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An Haratin family from the Draa Valley in Morocco. The Haratin were found to have the closest blood typology to the Dynastic Egyptians (see below)
(http://geogweb.berkeley.edu/GeoImages/Miller/maroc/family2.jpg)
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Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 12:56:50 -0600 (CST)
From: "Staffas V. Broussard"
Subject: evading evidence
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concerning thin lips and noses and originates from comments of S. O. Y.
Keita in a letter to Eric Martel. Given the conversational aspects of this
medium, sometimes I find it difficult to discern a poster's position within the
overall discusssion. Katherine Griffis, I was wondering what is the
position that you're taking and how would you respond to the questions below?
(If Bernard Ortiz is listening, I would also be interested in your response.)
Do narrow faces and narrow noses equal Mediterranean types or
mixing?
Does all intermediateness imply admixture?
Are there groups whose genetic origins are West African, but
are light to dark brown in complexion and possess narrow noses and faces?
What about East African? Are there groups of Black Africans with narrow
noses and faces? (e.g. see Hiernaux, 1975)
Are there late dynastic groups in the delta that cluster with tropical
Africans (Howells, 1973)?
Are there groups that cluster with Africans in one method of analysis
and with Europeans in another? Are these intermediates? How should they
be classified? As Mediterraneans?
Do very large samples of Egyptian remains exhibit tropical
microadaptation? In general, the issue is do the early southern Egyptian
exhibit tropical microadaptation or do they exhibit cold climate
adaptations. (Kieta, 1990)
Isn't it true that Dynastic Egyptian mummies show ABO
frequencies similar to the Haratin, a negroid Berber people? (Paoli, 1972,
Journal of Human Evolution)
What does a comparison of early Nile Valley remains and eastern
Mediterranean imply about their biological relationship? (Angel, 1972, Journal
of Human Evolution)
Do you agree that the ancient Saharans were Negroid in the neolithic,
where Negroid here means from the extreme Negroid to Elongated phenotypes?
Do you agree that the Mediterranean type becomes prominent in the
Sahara in the 2000-1500 B.C. period? (Chamla, 1966)
Do you agree that there is a significant overlap of southern Egyptians
with Black Africans?
Do you agree that in the mesolithic in Upper Egypt the characteristics
of remains are more like West Africans, than later predynastic
Egyptians? (Strouhal, 1984, Journal of Human Evolution)
Ask yourself would ancient Egyptians have to be identical to Kenyans
in order to be characterized as Negroid?.
Consider that while the variations reflected in the Alpine, Dinaric,
Nordic and Mediterranean have been characterized as _Caucasian_, only extreme
physiogamies are called _Negro_.
Isn't the Elongated typed physiogamy truly tropical African?
Also, truth is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? Consider
Petrie. Petrie percieved the Galla in the Egyptian portraits. He did not see
Mediterraneans. I believe he claimed that the Galla had invaded Egypt in
the first intermediate period. Didn't Volney bemoan the fact that the race
he saw enslaved in his time were the very people who built the pyramids.
And Budge characterized Egyptains and their culture as African.
Has there been a racial study of Egyptian portraits and statues?
The Sphinx does have a Negroid look, doesn't he? His broad Negroid
face. His profile exhibiting subnasal prognathism. As a personal aside,
I believe that I can safely say that there isn't a person of African descent in
the New World who would not identify Akhenaten as a person of African descent.
Thanks,
staffas
-----------------
G. Paoli, in "ABO Typing of Ancient Egyptians" IN _Population biology
of ancient Egyptians_, edited by D.R. Brothwell and B.A. Chiarelli, London,
New York, 1973, showed that the Dynastic Egyptians were most closely matched
with the Haratin of the northern Sahara. Paoli mentions the theory of
Cabot-Briggs (Cabot-Briggs, L. (1958), _The Living Races of the Sahara Desert,
Massachussets) that this resemblance might indicate the origin of the Haratin.
Here are the figures given for the two groups from Paoli (p. 464):
Modern Northern Haratin and Dynastic Egyptian
------------------------------------------------------------------------
No. O A B AB p q r
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Egyptians 160 34 64 34 28 34.35 21.45 44.20 (Paoli)
Haratin 202 40 80 57 25 30.99 23.14 48.87 (Mourant)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Haratin are considered a mixture of the "aboriginal black population"
of North Africa and freed slaves mostly from the South. Of particular
interest in the chart above is the very high frequency of the q gene.
In most European population, the gene frequency is below 10% (See
Montagu, A. _Introduction to Physical Anthropology_ 1960, p. 334).
---------------
Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1996 0:59:16 -0400 (EDT)
From: GLORIA EMEAGWALI
To: athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com
CC: EMEAGWALI@CCSUA.CTSTATEU.EDU
Message-Id: <960602005916.20249567@CCSUA.CTSTATEU.EDU>
Subject: Saharan Africans
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Paul Manansala, I take this opportunity to acknowledge your
comments on Saharan WestAfricans.I have come to similar conclusions,
from different routes perhaps. The Northern regions of Cote d"Ivoire,
Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon as well as Senegal, Guinea,
Mali, Burkina Faso and so on fall within the Saharan/Sahelian zone,
which is the same latitude with the Nile civilizations of Antiquity.
No impassable barrier stood or stands between East and West.Eurocentric
Africanists generally claim that Ezana"s defeat of Meroe (Nubia) led to
massive migration from that region into West Africa. The same folks, from
the other side of their mouth declare how impossible it was for a similar
population movement, a few kilometers north of this region.When British
imperialists invaded the region("pacified" to eurocentrists) entire
communities of Northern Nigeria migrated East to the region partly
coextensive with Nubia of antiquity, Sudan. This they did by feet and
on camels.They didn"t have to board American Airlines to do that.
Similarly , from time to time we come across documents and general
information related to pilgrims from Senegal, Nigeria and so on who
successfully did the Hajj following well trodden routes. Mansa Musa
of Mali and his huge entourage did not travel by American Airlines
either.Eurovcentrists create obstacles where they do not exist and
conversely look around for the most improbable solution to a simple
problem. Was it Thomas who eloquently alluded to this a few weeks
ago?
Ortiz, what else can we do for you besides bringing a live Egyptian
from the Pharaonic era? How else can we communicate to you our
findings with respect to Egyptian cultural links and in what other
language. I have indicated the similarities and continuities with
respect to braided wigs, Africoid combs, headrests, diet and ok
large penises! I identified some of the observations of Herodotus
and noted similar tendencies. Paul cited the observations of Shinnie,
who had a pretty long list which was characteristically trivialised.
So what relevance could this be for the present? San was asked.
What does this have to do with our materialistic present, blurted the
same guy. "But each African is unique!" shouted the obstinate linguist!
Five minutes later the guy who asked the first question moved towards
his computer, not knowing of course that the binary mathematics of the
computer and boolean logic did indeed have ancient roots and that the
very calendar he used was a modification of the ancient Egyptian
calendar.
(To be continued some day)
Gloria Emeagwali
[continued]
Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1996 7:19:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: GLORIA EMEAGWALI
To: athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com
CC: EMEAGWALI@CCSUA.CTSTATEU.EDU
Message-Id: <960602071936.20249967@CCSUA.CTSTATEU.EDU>
Subject: Saharan/Sahelian West Africans
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I forgot to mention that most of the Saharan/Sahelian West Africans
with the exception of some Tuareg are jet black.The tuareg themselves
have a jet black component. I also want to make a modification to
my previous post with respect to the ancient roots of the computer.
I believe that it is not so much Boolean logic and binary mathematics
that have ancient roots but rather the principle of progressive
doubling.Please note the correction.
Gloria Emeagwali
-----------------
From: blackman@earthlink.net (Charles Curtis)
Subject: Race
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>
>Maybe because it assaulted us dozens of times, no one has responded to my query
>of a few days ago. Why should we accept that there are three races (Negroid,
>Caucasoid, Mongoloid), as suggested by the Egyptian gentleman to S F Thomas?
>
>I ask again because
>staffas Broussard seems to accept this classification (due to Blumenbach in the
>18th century) in his string of questions concerting more detailed physical
>resemblances among peoples.
>
The issue of race and its very existence appears very problematic for this
discussion, as I am sure most have already ascertained. Topical observation
shows that most of the definitive markers that have been assigned to
determination of race are artificial at least and ambiguous at most.
Although it is difficult to obtain concensus from even anthropologists, if I
may, I would like to humbly submit my thoughts concerning this matter.
In attempting to classify individuals according to race it appears futile to
search for quintessential specimens. Any given trait can be shown to exist
to a lesser or greater degree in all of the so-called racial groups. I
think it would be more appropriate to treat what we refer to as races as
groups or populations of individuals that exhibit with greater incidence
certain traits of heredity, moreso than other groups. Some individuals will
exhibit all the traits, while others only some, with varying degrees, since
each trait is transmitted independent of others. There is no Negro,
Caucasian, or Mongoloid gene that I know of. If there is, I would greatly
appreciate any information pertaining to such. The presence or absence of a
particular trait does not particularly include or exclude an individual.
The trait frequency in which it occurs within a given population would
determine if it is characteristic of a group.
Populations that procreate chiefly among themselves due to culture and
geographic boundaries tend to exhibit over time distinctive characteristics
which compromise a common genetic heritage. This is what I consider a race
to be. A relatively isolated and definitive breeding population. There are
surely factors of genetic drift, changing environmental stresses, and of
course migration that weigh in over time. It appears that the concept of
race has been bastardized, primarily for political expediency in many
instances, over the years. It is a concept that most people have an
intuitive notion but find difficult to articulate. Language is so
inadequate. I'm not so sure anthropologists are in complete agreement. To
espouse the "three race position" leaves one rear quite exposed.
The somewhat ancilliary issue of skin color is a trait that is most commonly
used in attempting to place individuals into racial categories. However,
this adaptable trait is somewhat unreliable since most groups from
equatorial regions have increased levels of melanin in response to increased
levels of UV radiation. Likewise, lighter skinned individuals tend to be
from dreary climes further away from the equator who evolved lighter skin to
most likely facilitate production of 1,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol (a form
of vitamin D) necessary for the proper metabolism of calcium. So you don't
necessarily have to be a Negro because you have dark skin nor a Caucasian,
as these terms have been applied, simply due to a lighter complection. I
simply attempt to apply Darwinian principles that basically state that
individuals better suited to their environment have a reproductive
advantage. Conservative traits that are not greatly impacted by
environmental stresses such as hair type, tooth architecture, RBC antigens,
etc. are probably better race markers. But who am I to say. I'll leave
that to the experts.
Anthropology is not my area of expertise. However, I do believe this is a
reasonable approach to the issue of race.
A dimension of this so-called debate that distrurbs me are the implicit and
sometimes explicit assertions by some that race is a non-issue, that it
doesn't matter. I have to wonder if these individuals practice what they
preach. Sure race matters. It matters for all of us.
On the related topic of racism I believe is not monolithic but multi-faceted
and very natural if viewed within the context of obtaining some real or
perceived benefit that allows a particular group or individual to thrive or
have advantage over others. A one Mr. Howard Schwartz articulated well the
phenomena of racism as it pertains to the individual and I quote:
"From a psychoanalytic point of view, racism is a form of projective
identification. Roughly that means that certain ways of seeing ourselves
that are unacceptable to us are projected outward onto others where we can
try to control them. It is a way of preserving our fantasy of our own
perfection. In the case of racism, unacceptable ideas about the self are
projected onto members of another race, which is then hated and attacked, as
if we could destroy those hated parts of ourselves by destroying the members
of the other race. An individual who structures his or her life on the
basis of this projective identification is a racist.
It's important to note, though, that the basic psychological process has
nothing to do with race. Anything outside the self will do: people who
believe differently than we do, another nation, indeed, even our own nation,
seen as a malevolent force outside ourselves. Our parents can suffice, or
our students, or our spouses. For that matter, racists themselves can serve
as a focus for our projective identification, which may magnify their power
and their malevolence and cause us to see them where they are not.
The point here is that projective identification is basically an
intra-psychic process which comes to look like a relationship to others
because we cannot accept it as an intra-psychic process. It is, moreover,
something which, if we are honest with ourselves about ourselves, we can all
find ourselves engaging in. Fact is, the capacity to be honest with oneself
about oneself is the best and maybe the only means of relinquishing
projective identification. It can also help us greatly in appreciating the
substratum of our common, flawed humanity."
Racism appears to be a collection of behaviors and not a single entity.
Now back to Bernal's charge that racism was a contributing factor in the
Ancient Model of Greek history being discarded for the Aryan Model. Has the
jury reached a verdict?
Charles Curtis
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