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Last Updated: Tuesday, 27 December 2005, 06:32 GMT E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Ancient Egypt 'respected dwarfs' [The Egyptian dwarf god Bes]
The ancient Egyptians respected dwarfs, and did not see them as having a physical handicap, according to a study by US researchers.
A team from Georgetown University Hospital looked at biological remains and artistic evidence of dwarfism in ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egyptians worshipped dwarf gods, and many dwarfs held positions of authority in households.
The research was published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.
Wisdom writings and moral teachings in ancient Egypt commanded respect for dwarfs and other individuals with disabilities Dr Chahira Kozma, Georgetown University
In modern times, doctors have identified over 100 medical conditions that cause short stature.
The most common cause is achondroplasia which causes severe shortening of the limbs. It affects one in 25,000 births per year.
Around 75% of individuals with a restricted growth condition are born to parents of average size.
Lavish burials
The US researchers looked at ancient Egypt because the hot, dry climate and elaborate burial systems practised then have meant many human remains are still intact, including complete and partial skeletons.
They looked at dwarfs who achieved "elite" status in society, and ordinary dwarfs.
The researchers found that the earliest biological evidence of dwarfs dates back to a Predynastic Period called the "Badarian Period" (4500 BC) in addition to several skeletons from the Old Kingdom (2700 - 2190 BC).
They found numerous images of dwarfism on tomb walls and on vase paintings, statues and other art forms.
Dwarfs were depicted in at least 50 tombs, and the repetition of certain pictures shows that they were well integrated into society, the researchers said.
The pictures showed dwarfs were employed as personal attendants, overseers of linen, people who looked after animals, jewellers, dancers and entertainers.
Several were members of households of high officials and were esteemed enough to receive lavish burial sites in the royal cemetery close to the pyramids.
There were also two dwarf gods in ancient Egypt; Bes and Ptah.
Bes was a protector of sexuality, childbirth, women and children. His temple was recently excavated in the Baharia oasis in the middle of Egypt.
Ptah was associated with regeneration and rejuvenation.
"The burial sites and artistic sources provide glimpses of the positions in daily life in ancient Egypt," wrote Dr Chahira Kozma, of the department of paediatrics at Georgetown University.
"Dwarfs were accepted in ancient Egypt; their recorded daily activities suggest assimilation into daily life, and their disorder was never shown as a physical handicap."
He added: "Wisdom writings and moral teachings in ancient Egypt commanded respect for dwarfs and other individuals with disabilities."
There is a lot of evidence that in the earliest periods of Egypt's history, that a lot of people we are now calling dwarves were actually another group called the Twa. The Twa were not dwarves in the sense of being deformed, but rather a whole group of people who were very much prominent in all parts of the ancient world. Zahi Hawass himself said he excavated many small buildings around the pyramids designed for small people, at least that is what I hear. Also, I have also heard that there were other findings throughout the world of large populations of small black people thoughout the world in ancient times.
Does anyone else know about this?
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Dwarfs in ancient Egypt appear to have suffered little due to prejudice. This was the most serious congenital abnormality recorded in ancient Egypt. Well known Egyptologists Kent Weeks has recorded nine skeletons of this type, and Dasen lists 207 known representations of dwarfism.
The disease, known as achondroplasia, was probably caused by inbreeding, and thus might very well have occurred in royal families. This disease results in a head and trunk of normal size with shortened limbs. Examples have been found even dating back to Egypt's predynastic period. We know of a number of examples where dwarfs were well integrated into society, holding important positions and marrying woman of normal stature.
This is not to say that the condition was not recognized by the Egyptians, but tolerance was taught. In the Instruction of Amenemope at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, a call for justice and forbearance is provided:
Mock not the blind nor deride the dwarf nor block the cripple's path; don't tease a man made ill by a god nor make outcry when he blunders.
We find dwafs in the form of gods, such as Bes. While the Egyptian reasoning for dwarf gods such as Bes is unclear, some have suggested that the belief sprang from an association with dwarfs as familiar protective beings. It is likely that dwarfs benefited socially from their resemblance to these gods.
We find examples of dwarfs in skilled positions such as jewelry craftsman as depicted in the Old Kingdom tomb of Mereruka at Saqqara, and in other wall paintings they are shown tending animals, undertaking agricultural work and occasionally as entertainers for high officials. At other times they are shown as serving important households sometimes as entertainers and in other capacities.
One example of a very important dwarf was Seneb, a 4th or early 5th Dynasty dwarf. He was overseer of the palace dwarfs, chief of the royal wardrobe and priest of the funerary cults of Khufu. A fine statue depicts him with his family, including his wife who was of normal stature, and two children. His wife was known to have been a lady of the court and a priestess...
Add the Egyptians' belief of protective dwarf gods with their belief that lands to their deep south was a "Land of Gods" and you can see why the Egyptians considered Pygmies special!
Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Ancient Egypt 'respected dwarfs' [The Egyptian dwarf god Bes]
The ancient Egyptians respected dwarfs, and did not see them as having a physical handicap,...
Ancient Egyptians worshipped dwarf gods, and many dwarfs held positions of authority in households...
...though emphasis here is on people with some sort of disorder, it brings to mind the great respect afforded to another group of "small-size" people, whose size has nothing to do with any sort of biological disorder but is natural...the Pygmies!
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quote:Originally posted by Perfect Egyptian: This statue must be a fake, because the colors are symbolic and how could they allow a reddish brown dwarf to marry a white woman?
..She sure must be absolutely pigment-less, whiter than most white folks! Posts: 5964 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I have been searching for European pygmies that have been saving the Arabicized and European Egyptians and to this day I still can't find any, so all I can say is the only place where I can find the children of Bes and Ptah protecting and rejuvenating Afrocentric Kemetic descendants is right there in Afrikah.
Cultural History
There is considerable debate over the prehistory of African Pygmies. Ethnohistoric (Schebesta 1933; Turnbull 1983), linguistic (Bahuchet 1985 ,1987), and genetic (Cavalli-Sforza 1986) data suggest a long history of independent occupation of the forest by Pygmies until the Bantu expansion about 2000 years ago (David 1980; Phillipson 1980). Recent detailed ecological studies (Hart and Hart 1986; Bailey et al. 1989), question this interpretation and instead hypothesize that the Pygmies (or any other forest foraging population) could not have subsisted in the interior regions of the forest without entering into a symbiotic relationship with farmers to obtain carbohydrates. These researchers suggest the forest does not yeild enough carbohydrates (specifically, wild yams) for prople there to live independently. They hypothesize that Pygmies originally lived on the margins of the forest exploiting both forest and savannah habitats and did not move into the forest until forest farmers moved in with them. Archaeological evidence for their hypothesis does not exist as archaeological data are extremely limited in the African tropical forest. In the CAR numerous surface collections along forest rivers have produced artifacts of great antiquity (e.g., Acheulean hand axes) (Bayle des Hermes 1973), but no stratified archaeological sites have been excavated in the forest interior (van Noten 1982).
The ethnohistoric accounts of Pygmies go back thousands of years. Pharaoh Phiops II of the 6th Dynasty (about 2300 B.C.) mentions a Pygmy dancer brought back from an expedition to the forest, while Homer, Herodotus, and Aristotle are but a few others to mention Pygmies or small African people, often called Aka (see Tyson in Windle 1894 for early citations of Pygmies). Although these early reports are very vague concerning the location of the Pygmies, they are cited (Schebesta 1933; Turnbull 1983) as evidence to support the contention that Pygmies lived in the forest before the Bantu expansion. Little is mentioned of Pygmies between the fourth century and 1850. Most references during this period refer only to their mythical existence. George Schweinfurth in 1870, was the first European to rediscover the Pygmies, and shortly thereafter Miani (Giglioli 1880) and Stanley (1891) confirmed the existence of forest Pygmies, Miani being influential in getting two Pygmies back to Italy.
The colonial period was a time of dramatic change for the Aka. The European and American demand for slaves, ivory, wild rubber, and duiker skins effected their forest life. To flee Dutch slave traders in the 1700s the Ngandu farmers, the horticulturalists with whom the Aka of Bokoka live in association with today , moved northward from the Imfondo area of Congo-Brazzaville and settled on the southern banks of the Lobaye. This movement of peoples must have increased the population density of the region and the number of farmers desiring the meat and services of the Aka. Resulting changes in Aka social organization are difficult if not impossible to reconstruct for this early period. At the end of the Nineteenth century ivory became the major export from the region, and the Aka were the principal producers. Villagers were responsible for providing the ivory to colonial traders but it was usually the Aka, armed with spears and sometimes guns, who killed the elephants to acquire the ivory. This development increased the frequency and type of exchange between farmers and Aka, depleted the elephant population, and promoted the tuma (great hunter) to greater social status. After 1908, the number of guns increased and the number of elephants decreased, and the European concessions in the region became interested in rubber. During a period of wild rubber exploitation (1910 to 1940), European agents employed "forced labor" regulations to get male farmers to go into the forest and drain trees of rubber. While the Aka were never employed to collect rubber, the farmers' demands on them for meat increased because male farmers could not do any of their own hunting. I have collected a number of accounts from this period in which villagers fled the forced labor situation to live in remote areas of the forest with Aka. The farmer's family would make a garden in a remote forest area where Aka hunted and gathered. By 1925 a market for duiker skins developed in France to make coats and chamois leather. The market peaked in the 1950s when 27,000 duiker skins per year were being exported from some forest areas (Dongier 1953). This encouraged Aka to use nets more often than the traditional spear hunting. Today, Aka and farmers in the CAR say that net hunting was traditionally a villager hunting technique, and that spear hunting was the primary hunting technique of the Aka. But a greater demand for meat by villagers during the forced labor period and the European market for duiker skins prompted the Aka to adopt net hunting. The decision to net hunt affected Aka social organization: The social status of tuma decreased while that of the nganga (traditional healer who also directs hunting rituals and practices divination on the net hunt) increased, and the sharing of meat became less egalitarian (duiker meat is not divided among all members of the camp as is elephant or red hog meat). In the 1930s the French attempted a "taming policy" to integrate the Aka into the colonial system by encouraging them to move onto the roads and begin farming, but few Aka complied, and the policy’s influence seems limited to a few areas in Congo-Brazza (Bahuchet and Guillaume 1982; Bahuchet 1985).
Today the Aka continue to be affected by the world economy. In Bokoka, for instance, the Aka move into the village for part of the dry season, at the expense of missing the best net hunting of the year, to help the farmers with their coffee plantations. The coffee, destined for the European market, is the primary means by which villagers acquire money. Some Aka help villagers hunt elephant for ivory, while other Aka work for lumber companies in the region.
The history of the area has also contributed to linguistic diversity. Their are approximately fifteen ethnic groups who speak fifteen languages and live in association with the approximately 30,000 Aka in the CAR (Central African Republic) and The Peoples Republic of the Congo. The Aka language is a distinct Bantu language and classified into the C-10 Bantu language group, belonging to the Benue-Congo group of the Niger Congo, subdivision of the Congo-Kordofanian phylum (Greenberg 1963). Unlike the Mbuti Pygmies in the Ituri who speak the same language as their village neighbors (Turnbull 1965b), the Aka speak their own language (diaka), as well as the language of their neighbors.
\ Now this is quite interesting because if anyone had any doubt if Kemets were Afrikahn well let them see for themselves because when the Ancient Kemets developed a principle of honoring Bes we can see that they were smart because if the Kemetic Afrikahn of today didn't practice that tradition then they would not have been PROTECTED by the pygmies or Bes's Children when the European kidnappers were looking for Ngandu farmers to put in bondage, we can see that the Ngandu farmers were and are still protected today by Bes's Children.
Name one other European or Arabicized group or culture that today and historically has worked along side,respected and honored so called dwarfs as we have seen in Afikah.
TRUTH IS RIGHT INFRONT OF YOUR EYES AS LONG AS YOU CAN SEE THE OBVIOUS,AND NOT BLINDED BY LIES.
posted
Source: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Date: 2005-12-27
Dwarfs Commanded Respect In Ancient Egypt
An article published in the January 2006 issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics examines the remains and depiction of dwarfs in ancient Egypt, concluding that they were assimilated into daily life and their disorder was not seen as a physical handicap. The journal is available online via Wiley InterScience at http://www.interscience.wiley.com/.journal/.ajmg.
The ancient Egyptians left an immense legacy about their culture and daily life through inscriptions and representations on tomb and temple walls, documents on papyrus, and funerary objects. In addition, the hot dry climate and elaborate burial systems have left intact many human remains, including complete and partial skeletons. As a result, Egypt is a major source of information about how achondroplasia (the bone disorder that causes the most common type of dwarfism) was perceived in ancient times.
Written by Chahira Kozma, M.D., of the department of pediatrics at Georgetown University Hospital, the paper examines biological remains and artistic evidence of dwarfism in ancient Egypt, including both elite dwarfs who achieved important status, and ordinary dwarfs. The earliest biological evidence of dwarfs in ancient Egypt dates to a Predynastic Period called the "Badarian Period" (4500 BCE) in addition to several skeletons from the Old Kingdom (2700 - 2190 BCE). Pictorial sources of dwarfism in tomb and vase paintings, statues and other art forms are numerous and indicate that dwarfs were employed as personal attendants, overseers of linen, animal tenders, jewelers, dancers and entertainers.
Several dwarfs were members of households of high officials and were esteemed enough to receive lavish burial sites in the royal cemetery close to the pyramids. There were also several dwarf gods in ancient Egypt; the best known ones were involved in magical practices to protect the living and the dead. In addition, ordinary dwarfs are depicted in at least 50 tombs and the repetition of certain pictures shows that they were well integrated into various aspects of society, specializing in certain occupations.
The depiction of dwarfs as shown in records available from ancient Egypt, the numerous figurines and amulets that were formed in their shape, as well as text from papyri invoking their magical powers leads the author to conclude that "the image of short people in ancient Egypt is essentially positive." "Dwarfs were likely accepted in ancient Egypt and were given a visible role in the society," the author concludes. "Furthermore their daily activities suggest integration in daily life and that their disorder was not shown as a physical handicap."
###
Article: "Dwarfs in Ancient Egypt," Chahira Kozma, American Journal of Medical Genetics; Published Online: December 27, 2005.
This story has been adapted from a news release issued by John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
posted
We have here a very interesting and somewhat "sanitised" account of "dwarfs" in Egypt, but I would like to refer specifically to Pygmies. Pygmies - that is to say little people who appear to have come originally from the enigmatic land of Punt in ancient times appear to have been captured by the Egyptians and brought back to Egypt. Apparently, the Egyptians endeared themselves to pygmies, although I wonder if the Pymies endeared themselves to the Egyptians in quite the same way.
After all, it could not have been very nice for them living one minute swinging about in trees in the altogether with their spears and poison arrows searching out victims from other cannibal tribes, and then finding themselves prisoners of the Egyptians.
As a particularly fierce tribe, they posed a dangerous business for their proposed captors, and with their filed down and sharpened teeth they were not taken easily from their families and loved ones. However, once ensnared in nets or other suitable methods used in the capture of live wild animals, these little people were hauled off back to Egypt and kept in cages until they were relatively tamed. Once they could be trust not to bite people, they would have been let out of their cages for possible walks in the palace grounds, led on leashes of course where they would be toilet trained. It simply would not do to have these tamed savages urinating and daefecating all over the palace, and one they had been suitably "domesticated" some of them might be presented to the court as a source of amusement.
Initially, amusement for the court consisted of a bunch of them swinging about on ropes, some were taught to juggle balls, and others would be taught to do acrobatics and dancing. The dancers would be dressed in pink skirts with a large bussel on the behind to which a long tail would be attached on the end of a short stick. A group of them would be presented to the Royal Court with their backs to the audience, and to the dolcet tone of the drums would begin to swing their behinds in order to make the tail swing and eventually make a full circle. In this way they would form a circle and eventually file out to the thunderous applause of the audience.
So popular were these pygmies to the Ancient Egyptian court that they soon became a prized possession. When one looks at the archeological record it is found that many ancient Egyptians were very short in stature and doorways on some of the mud hovels in which they lived were barely four feet in height. It could be that there might have been some kind of breeding process taking place where these pygmies were bred with Egyptian women for the purpose of producing little people with larger brains. This could be termed "Pygmyisation" of the Egyptian race, and some of the genetic experts here might be able to follow up this lead. Of course, one a suitable quantity of these educated or civilised pygmies had been produced, they offered a very good opportunity for the Egyptians to trade in them and send them to friendly Nations affiliated to Egypt where they were highly prized as pets on an international level.
Of course, it is a long time now since the Egyptians tamed and domesticated these jungle savages, and these people today can be found to be well educated, they wear proper clothing, most of them attend school. Some of them even get to university and sit behind computors. Unfortunately, they do tend to deny their origins and try to convince others that they have always been that way. Alas this is not so, one only has to go back two hundred years to find that the vast majority of them were still living in the jungles of Africa and living in dwellings made of leaves and twigs. Posts: 304 | From: egypt | Registered: Dec 2005
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^^ Disregarding the ignorance posted above, all the intelligent people let's get back to reality and deal with the FACTS.
The Pygmies are among the most peaceful group of people in the world and are not warlike at all but very friendly and hospitable.
LOL They are hunter-gatherers that hunt and eat animals not people and gather wild fruits and vegetables. They don't swing around the trees like monkeys but use bows and arrows to kill their prey which usually are animals like monkeys. And those groups that did practice teeth filing, did so again for cosmetic purposes and not for tearing flesh.
Despite what our foolish transvestite troll thinks, the Egyptians did not view the Pygmies of Punt as being 'pets' or playthings. The Egyptians considered Pygmies to be sacred people who dwelled in the Land of Horizons where the gods would visit the earth. According to the Egyptians, the Pygmies would perform the "dance of the gods". Such performances were viewed by the Egyptians as not only entertainment but also a very sacred and religious experience.
The Pygmies were not put in cages or tied to leashes like animals but were treated with respect and reverance by the Egyptians. The Pharaoh Pepi even ordered armed gaurds to protect them on their way back to Egypt.
LMAO And of course, there was no need to "domesticate" or house-train them, since they were not animals and surely had the sense to not "urinate and defecate" around the palace like unhouse-broken dogs!!
It seems Doubtfire still retains the views of her British ancestors and other European peoples during imperial times. It was the British and other Europeans who treated peoples like the Pygmies like animals and displayed them in shows and circuses as part of their exhibition of racial species!
From Library Journal In 1904, white missionary Samuel Phillips Verner (grandfather of the author) brought eight Congolese pygmies, including Ota Benga, out of Kasailand in Africa in order to exhibit them for the anthropology department at the St. Louis World's Fair. Then in 1906, Ota was placed on display with an orangutan in a primate house cage at the Bronx Zoo. Although this pairing was a very successful publicity stunt, black fundamentalist clergymen objected to both the ludicrous treatment of this pygmy and his evolutionary association with a great ape. Ten years later, Ota committed suicide in Lynchburg, Virginia. This fascinating book is a tragic glimpse at financial greed, human exploitation, religious arrogance, scientific abuse (e.g., social Darwinism), and, especially, unfounded racism. It includes an appendix of relevant letters and newspaper articles. Recommended for historical, social science, and general collections. For a more anthropological study of the pygmies, see also Colin Turnbull's The Forest People ( LJ 12/1/61). - H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, N.Y. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Every time Mrs. Doubtfire posts something about the alleged savagery of Africans, can we post something about the habits of European barbarians?
quote:Originally posted by Underpants Man: Every time Mrs. Doubtfire posts something about the alleged savagery of Africans, can we post something about the habits of European barbarians?
From Library Journal In 1904, white missionary Samuel Phillips Verner (grandfather of the author) brought eight Congolese pygmies, including Ota Benga, out of Kasailand in Africa in order to exhibit them for the anthropology department at the St. Louis World's Fair. Then in 1906, Ota was placed on display with an orangutan in a primate house cage at the Bronx Zoo. Although this pairing was a very successful publicity stunt, black fundamentalist clergymen objected to both the ludicrous treatment of this pygmy and his evolutionary association with a great ape. Ten years later, Ota committed suicide in Lynchburg, Virginia. This fascinating book is a tragic glimpse at financial greed, human exploitation, religious arrogance, scientific abuse (e.g., social Darwinism), and, especially, unfounded racism. It includes an appendix of relevant letters and newspaper articles. Recommended for historical, social science, and general collections. For a more anthropological study of the pygmies, see also Colin Turnbull's The Forest People ( LJ 12/1/61). - H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, N.Y. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Mind you, these horrible, barbaric, and down right ridiculous acts were committed by Europeans during the 1800s. Not just African Pygmies, but other groups in Africa, Asia, and Native Americas were taken as "racial" specimens and displayed like animals in zoos. Even Filipinos both ethnic and Negritos were treated the same way and I will try to find pictures of these.
Some of you may have heard of the "Hottentot Venus," a Khoin-Khoin woman from the Cape of South Africa that was taken by Dutch Boers and transported all over Europe to be exhibited. Many Europeans marveled at her steatopygous body and was the subject of much racist anthropological works!
The racism of Western Europeans back then was so bad, it's enough to make you defecate! Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Now I ask you, do you really expect us all to believe that Pymies living in houses made of twigs and leaves five thousand years ago were "toilet trained". Goodness me, dears, Thomas Crapper didnt invent the flush toilet until late Victorian Times, and Queen Victoria was the first to get one. Some time later, we, that is to say the British, introduced them to Egypt, and nowadays there are an abundance of them in all the best houses in Egypt.
It is ludicrous in the extreme to imagine a bunch of pymies sitting there five thousand years ago as if they were residents of a posh suburb of Cairo, a picture which perhaps some try to conjur up in the mind. In actual fact, I am wondering what the Egyptians did for toilets, as many of them today just have holes in the floor, and we are talking of 5OOO years of civilisation in between! Can anyone explain what Egyptians did with human waste 5OOO years ago, and why there has not been much in the way of advancement ever since? (except by the British invention of the Crapper toilet) Posts: 304 | From: egypt | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Mrs. Doubtfire: Now I ask you, do you really expect us all to believe that Pymies living in houses made of twigs and leaves five thousand years ago were "toilet trained". Goodness me, dears, Thomas Crapper didnt invent the flush toilet until late Victorian Times, and Queen Victoria was the first to get one. Some time later, we, that is to say the British, introduced them to Egypt, and nowadays there are an abundance of them in all the best houses in Egypt.
Non squitor. Of course Pygmies didn't have toilets, but that doesn't mean they didn't know any better than to urinate and defecate in living quarters.
quote:It is ludicrous in the extreme to imagine a bunch of pymies sitting there five thousand years ago as if they were residents of a posh suburb of Cairo, a picture which perhaps some try to conjur up in the mind. In actual fact, I am wondering what the Egyptians did for toilets, as many of them today just have holes in the floor, and we are talking of 5OOO years of civilisation in between! Can anyone explain what Egyptians did with human waste 5OOO years ago, and why there has not been much in the way of advancement ever since? (except by the British invention of the Crapper toilet)
Is it me, or does it seem like Ma'm Doubtfire is distracting from the FACTS presented. Instead of worrying about toilets he/she should worry about real FACTS and true up-to-date info instead of old articles by Budge and explorers from the 1800s, such nonsense that he/she spews is what needs to be flushed in the crapper, deary. Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
all that seems to come out of this is the fact that there are two kinds of "little people" those that are ethnic native pygmies, usually found naked, and there are dwarfs who seem to be victims of some kind of medical disease. Now, the 'dwarfs' could be native Egyptians, whereas the pygmies were captured slaves taken from their homes and families by the Egyptians for their amusement.
It is rather surprising that nobody seems to know whether or not the Egyptians had a civilised form of waste disposal 5OOO years ago, or indeed how they would compare with today.
Posts: 304 | From: egypt | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:all that seems to come out of this is the fact that there are two kinds of "little people" those that are ethnic native pygmies, usually found naked, and there are dwarfs who seem to be victims of some kind of medical disease. Now, the 'dwarfs' could be native Egyptians, whereas the pygmies were captured slaves taken from their homes and families by the Egyptians for their amusement.
I suggest you stop looking at ancient Egypt through the lenses of European societies. Ancient Egyptians did not capture pgmyies nor enslave them for the amusement. If you read the letter of Pepi II to Harkhuf he wanted a pgmy to preform the dance of the gods. Even such traditions like dance and music in ancient Egyptian society was connected with spirtuality and not simple amusement in the modern sense.
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Mrs. Doubtfire: all that seems to come out of this is the fact that there are two kinds of "little people" those that are ethnic native pygmies, usually found naked,...
Actually the Pygmies did wear some form of clothing, traditionally, sown leaves or animal skins.
quote:...and there are dwarfs who seem to be victims of some kind of medical disease...
The medical case of dwarfism is not a "disease" but a disorder, and many of these people you described would disagree that they are somehow "victims".
quote:...Now, the 'dwarfs' could be native Egyptians, whereas the pygmies were captured slaves taken from their homes and families by the Egyptians for their amusement.
Again, Pygmies were never "captured" or "enslaved" they were brought to Egypt as honored guests and were believed to be sacred people. The dances they performed were just as much for religious purposes than just entertainment.
quote:It is rather surprising that nobody seems to know whether or not the Egyptians had a civilised form of waste disposal 5OOO years ago, or indeed how they would compare with today.
It is surprising the kind of waste that ingnorants like Mrs. Doubtfire spew everyday here on Egyptsearch. Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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