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Cultural similarities between ancient Kmt and other areas in Africa
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by alTakruri: [QB] Well, I don't approach the study of Africa from a penis envy level where everything is measured up to Europe's yardstick. But all punning aside, neither architecture in stone nor majestic heads of state are necessary for benchmarking Africa's societies or "states". This is to say that as far as I can see, monumental stone cutting for public commemoration on the level of KM.t hardly exist outside of a few metro urban centers on any continent. And yes, in general and for many reasons, Africa outside of the Nile Valley and later in time than KM.t didn't care as much for varied and lasting material productions as other continents did. Which is not to say they didn't have any because we know full well they did. Yet I need not be reactionary and feel the need to "prove" Africa is equal or has the same developments as Asia or Europe that "hallowed benchmark" so many still hold up as "highest of the high". No, by doing that I would only miss out on the true unique value only Africa can offer and instead be off chasing white ghosts instead of heeding ancestral cries. So those Africans who had stone or could get stone and valued stone used it for building (there are many stone sites scattered over the continent) and when they pleased, for engraving. Likewise for those who chose mud brick or chose wood, or chose wattle, or who chose hide, for Africans did built with those more so than with stone. I don't need an outlook on Africa that makes me fabricate multistorey stone dwellings or else Africa is inferior because I worship Europe/Asia and Europe/Asia abounds with such edifices and so every culure what don't build that way must be primitive or backward and I don't want to appear inferior/primitive/backward. Why you've accepted the game on Eurocentric terms! No the African sees the complex beauty of his own through his own eyes not through imported foreign spectacles which frame a reference inadequite to appreciate what's right before the eyes. A chess master from Europe/America/Australia visits rural inner Africa and observes a wari type game played in the dirt. Little pits dug in the dirt and pebbles may be all the gaming "pieces" he sees. [At this point some of you are now having a knee jerk reaction and can only think on Europe's terms and so you want to interject and go on and on about the fine cast metal chess pieces made in West Africa or the high qaulity fine wooden and semi-precious stone wari sets. And in thinking that way you don't get it at all] In cultural chauvinistic contempt he dismisses wari as below his gamesmen's application as a child invites him to squat and play. Not wanting to appear aloof he humours the kid and listens to the very simple mechanics of "cows and kraals". In his mind he thinks, how simple for me a chessmaster to instantly thoroughly understand this stupid native game and beat its best player less lone this child. Come that night he drinks calabash after calabash of palm wine to drown his embarassment, all the while wondering how that kid could beat him over and over again, and in so few moves no less, as his hosts good naturedly rib him with praise while somewhere some guy improvises an ode to the Great Chessmaster who couldn't win wari once. And so it is with architecture and public monuments, in trying to show a measure similar to Europe/Asia we miss what genius has gone into the commonmost. So what if Africa isn't overflowing with "impressive" KM.t/Kush/Axum type monumental stone ruins or multistorey Swahili type houses or zemba bwe wallings? So what! Its the people and the social order where its really at. [QUOTE]Originally posted by Doug M: Meaning that, like you said, pastoralism and subsistence agriculture are not mutually exclusive and that many of our modern ideas on ancient agriculture are tied to European definitions of historical processes associated with development of "complex" civilizations. Also, just because a community was settled or practiced agriculture, does not mean that they built in stone. Many could have used wood, mud brick or grass to build complex communities. The point being that when someone wants to find evidence of "complex" societies, they may look for evidence of stone building before evidence of wood building. Likewise, because wood and such easily decay, much evidence may have been lost over time of complex compounds which could give us a better idea of the development of African societies. So I agree that it is not accurate to say that it is a difference of pastoral/sedentary populations that would have led to the absence of stone building in most African cultures around 1000BC. There are many other factors that go into it. [/QB][/QUOTE] [/QB][/QUOTE]
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