thorough study of all ancient Egyptian hair samples" — relied on various techniques, such as electron microscopy and chromatography to analyze hair samples (Parks, 2000). She discovered that most of the natural hair types and those used for hairpieces were made of what she calls "Caucasian-type" hair, including even instances of blond and red hair.(Parks, Lisa. 2000. Ancient Egyptians Wore Wigs. Egypt Revealed Magazine (www.egyptrevealed.com), May 29)

Afrocentrists counter-argue that not all indigenous peoples in the Nile region have the tightly coiled hair that conforms to the equatorial Negroid phenotype. Many, in fact, have what may be termed "Caucasian-type hair," including some Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalis and Nubians. Such variations are simply examples of the inherent broad biodiversity of African peoples.

Additionally, it has been argued that the embalming process may have altered hair texture , and that when one measures the dimensions of the hair, one finds affinity with frizzy-haired populations. . Further, the coiffures and wigs of the ancient Egyptians, from afros and afro wigs (called by Egyptologists enveloping or Nubian wigs), to dreadlocks, to twisted and braided styles, and even clean-shaven heads, are methods of styling that offer ease of care particularly for peoples with coarse and very curly or nappy hair, and are common among indigenous black Africans of the region,, and across the length and breadth of the African continent, as well.

Melanin

Scholar Cheikh Anta Diop's forensic tests of melanin content in Egyptian mummies are cited as evidence that the early dynastic Egyptians were black Africans and remained so in predominant part for thousands of years.

Melanin (eumelanin), the chemical substance responsible for skin pigmentation, is, broadly speaking, insoluble and is preserved for millions of years in the skins of fossil animals. There is thus all the more reason for it to be readily recoverable in the skins of Egyptian mummies, despite a tenacious legend that the skin of mummies, tainted by the embalming material, is no longer susceptible of any analysis. Although the epidermis is the main site of the melanin, the melanocytes penetrating the derm at the boundary between it and the epidermis, even where the latter has mostly been destroyed by the embalming materials, show a melanin level which is non-existent in the white-skinned races ....

Either way let us simply say that the evaluation of melanin level by microscopic examination is a laboratory method which enables us to classify the ancient Egyptians unquestionably among the black races.

Diop's findings have been questioned, however, because he did not specify what quantities of melanin are necessary for a person to be black, and the degradation of melanin over time in the presence of ancient embalming fluids is a phenomenon that has not been widely studied.

As a source of refutation for the above claim, Arthur Kemp provides genetic evidence utilizing haplotype recordings and research that VII, VIII and XV which are characteristic of Eastern European and Mediterranean Caucasoid populations. Through analyzing the prevalence of these haplotypes among modern-day populations, the haplotypes were detected in 6.6%, 7.3% and 5.5% of the population, predominantly located in the North.

In addition, examinations of Ancient Egyptian skulls in North Egypt and Southern Egypt among both royal tombs and those of commoners have revealed that the majority of such skulls found in geographically Northern Egypt were predominantly Mediterranean Caucasoid in origin. However in the geographically Southern portion of Egypt, despite the fact that the majority of skulls that were analyzed were of the same Caucasoid origin, there was a significantly greater admixture with Negroids and what was further documented is that as the passage of time progressed the distinctions among the skulls became so minimal that they became indistinguishable, substantiating both the claims that Ancient Egyptians were multi-racial and Kemp's theory that the true and original Ancient Egyptians were indeed white. As such, perhaps the most influential component that affects such studies and is yet commonly neglected is the time at which the study has been conducted as the White features of the civilization were slowly eroded with the passage of time seemingly creating the often erronous theory that Ancient Egyptians were predominantly Negroid or Mixed, until it had nearly disappeared by the 8th Century BC after which the Negroid influence in still yet erronously classified as "Ancient Egyptian" culture was complete.

Culture

Some scholars cite evidence of African culture in ancient Egyptian society. According to the 1974 Encyclopaedia Britannica:

Ancient Egypt had many cultural similarities with northeast African peoples. The numerous animal cults (especially bovine cults and panther gods) and details of ritual dresses (animal tails, masks, grass aprons, etc.) are evident in other African cultures. 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 (i.e., Sudan), others among the Prenilotic tribes (Shilluk).

Religion

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

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."

In 1927, anthropologist Winifred Blackman, author of The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, conducted ethnographic research on the life of Upper Egyptian farmers and concluded that there were observable continuities between the cultural and religious beliefs and practices of the Fellahin and those of ancient Egyptians As in ancient times, it is in Upper Egypt, or the south, were the majority of darker-skinned, more Africoid Egyptians can be found.

Art

Egyptian art contains numerous images of brown-skinned people with prognathous profiles, dolichocephalic heads and receding chin lines. All characteristics are features of the classic Negroid phenotype. Some scholars have characterized the dolichocephalism of certain Egyptian royalty in the Tutmosid line as "family traits," rather than racial characteristics. Ray Johnson, director of the University of Chicago's research center at Luxor, describes the oddly shaped, quartzite head of an Egyptian princess, thought to be that of Meritaten,, the daughter of Akhenaten, as "most likely a family trait exaggerated by the artistic style of the period" and that it "It simply falls within the normal range of human variation."

However, many other scholars, including, Babacar M'Bow, Exhibit Service Coordinator of the Broward County Libraries Division, take another view:

Another argument is the "overbite" or protruding teeth of King Tut and other members of the 18th dynasty. Here, too, we see the falsification presented as science: overbite or maxillary prognathism-that is the protruding of the dental lining is a closely associated feature to "Negroid", particularly in East Africa. It is widely present in the Sudanese, Kenyan, and particularly the Somali.

Contrary to earlier scholarship, the exaggeratedly dolichocephalic heads of Amarna artists are thought to be a stylistic affectation meant to accentuate a normal cranial feature, as in the case King Tutankhamen. Further, the king was neither genetically deformed nor the subject of head binding. As a result of CT scans conducted of King Tutankhamun's skull in 2005, it was found that, although "Tutankhamun had a very elongated (dolichocephalic) skull," "The cranial sutures are not prematurely fused...." In fact, with the king's age estimated between 18 and 20 years, "All of the cranial sutures still at least partly open." Head binding affects the way in which cranial sutures fuse and would have been detected by the CT scan. The conclusion by medical experts was that Tut's dolichocephalism was "most likely due to normal anthropological variation...." See Tutankhamun's appearance and controversy for a new, scientific attempt to reconstruct a facial likeness of Tutankhamun.

Once again, Arthur Kemp attempts to provide a refutation and counter-argument to such premises through examining both Egyptian Art and physical examples of mummified bodies to substantiate his claims that the original Egyptians were White. These are primarily based on the artistic depictiojn of the colourization of hair among Egyptians, often times incorporating blond and even red hair, facial features and structure of prominent Egyptian leaders which are undoubtedly similar to that of Caucasoids, the utilization of quartz or lapus lazuli in order to depict blue or even grayish-green eyes and various examples of mummies with either fair brown or black hair and red or even blonde hair.

The Great Sphinx of Giza

Over the centuries, numerous writers and scholars have recorded their impressions and reactions upon seeing the Great Sphinx of Giza. French scholar Constantin-François de Chassebœuf, Comte de Volney visited Egypt between 1783 and 1785. He is one of the earliest known Western scholars to remark upon what he saw as its "typically Negro" countenance.

"... all have a bloated face, puffed up eyes, flat nose, thick lips; in a word, the true face of the negro. I was tempted to attribute it to the climate, but when I visited the Sphinx, its appearance gave me the key to the riddle. On seeing that head, typically negro in all its features, I remembered the remarkable passage where Herodotus says: 'As for me, I judge the Colchians to be a colony of the Egyptians because, like them, they are black with woolly hair. ...'".

Upon visiting Egypt in 1849, French author Gustave Flaubert echoed de Volney's observations. In his travelog chronicling his trip, he wrote:

We stop before a Sphinx; it fixes us with a terrifying stare. Its eyes still seem full of life; the left side is stained white by bird-droppings (the tip of the Pyramid of Khephren has the same long white stains); it exactly faces the rising sun, its head is grey, ears very large and protruding like a negro’s, its neck is eroded; from the front it is seen in its entirety thanks to great hollow dug in the sand; the fact that the nose is missing increases the flat, negroid effect. Besides, it was certainly Ethiopian; the lips are thick….

In his work The Negro, published in 1915, W.E.B. Du Bois observed:

The great Sphinx at Gizeh, so familiar to all the world, the Sphinxes of Tanis, the statue from the Fayum, the statue of the Esquiline at Rome, and the Colossi of Bubastis all represent black, full-blooded Negroes and are described by Petrie as "having high cheek bones, flat checks, both in one plane, a massive nose, firm projecting lips, and thick hair, with an austere and almost savage expression of power."

and:

Blyden, the great modern black leader of West Africa, said of the Sphinx at Gizeh:"Her features are decidedly of the African or Negro type, with 'expanded nostrils.' If, then, the Sphinx was placed here—looking out in majestic and mysterious silence over the empty plain where once stood the great city of Memphis in all its pride and glory, as an 'emblematic representation of the king'--is not the inference clear as to the peculiar type or race to which that king belonged?"

In 1992, the New York Times published a letter to the editor submitted by then Harvard professor of Orthodontics Sheldon Peck in which he commented a study of the Giza sphinx conducted by New York City Police Department senior forensics artist Frank Domingo. Wrote Peck:

The analytical techniques…Detective Frank Domingo used on facial photographs are not unlike methods orthodontists and surgeons use to study facial disfigurements. From the right lateral tracing of the statue's worn profile a pattern of bimaxilliary prognathism is clearly detectable. This is an anatomical condition of forward development in both jaws, more frequently found in people of African ancestry than in those from Asian or Indo-European stock.

Cultural identity

The ancient Egyptians distinguished among ethnicities using, among other things, physical characteristics, something which is frequently in evidence in their artwork, which is extremely detailed. However, the concept of "race" was unknown to the ancient Egyptians.

First and foremost, the ancient Egyptians differentiated people by their nationality, whether or not they were Egyptian. Such distinctions became salient at various points in Egyptian history, most notably when the Hyksos, a foreign people from southeast Asia, invaded, occupied, and ruled Egypt between 1674 and 1548 BCE. These people were driven out because they were foreigners, not because they were of a different "race," and they are discussed in Ancient Egyptian descriptions solely in this manner.

Egyptians depicted themselves of a different color from the Nubians and other Africans only as a form of nationalism. The color red for the ancient Egyptian was an ethnic distinction solely for national pride, and not because they were of a different race than the other Africans.

Kemet — "black land"

It has been suggested that Kemet be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since October 2006.

km in Egyptian hieroglyphs

km biliteral	km.t (place)	km.t (people)

One of the many names for Egypt in Ancient Egyptian is km.t (read "Kemet"), meaning "black land". More literally, the word means "black thing". : km means "black" and the t-suffix indicates an abstract noun formed from an adjective. The chief component of the word is usually a sign (biliteral km) depicting what is either a terraced bank of the Nile (the fertile black soil of the most hospitable part of Egypt), or the tail of a crocodile.

The use of km.t "black land" in terms of a place was generally in contrast to the "deshert" 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". The ancient Egyptians occasionally called themselves kmm.w (read "Kememew"), "the black people", omitting the t-suffix.

The ancient Egyptians employed two terms to describe people that they perceived racially as Black yet distinct from the Egyptians themselves. Kushite referred usually to people who were Black but were of an unknown origin, (usually assumed to be of the South). Nehesi, a word (usually a formal title-name) that specifically described black skinned people of the Nubian region, in contrast to "Nebu" a word that merely described the geographic origin and related more to the gold ("nub") found there. These two terms do not entitle the Egyptians to the totality of recognizing black people in these periods, but indicate the Egyptian relationships with the closest black neighbors.

Ethnographic murals

In the adjacent artistic rendering based on a mural from the tomb of Seti I, ancient Egyptians are portrayed themselves differently from both the Nubians and the Middle-Easterners/North African Bedouins. The groups depicted in the painting are the Libyans, Nubians, Semites, and Egyptians, respectively from left to right.

There are numerous images in which Egyptians are contrasted with non-Egyptian peoples. Like other peoples throughout history, the Egyptians seem to have identified themselves as an ideal or norm of sorts among other populations. Further, there is evidence the ancient Egyptians thought in terms of national identity and ethnicity; the modern Western concept of "race" was alien to them. During the New Kingdom, Egyptian suzerainty extended to the north as far as the Hittite empire and into Nubia to the south. At this time, Egyptian sacred literature and imagery commented systematically on differences based on these two criteria. This is evident in Akhenaton's "Great Hymn to the Aten", in which it is said that the peoples of the world are differenced by Aten: "Their tongues are separate in speech/And their natures as well;/ Their skins are distinguished./The countries of Syria and Nubia, the land of Egypt,/ You set every man in his place."

This differentiation of peoples is later refined in the Book of Gates, a sacred text that describes the passage of the soul though the underworld. This contains a description of the distinct peoples known to the Egyptians: Egyptians themselves, plus Asiatics, Nubians and Libyans. These peoples are illustrated in several tomb decorations, in which they are differentiated by skin-color and clothing. These depict Egyptians ("Ret," or "men," often used as "ret na romé," meaning "we men above mankind"); Asiatics/Semites ("AAMW" or "Namu,": "travelers" or "wanderers," often used as "namu sho," or "people who travel the sands," meaning the nomads or Bedu/Bedouin); Nubians ("Nahasu," or "strangers"); and, finally, Libyans, ("TMHHW", or Tamhu," a term for which several etymologies have been proposed). In one case, out of many on the document, the Egyptian and nubian is presented in the same manner, where a similarity is never shown between the Egyptian and Asian or Libyan.

And yet Arthur Kemp does state that the Egyptians were racially aware and actively employed countermeasures to mounting Negroid influence from the south, instigated by Pharaoh Sesostris III in which the first Semneh stela indicated that:

"Southern boundary, made in the year 8, under the majesty of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Sesostris III, ... in order to prevent that any Black should cross it, by water or by land, with a ship, or any herds of the Blacks; except a Black who shall come to do trading in Iken, or with a commission. Every good thing shall be done with them but without allowing a ship of the Blacks to pass by Heh, going down stream, forever."

Also, there is repeated evidence in Egyptian writings that indicate the Egyptian awareness of a difference in complexion and skin tone between them and their Nubian cousins. A few samples of such quotes would consist of writings similar to these:

"I reached Nubia of the Blacks,...I forced the Nubian chiefs to wash gold." -Stela of Sihathor an Assistant Treasurer

"His majesty made war on the Asiatic Sand-Dwellers and his majesty made an army of many ten thousands: in the entire South . . . . among the Irthet Blacks, the Mazoi Blacks, the Yam Blacks, among the Wawat Blacks, among the Kau Blacks, and in the land of Temeh." -Count Uni, Governor of the South

"He hath overthrown the chief of the Nubians; the Black is helpless, defenseless, in his grasp. He hath united the boundaries of his two sides, there is not a remnant among the curly-haired, who came to attack; there is not a single survivor among them...They fall by the sword...the fragments cut from them are too much for the birds." -Tombos Stela of Thutmose I

Decentrist arguments

Phenotypical uniqueness and lack of homogeneity

There is one particular early study of phenotypical charecteristics in predynastic Egypt which is still considered quite reliable by many Egyptologists today. Rather than attempting to determine where the source of the Egyptian gene pool came from, this study attempted to determine the degree of phenotypical uniformity and the degree to which foreing phenotypes could potentially have been introduced over the entire history of ancient Egypt. To do this, it examined thirty different craniometric traits from all predynastic grave sites which are both datable to a particular predynastic culture group and contain larger than thirty samples. It found that phenotypes from specific graves varied quite significantly over all of Egypt from the Badarian (earliest predynastic) period onward, too much to indicate one uniform race. However, it also analyzed all thirty traits for four sets of skulls from Kerma and Jebel Moya in Nubia, Lachish in Canaan, and from the Ashanti people in west Africa, and found that while individual sites in Egypt shared some shocking similarities to non-Egyptian peoples in one or two individual traits, not one Egyptian type shares a majority of traits with any non-Egyptian group which left enough human remains to be scientifically analyzed, except potentially the samples from Lacish and Badari, which are within each others margin of error. It thus concludes 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.

The Egyptian deemphasis of race

Many contemporary archaeologists and anthropologists choose to deemphasize the role of ethnicity in ancient Egypt, noting that skin color was never mentioned as a cultural concern in Egypt. Instead, Egyptians themselves focused on the nationality of an individual, i.e. whether or not they were born in Egypt, as a marker of ethnicity. Adding to this fact, as discussed above, was the likely biological plurality of Egyptian phenotypic traits.

A controversial perspective

Some cultural critics and philosophers, most notably Olu Oguibe of the University of Connecticut, argue that an Afrocentrist perspective actually undermines its own argument. They contend that arguing for an "African" physical or cultural basis for ancient Egypt assumes a homogenized view of all of Africa which in fact reinforces the false stereotype of Africa as both a racially and culturally homogeneous continent, when in fact it is the world's most diverse. Furthermore, a fight to "claim" ancient Egyptian culture on the part of Afrocentrists can be viewed as a concession to the Eurocentrist claim that Africa contains no civilizations, cultures, or cultural products of which the continent can be proud. A better approach, argues Oguibe, is to focus on the incredible ethnic and cultural diversity within Africa as a source of pride, rather than fighting to claim "outsider" civilizations as having some sort of primal "African" cultural or biological basis.

Such views are, in fact, an oversimplification of the Afrocentrist paradigm. Afrocentrists contend that there are unifying cultural threads among the indigenous, black cultures of Africa, including dynastic Egypt; that among them there is interrelatedness — not homogeneity. Further, Afrocentrists repeatedly have recognized the inherent biodiversity of black peoples. They, in fact, do not contend that all Africans are the same physically and assert that all indigenous Africans (excluding here the Berbers of the Maghreb), including the ancient Egyptians, are and were black peoples. They take issue with those who seek to affix a Caucasoid phenotypical or racial designation, one with its origin in European geography and commonly associated with whites, to describe blacks who do not fit the narrow parameters of the classic, equatorial Negroid phenotype. They argue, it is, in fact, Eurocentrists who refuse properly to acknowledge the physical diversity of black African peoples.

Afrocentrics also point out that there is no rush to "claim" Egypt, while ignoring other African, or even other black, contributions to world history and world civilization. The acknowledgement of one black civilization does not diminish the significance of another. While the contentiousness of the debate regarding the racial identity of dynastic Egypt may have a higher profile than other fields of study, the ancient Nilotic civilizations of Egypt and Sudan are merely one focus of some Afrocentrist historians. Afrocentrist scholarship, in fact, seeks to treat the contributions of all African peoples worldwide.

References

1. cf. Bard, 1996: 104.
2. cf. Champollion, 1831 L'Egypte: 112.
3. Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca; Menozzi, Paolo; and Piazza, Alberto, The history and Geography of Human Genes. p.19 Princeton University Press, 1994.
4. Petrie, WMF. The Races of Early Egypt. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1901.
5. Redford, D. B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. p. 23ff. Princeton University Press, 1992.
6. Shaw, Ian. The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. p. 109. British Museum Press, 1995.
7. http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant275/reader/bernier.PDF
8. (Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays, Volume II, Section 92)
9. Rashidi, Runoko. "Drusilla Dunjee Houston and the Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire." The Global African Community, History Notes, 2002-04-24. Retrieved on 2006-09-20.
10. Brooks-Bertram, Dr. Peggy Ann. "Drusilla Dunjee Houston," (2000-2006). Retrieved on 2006-09-20.
11. Brooks-Bertram, Dr. Peggy. "Drusilla Dunjee Houston, 1876 - 1941." VG: Voices from the Gaps, Women Artists and Writers of Color, An International Website, 1999-12-09. Retrieved on 2006-09-20.
12. Pankhurst, Richard. The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century. Asmara, Eritrea: The Red Sea, Inc., 1997, pp.4-6
13. Encyclopaedia Britannica 1974 ed. Macropedia Article, Vol 14: "Populations, Human" - page 843
14. Herodotus, Book II, translated by George Rawlinson, New York: Tudor, 1928
15. March of the Titans, A History of the White Race, Arthur Kemp, Chapter 8: Egypt - Nordic Desert Empire
16. http://www.africawithin.com/diop/origin_egyptians.htm
17. United Nations; International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa; 1974
18. March of the Titans, A History of the White Race, Arthur Kemp, Appendix 2, Part 7: Western European Genetic Remnants in Egypt
19. Race, John R. Baker, Oxford University Press, 1974 Page 519
20. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1974 ed., Macropedia Article, Vol 6: "Egyptian Religion" , pg 508.)
21. Faraldi, Caryll. ""A genius for hobnobbing." Books, Al-Ahram, Issue No. 481, 2000-05-11-2000-05-17. Retrieved on ].
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23. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, The Negro (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915)
24. March of the Titans, A History of the White Race, Part Five: The Nubians and the Fall of White Egypt
25. Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. p. 13. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 1992.
26. Berry, A. C.; Berry, R. J.; Ucko, P. J. Genetical Change in Ancient Egypt, MAN, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1967.
27. Oguibe, Olu: "The Culture Game." University of Minnesota Press, 2004
28. Oguibe, Olu: "In 'The Heart of Darkness.' Essay from "The Culture Game.", pages 3-9. University of Minnesota Press, 2004

Bibliography

• Allen, James P. "Middle Egyptian : An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs". Cambridge University Press (November 4, 1999). ISBN 0-521-77483-7
• Faulkner, Raymond. "Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian". Griffith Institute; Rep edition (January 1, 1970) ISBN 0-900416-32-7
• 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.
• Oguibe, Olu. "The Culture Game." University of Minnesota Press, 2004.

External links

• "Coming to America: The Return of Tutankhamen and the Falsification of History" by Babacar M’Bow
• "The evolution of human skin coloration",Department of Anthropology, California Academy of Sciences
• "Modern Medical Technology Reveals More about King Tut"
• Pictures of head binding practice

See also

• DNA-tested mummies, List of
• Demographics of modern Egypt
• Races of physical anthropology
• Who Built Great Zimbabwe?

• Articles to be merged from October 2006
• Egyptology
• Pan-Africanism
• Controversies