Roxana Cooper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm sure the two million 'full blooded' Native
> Americans registered in the
> 2000 census will be delighted to learn they don't
> exist. Actual anthropological
> evidence contradicts your notion that the last
> millenia or so of influxes have
> effectively changed the character of the Egyptian
> population. BTW there was
> plenty of immigration from the east as well as the
> south in AE. They were always
> complaining about the 'Wretched Asiatics'.

And as I explain in a later post, this is an absolutely crazy statement
if intended as a rebuttal against the idea that all populations have been
affected by migrations. Or are you saying that 2 million "full blooded"
Indians is some counter to history? This isn't even about American Indians.

>
> Again of course the AEs are 'Africans'! But that
> does NOT make them identical
> physically or culturally to all other peoples in
> Africa. BTW my understanding
> is the latest thinking is the ancesters of the AE
> migrated into the Nile Valley
> from the Sahara as it dried - not up the Nile from
> the south.

No two African populations are identical culturally to each other in Africa,
whether they be West African, East African, Central African or Southern
African. Likewise, Africans have the greatest diversity of any population
on the planet and I am just talking about black Africans. There are black
Africans with all round eyes, slanted eyes, big lips, thin lips, big noses
thin noses, hooked noses, long noses and so on. Therefore there is no "one"
type of black African and certainly the Sahara desert being in Africa did
not generate features that were non black, as it is a hot and dry environment
and one that is subject to extreme UV radiation, which is the biological determinant
for dark skin. Therefore, when some people try to claim that Saharan Africans
from 5,000 years ago or Nile Valley Africans from 5,000 years ago had different
features, that doesn't mean that they were not dark complexioned.
I don't think that you will find any serious scientist who
would suggest that those populations migrating into the Nile Valley from the
Sahara were anything other than tropically adapted black Africans. Therefore, it is
absurd to claim that blacks only entered the Nile Valley as a result of "nubian"
migrations because 1) there was no nubia back then and 2) those people who
formed the ancestral population of the Nile Valley were primarily from the same
background as the populations modern Egyptologists label as "nubian". The fact
that modern Egyptologists label it "Nubian" does not make it a historically valid
term among the populations being described, as the Egyptians did not use the term
and neither did the ancient populations of Sudan. Therefore, there is no reason
why medium to dark brown Africans would have been anything other than full blooded
Egyptians in the dynastic period, as opposed to just "nubian" migrants.

But, since you mentioned "Nubian" migrants, it is pretty much documented that it is
to the South that the Egyptians looked for renewal and strength in times of crisis.
Just as the early dynasties hailed from the South, the dynasties after the first and
second intermediate periods also made it clear their connections with the south as
well. The Prophecy of Neferti which was produced supposedly in the Old Kingdom was
produced as a document supposedly validating the rule of the Senwosret line who hailed
from around Aswan. Aswan is called "nubian" today, but in those times it was just
another part of Egypt. Likewise Mentuhotep I also made his affiliations clear in marrying
Kemsit who is often portrayed as jet black, just as Mentuhotep is often portrayed as
such. Sure, it was symbolic and it was symbolic of 1) black as a source of renewal
meaning the silt of the Nile which flows from the South 2) black as the color of the
people from the South from which the Egyptians obtained renewal against the "red"
asiatics, who represented strife, chaos and destruction. There is no clearer a statement
of the Egyptians world view than that. On top of that in the 18th dynasty Queen
Ahmose Nefertari was also depicted as jet black. So if there was anything ethnic
identity that the Egyptians held in high esteem as royal queens and princesses, it was
women from the South. Not to mention that Hathor and Isis are also identified with
the Southern regions as their places of worship being in the South around Aswan
and Denderah. This is explicit theological support to the role of royal women from
the south being the mothers of the heirs to the throne. To go along with that,
you had these Southern islands as symbolic of the primeval mound of creation where
man was born (in the South, within Africa). These are also the lands of Khnum the
creator god, who fashioned man from the black clay of the earth and who also fashioned
the body of Osiris. The symbolism of black soil and black skin being linked as signs of
creation and the Egyptians openly acknowledged the biologial and anthropological
origins of man from the South along the Nile. This is what is confirmed in by modern
biology and anthropology by the age of human fossils in places like Kenya and Ethiopia
which lie in the South along the Nile. This theology is taken full circle as the island
next to the original temple of Philae was the supposed burial place of osiris, who was
seen as the reflection of the regenerative power of the earth, who was also often depicted
as jet black in symbolism of the act of creation of men from the soil in the lands to the
South of Egypt along the Nile. This is also why so many pharoahs were depicted in black
stone, symbolizing their connection to the primordial mound of creation in the south
in the hands of Khnum. This is exactly the opposite of Greek white marble statues, which
were also a symbolic sign of strength and purity. The point being that dynastic Egypt had
a strong Southern orientation, with dark skin not being any sort of sign of being "nubian"
or a sign of separation from Africa by the Egyptians. Which is precisely the opposite of
the modern Egyptian state which is primarily oriented towards the North.







Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2007 07:18PM by Doug M.