1 - accepting of the early Greek notion of continents (hyperlink) where their Libya is just part of Asia or where the Nile is used to separate Libya and Asia which eventually developed into the current idea that the Isthmus of Suez separates Africa and Asia;
2- or else you're accepting a supercontinent Eurafrasia but no such continents as Africa, Europe, and Asia;
3- or deconstructing the concept of continents?
quote:Originally posted by Swenet: This of course, directly proves my point, which was also made by Melchior in his last reply, but which got slept on. Land is continuous, not discrete, and attempts to align land into groupings reflects human made divisions based on (natural) geographically recognizable markings, not objective reality. Objective reality is that we have a few blobs of elevated earth surface, here and there, with the rest being covered up by the sea. Can you, in light of the above justify with reason that Sinai belongs to either Asia or Africa?
quote:Originally posted by rh101:
quote:Originally posted by melchior7: On a similar note, what I find interesting is that some seem to expect the Egyptian border with Palestine to be some kind of magical demarcation as well. For while they will concede that Palestinians were likely Middle Eastern in appearance, once you crossed the border into Egypt everybody is suddenly Black. Why you ask? Because it's AFRICA! I'm glad to find critical thinkers like your self that understand a bit about geography and how demograpics change gradually over distance.
A point I was about to make. When you look at the map, and how close the highly populous Nile Delta is to Palestine, this 'African' designation seems very arbitrary. Also people forget that the Sinai Peninsula is an integral part of Egypt and it is not in Africa at all!
The edge of the Delt literally touches Asia! This geography reveals how questionable it is to try to oriente Egypt towards interior Africa rather than Middle East.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
^Continental drift deflates that entire premise. If lands were continuous they wouldn't be drifting apart. Not very hard to understand, really. This is taught in grade school. Some people I guess just like arguing for the sake of doing so.
Posts: 4021 | From: Bay Area, CA | Registered: Mar 2007
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That water drips deflates the premise that it is continuous. If a body of water was really continuous, it wouldn't be seperate into drops of fluid when it leaks.
Watch Sundiata and pack up again after it gets too hot under his feet:
quote:Now, half a chair is not also a chair; half a tree is not also a tree; and half an atom is surely not also an atom. A chair, a tree, and an atom are examples of a discrete unit. A discrete unit is indivisible, in the sense that if it is divided, then what results will not be that unit, that thing, any more -- half a person is not also a person
We count things that are discrete. One person, two, three, four, and so on. What is more, a collection of discrete units will have only certain parts (Lesson 1). Ten people can be divided only in half, fifths, and tenths. You cannot take a third of them.
But consider the distance between A and B. That distance is not made up of discrete units. There is nothing to count. It is not a number of anything. We say instead that it is a continuous whole. That means that as we go from A to B, the line "continues" without a break.
When this is applied to land, my point becomes all the more obvious. No sane person would say that a given area of land on earth becomes something other than an area of land when a good 1/3 is taken away from it.
Posts: 8785 | From: Discovery Channel's Mythbusters | Registered: Dec 2009
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1 - accepting of the early Greek notion of continents (hyperlink) where their Libya is just part of Asia or where the Nile is used to separate Libya and Asia which eventually developed into the current idea that the Isthmus of Suez separates Africa and Asia;
2- or else you're accepting a supercontinent Eurafrasia but no such continents as Africa, Europe, and Asia;
3- or deconstructing the concept of continents?
Well, at least someone gets where I'm going with this. Not sure if you agree with what I've said, but at least you acknowledge that different groupings exist, according to the use of different arguments.
Posts: 8785 | From: Discovery Channel's Mythbusters | Registered: Dec 2009
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In light of RH101 and Melchior7 who do not allign Egypt with the landmass west of the Isthmus of Suez, my opening post is a question requiring an as of yet reserved answer re the subject header.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Swenet: Sundiata logic:
That water drips deflates the premise that it is continuous. If a body of water was really continuous, it wouldn't be seperate into drops of fluid when it leaks.
This kind of logic/analogy is unworthy of my association. You can do better than that. Try arguing that connected puzzle pieces are "continuous" and try again. We see that your vocabulary, and therefore grasp of basic rudimentary concepts, is shaky as it is ("Continuous", "Indirect estimates", etc..) but hopefully If I stoop to your level we can communicate ideas.
quote:Watch Sundiata and pack up again after it gets too hot under his feet:
Ha! Yea, like how you "packed up" and avoided your responsibilities here? And if you call incoherent face-saving babble "heat", then you must live on another planet (let alone "continent"... which according to your incompetence, doesn't exist, lol). You are no opponent of mine, you just seem to have more estrogen than I do.
quote:Well, at least someone gets where I'm going with this. Not sure if you agree with what I've said, but at least you acknowledge that different groupings exist, according to the use of different arguments.
^Typical delusions of a double talking, face-saving dilettante, just answer the questions! LOL...
Posts: 4021 | From: Bay Area, CA | Registered: Mar 2007
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quote:Originally posted by alTakruri: In light of RH101 and Melchior7 who do not allign Egypt with the landmass west of the Isthmus of Suez, my opening post is a question requiring an as of yet reserved answer re the subject header.
What you need to consider is that it makes no difference whether one considers the Sinai part of Africa, that does not affect the demographics at all. The initial point as demonstrated in the satelite picture, is that Sinai joins Egypt with the Levant, there is no barrrier, that is the reality.
Posts: 682 | From: East Coast | Registered: May 2011
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Consider this amongst your needs, cease erecting strawmen.
As posted elsewhere the Mushabeans migrated to the Levant obviously via Sinai. They were the African and dominant element of the Natufian people and culture, a bright light in the Levant and forerunner to the neolithic elements spread into Anatolia and Balkans.
I have neither said nor asked anything about any barriers. What you write has nothing to do with the thread's subject header nor its opening post.
If you can't make an on topic contribution I'd prefer your silence rather than your pollution. We are not going to go around in circles chasing your weasel around the mulberrybush as you'd like to distract us into doing. Further off topic remarks from you will simply be ignored without reply.
Now back to our topic, continents, their supposed reality, and that effect on views of Africa, Sinai, and the Levant as one or separate in geology vs geography. Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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