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Ancient Egyptian Ideology; Redux
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Wally: [QB] [QUOTE] Wally wrote: All of the things we see and experience today, of which we refer to as 'modern' civilization had their origins in the ancient Nile Valley, and were ultimately refined in Kemet. Much of what we think is new is not, and not always improved...[/QUOTE]...to which we get this response... [QUOTE]Originally posted by Mystery Solver: Re: Heading of the topic. It boils down to what you mean by 'civilization'. Certainly, African 'civilization' doesn't start with the ancient Nile Valley complexes known as predynastic Egypt and dynastic Egypt. I thought you were a proponent of evolution of culture as 'processes' as opposed to being treated as single events; whatever happened to that? [/QUOTE]There is NOTHING in what I originally wrote that doesn't imply the process of achieving civilization; our current documentations give evidence that this process of evolution attained its zenith in the ancient Nile Valley; the components of this civilization did not exclusively include Ancient Egypt; the process of achieving civilization began with the first human societies, which just happened to exist in Africa... [b]Then we get the rote, knee-jerk responses to the use of the term race:[/b] [QUOTE]Originally posted by Nice Vidadavida *sigh*: [QUOTE]Anthropology-Ethnology (identifying and labeling racial groups) [/QUOTE]^^*snickering* [/QUOTE]...and... [QUOTE]Originally posted by rasol: [QUOTE]Anthropology-Ethnology [identifying racial groups] [/QUOTE]dissembling - [i]to give a false or misleading appearance; conceal the truth, while not 'outright' lying.[/i] [/QUOTE]...and... [QUOTE]Originally posted by Djehuti: :o Indeed so! Wally's gives a very excellent list of innovations by the ancient Kemetians, but then he had to ruin in with his own distortion of ethnology due to his own [i]dogma[/i] when it comes to 'race'! :( By the way, the [i]true[/i] definition of ethnology is the study or analysis of different groups of people and their cultures and the relation and interactions between them. [/QUOTE]All of this is truly sad, because it reflects a dogmatic approach to scholarship: "there is no such thing as race (biologically as defined by Europeans) so anything previously describing it is therefore null and void." [b]Ancient Egypt was the first society to classify humans into different races and were not confused by euphemisms such as 'ethnic', 'phenotype', and the other rubbish that passes itself off as "new science"...[/b] [b]First physical evidence of this Kemetou ideology[/b] This we have from Champollion the Younger (and I will occasionally add high-lighted text to illustrate the particular observations that he made): "{p. 46} Let us start with the oldest of these theses, that of Champollion the Younger, set forth in the thirteenth letter to his brother. It concerns bas-reliefs on the tomb of Sesostris I, also visited by Rienzi. These date back to the sixteenth century B.C. (Eighteenth Dynasty) and represent the races of man known to the Egyptians. This monument is the oldest complete ethnological document available. Here is what Champollion says about it:" [QUOTE] Right in the valley of Biban-el-Moluk, we admired, like all previous visitors, the astonishing freshness of the paintings and the fine sculptures on several tombs. I had a copy made of the peoples represented on the bas-reliefs. At first I had thought, from copies of these bas-reliefs published in England, that these peoples of different races led by the god Horus holding his shepherd's staff, were indeed nations subject to the rule of the Pharaohs. A study of the legends informed me that this tableau has a more general meaning. It portrays the third hour of the day, when the sun is beginning to turn on its burning rays, warming all the inhabited countries of our hemisphere. According to the legend itself, they wished to represent the inhabitants of Egypt and those of foreign lands. Thus we have before our eyes the image of the various races of man known to the Egyptians and we learn at the same time the great geographical or ethnographical divisions established during that early epoch. Men led by Horus, the shepherd of the peoples, belong to four distinct families. The first, the one closest to the god, has a dark red color, a well-proportioned body, kind face, nose slightly aquiline, long braided hair, and is dressed in white. The legends designate this species as Rot-en-ne-Rome, the race of men par excellence i.e., the Egyptians. There can be no uncertainty about the racial identity of the man who comes next: he belongs to the Black race, designated under the general term Nahasi. The third presents a very different aspect; his skin color borders on yellow or tan; he has a strongly aquiline nose, thick, black pointed beard, and wears a short garment of varied colors; these are called Namou. Finally, the last one is what we call flesh-colored, a white skin of the most delicate shade, a nose straight or slightly arched, blue eyes, blond or reddish beard, tall stature and very slender clad in a {p. 47} hairy ox-skin, a veritable savage tattooed on various parts of his body; he is called Tamhou. I hastened to seek the tableau corresponding to this one in the other royal tombs and, as a matter of fact, I found it in several. The variations I observed fully convinced me that they had tried to represent here the inhabitants of the four corners of the earth, according to the Egyptian system, namely: 1. the inhabitants of Egypt which, by itself, formed one part of the world ...; 2. the inhabitants of Africa proper: Blacks; 3. Asians; 4. finally (and I am ashamed to say so, since our race is the last and the most savage in the series), Europeans who, in those remote epochs, frankly did not cut too fine a figure in the world. In this category we must include all blonds and white-skinned people living not only in Europe, but Asia as well, their starting point. This manner of viewing the tableau is all the more accurate because, on the other tombs, the same generic names reappear, always in the same order. [b]We find there Egyptians and Africans represented in the same way, which could not be otherwise;[/b] but the Namou (the Asians) and the Tamhou (Europeans) present significant and curious variants. Instead of the Arab or the Jew, dressed simply and represented on one tomb, Asia's representatives on other tombs (those of Ramses II, etc.) are three individuals, tanned complexion, aquiline nose, black eyes, and thick beard, but clad in rare splendor. In one, they are evidently Assyrians, their costume, down to the smallest detail, is identical with that of personages engraved on Assyrian cylinders. In the other, are Medes or early inhabitants of some part of Persia. Their physiognomy and dress resemble, feature for feature, those found on monuments called Persepolitan. Thus, Asia was represented indiscriminately by any one of the peoples who inhabited it. The same is true of our good old ancestors, the Tamhou. Their attire is sometimes different; their heads are more or less hairy and adorned with various ornaments; their savage dress varies somewhat in form, but their white complexion, their eyes and beard all preserve the character of a race apart. I had this strange ethnographical series copied and colored. I certainly did not expect, on arriving at Biban-el-Moluk, to find sculptures that could serve as vignettes for the history of the primitive Europeans, if ever one has the courage to attempt it. Nevertheless, there is something flattering and consoling in seeing them, since they make us appreciate the progress we have subsequently achieved. [/QUOTE]Champollion-Figeac, Egypte ancienne. Paris: Collection l'Univers, 1839, pp. 30-31. ... [b]...a proper study of the actual ideology of the Kemetou would make it pointless to engage in a discussion (a long and subjective one) as to "The Race of the Ancient Egyptians." They can , subjectively, be any Race you choose them to be, unless of course, you ask them! the information is ALL there...[/b] ;) ... [/QB][/QUOTE]
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