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ausar Moderator Posts: 2405 |
posted 20 September 2004 10:42 PM
  
{{{{{{{{{{ The Geographical Origins and Population Relationships of Early Ancient Egyptians{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{ {{{{{{S.O.Y Keita}}}}}} {{{{{Department of Biological Anthropology Oxford University {{}}}}}}}}} {{{{{}}}}}}}A.J Boyce {{{{{{{{{University Reader in Human Population biology {{{{{{{{{ Oxford University What was the primary geographical source for the peopoling of the Egyptian Nile Valley? Were the creators of the fundamental culture of sourthern predyanstic Egypt----which led to the dyanstic culture---migrants and colonists from Europe or Near East? Or were they predominately African variant populations? ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------- These questions can be addressed using data from studies of biology and culture,and evolutionary interpretive models. Archaeological and linguistic data indicate an origin in Africa[see Hassan and Ehret in this section]. Biological data from living Egyptians and from skeletons of ancient Egyptians may also shed light on these questions. It is important to keep in mind the long presence of humans in African,and that there should be a great range of biological variation in indigenous ''authenic'' Africans. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scientists have been studying remains from the Egyptian Nile Valley for years. Analysis of crania is the traditional approach to assessing ancient populations origins.relationships,and diversity. In studies based on anatomical traits and measurments of crania,similarities have been found between Nile Valley crania from 30,000, 20,000 and 12,000 years ago and various African remains from more recent times[see Thoma,Brauer,and Rimbach 1990; Angel and Kelly 1986; Keita 1993]. Studies of crania from southern predyanstic Egypt,from the formative period [4000-3100 B.C.], show them usually to be more similar to the crania of ancient Nubians,Kushites,Saharans,or modern groups from the Horn of Africa than those of dyanstic northern Egyptians or ancient or modern southern Europeans. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another source of skeletal data is limb proportions,which generally vay with different climatic belts. In general the early Nile remains have the proportions of more tropical populations,which noteworthy since Egypt is not in the tropics. This suggests that Egyptian Nile Valley was not primarily settled by cold-adapted peoples,such as Europeans. Art objects are not generally used by biological anthropologists. They are suspect as data and their interpretation highly dependent on streotyped thinking. However,because art has often been used to comment on the physiognomies of ancient Egypt,a few remarks are in order. A review of literature and the sculpture indicates chracteristics that also can be found in the Horn of[East] Africa [see,e.g.Peterie 1939;Drake 1967; Keita 1993]. Old and Middle Kingdom statuary shows a range of chracteristics ;many if not most,individuals depicted in the art have variations in various East Africans. This East African anatomy ,once seen as a result of a mixture of different ''races'', is better understood as being part of the range of indigenous African variation. ======================================= The descriptions and terms of ancient Greek writers have sometimes been used to comment on Egyptian origins. This is problematic since the ancient writers were not doing population biology. However, we can examine one issue. the Greeks called all groups south of Egypt ''Ethiopians.'' Were Egyptians more related to any of these ''Ethiopians'' than to the Greeks? As noted ,cranial and limb studies have indicated greater similarity to Somalis,Kushites and Nubians,all ''Ethiopians'' in ancient Greek terms. ========================================================== There are few studies of ancient Dna from Egyptian remains and none so far of southern predyanstic skeletons. A study of 12th Dyansty DNA shows that the remains evaluated had multiple lines of descent,including some from ''sub-Saharan'' Africa[Paabo and Di Renzo 1993]. The other lineages were not identified ,but may be African in origin. More work is needed . In the future,early remains from the Nile Valley and the rest of Africa will have to be studied in the manner in order to establish the early baseline range of genetic variation of all Africa. The data are important to avoid streotypes ideas about the DNA of African peoples. ============================================================ The information from the living Egyptian population may not be as useful because historical records indicate substantial imigration into Egypt over the last several millennia and it seems to have been far greater from the Near East and Europe than from areas far south of Egypt.''Substantial immigration '' can actually mean a relatively small number of people in terms of population genetics theory. It has been determined than an average migration rate of one percent per generation into a region could result in a great change of the original gene frequencies in only several thousand years.[This assumes that all migrants marry natives and that all native-migrants offspring remain in the region.] It is obvious then that an ethnic or nationality can change in average gene frequencies or physiogamy by intermarriage,unless social rules exclude the products of a ''mixed unions from membership in the receiving group. More abstractly this means that geographically defined populations can undergo significant genetic change with a small percentage of steady assimilation of ''foreign'' genes. This is true even if natural selection does not favor the genes[and does not eliminate them].[2]This scenerio is different from one in which a different population replaces another via colonialization. Native Egyptians were variable. Foreigners added to this variability. ================================================ The genetic data on the recent Egyptian population is fairly sparse. There has not been systematic research on large samples from the numerous regions of Egypt. Taken collectively ,the result of various analyses suggests that modern Egyptians have ties with various African region, as well as Near Easteners and Europeans. Egyptian gene frequencies are between those of Europeans and some sub-Saharan Africans. This is not suprising . The studies have used various kinds of data : standard blood groups and proteins,mitochondrial DNA,and the Y-chromsome. The gene frequencies and variants of the ''original population, or one of early high density;cannot be deduced without a theorethical model based on archaeological and ''historical'' data ,including the aformentioned DNA from ancient skeletons.[It must be noted it is not yet clear how useful ancient Dna will be in most historical genetic research] It is not clear to what degree certain genetic systems usually interpreted as non-African may infact be native to Africa, Much depneds on how ''Africa'' is defined and the model of interpretation. ============================================== The various genetic studies usually suffer from what is called categorical thinking,specifically ,racial thinking . Many investigators still think ofg ''African'' in a streotyped,unscientific [nonevolutionary] fashion,not acknowleading a range of genetic variants or traits as equally African. The definition of ''African'' that would be most appropriate should encompass variants that arose in Africa. Given that this is not the orientation of many scholars,who work from outmoded racial perpectives,the presence of ''streotypical'' African groups so far from the ''African heartland is noteworthy. These genes have always been in the valley in any resonable interpretation of the data. As a team of Egyptian geneticist stated recently ,''Durring this long history and besides these Asiatic influences,Egypt maintained it's African identity......'''[Mahmoud et al,1987]. This statement is even more true in a wider evolutionary interpretation,since some of the ''Asian'' genees may be African in origin. Modern data and improved theoretical approaches extend and validate this conclusion. ================================================== In summary,various kinds of data and the evolutionary approach indicate that the Nile Valley populations had greater ties with other African populations in the early ancient period. Early Nile Valley populations were primarily coexensive with indgenous African populations. Linguistic and archaeological data provide key supporting evidence for a primarily African origin. --------======================================================================== [This message has been edited by ausar (edited 20 September 2004).] [This message has been edited by ausar (edited 20 September 2004).] IP: Logged |
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ausar Moderator Posts: 2405 |
posted 20 September 2004 11:00 PM
References Cited: Angel,J.L. and J.O. Kelley 1986 Description and comparison of the skeletons. In The Wadi Kubbaniya Skeleton: A late Palaeolithic Burial from Southern Egypt. F. Wendorf and R. Schild pp. 53-70 Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press Brauer,====================================================================================== ============================================================================ -------------------------------- G. and K. Rimbach Late archaic and modern Homo sapiens from Europe,Africa,and Southwest Asia. Cranimetric comparisons and phylogenetic implicatrions Journal of Human Evolution 19:789-807 ------------------------------------------------------ =================================================== Mahmoud,L., et. al 1987 Human blood groups in Dakhlaya , Egypt. Annals of Human Biology 14[6]:487-493 ========================================================== Paabo, S. ,and A. Di Rienzo 1993 A molecular approach to the study of Egyptian history. In Biological Anthropology and the Study of Ancient Egypt. V. Davies and R. Walker, eds. pp. 86-90. London British Museum Press===================================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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rasol Member Posts: 649 |
posted 21 September 2004 07:42 AM
quote: The tropical limb ratios issue is one that gets lost on some people. It is based on the idea that people who live in very hot climates tend to develope long limbs to decipate heat. This is a common trait of a variety of African and especially east African groups. It is very much unlike virtually every European and Middle Asian population. It is one of the reasons why it is unlikely that East African elongated peoples (from Somalia to Masai) were ever non tropical (caucasians) who "back" migrated into Africa. AE were tropical Africans who migrated to the North. Not members of some mythical medit. caucasian race who migrated south into Africa. Even people like Brace have inadvertently "admitted" that there is not enough time for a population to migrate out of Africa, adapt to cold climate (ie become white), migrate back to tropical Africa, re-adapt to tropical climate, and then migrate down the nile to a sub-tropical climate. Not to mention the complete lack of skeletal, genetic, anthropological or linguistic evidence of such a spectacular hypothesis. Finally: Brace actually needs East Africans to be "essentially" descendants of European Neanderthal man(!) and not of early East African homo sapiens. This in spite of the fact the early modern Africans in some ways resemble modern "east" Africans even more than they do Central and West Africans. Advocacy of back migration of caucasians who subsequently turn black are really grasping at straws at this point. [This message has been edited by rasol (edited 21 September 2004).] IP: Logged |
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Keino Member Posts: 289 |
posted 21 September 2004 09:52 PM
quote: Great post! IP: Logged |
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