Posted by:
SL Cabbie
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Date: December 25, 2017 06:52PM
Nobody is going to convince the "Izzy" (Short for "Iz Ze Church True?" which captures the racist nature of his claim that ancient Egyptians were Europeans).
I Googled the author, Larry Orcutt, and he is indeed a reasonable individual (with an undergrad in psychology with plans to get another advanced degree in a "more suitable field" when he retires. I have similar hopes for a master's in a "hard science" field after I park the taxi).
http://www.catchpenny.org/race.html>>What Race Were the Ancient Egyptians?
>>Race is a notoriously nebulous concept. Before a physical property can be scientifically examined, it must be objectively defined so that accurate measurements of variables can be made. Defining race has been based on subjective taxonomic classification, morphological interpretation, and physiognomic characteristics, exercises that are frighteningly akin to phrenology. Race has yet to be defined in objective genetic terms that are quantifiably measurable, rendering attempts at truly scientific discussion hopelessly futile.
Please note the reproduction--and skin hues of the human paintings--from the tomb of Seti I (who was pharaoh during the time period the single DNA test identified in the Nature article identified).
>>Geneticist Steven Rose said,
>>Biologists define "race" as a group or population differing in gene frequency from that of others in the same species. Such differences usually occur as a result of some type of geographic barrier limiting interbreeding, so that the two otherwise similar genetic populations begin to drift apart. Thus there are distinct "races" of fruit flies – separated perhaps by mountainous or desert conditions. However, with very limited exceptions there are no such separated groups within the human population, and those that do occur do not map on to what are in conventional speech regarded as separate "races." The consensus view among population geneticists and biological anthropologists is that the concept of "race" to indicate analytically distinct subgroups of the human race is biologically meaningless.
The blogsite I linked to DNA scientist and PhD Jennifer Raff said essentially the same, Izzy's perceptual distortions and denial not withstanding.
>>This said, we might ask, "What color were the ancient Egyptians?" Being on the continent, Egypt has always been an African civilization though it straddles two regions, Africa and the Middle East. It's fairly clear that the cultural roots of ancient Egypt lie in Africa and not in Asia. Egypt was a subtropical desert environment and its people had migrated from various ethnic groups over its history (and prehistory), thus it was something of a "melting pot," a mixture of many types of people with many skin tones, some certainly from the Sub-Saharan regions and others from more Mediterranean climes. It is impossible to categorize these people into the tidy "black" and "white" terms of today's racial distinctions... It seems that there has been some genetic continuity from Pre-Dynastic time through the Middle Kingdom, after which there was a considerable infiltration into the Nile Valley from outside populations. That the Egyptians by and large were dark is certain, and many must have been what we today call "black."
Goodness, I said that above myself, honest.
>>It is apparent that the ancient Egyptians did not make racial distinctions themselves, but rather ethnic distinctions based on nationality. Tomb paintings depicting captive Nubians may show them as being very dark, but this is an artistic convention stereotyping a nationality, and to conclude there were therefore no very dark Egyptians would be a non sequitur.
>>We can safely conclude that the ancient Egyptians were of various skin colors, few of which were light judging by the climate.
I note from this author--and others out there--that authentic Egyptologists--avoid the "racial questions," but I did find an interesting "reality" in my research (terribly unethical of me to "do my homework," I know). There's a group of black/African folks out there on the Internet who are just as vocal with their claims that Egyptians were "black Africans."
What was conclusive--and was something I already knew--was that the "Caucasian race" did not originate in the Caucasus as Izzy originally insisted and which formed the basis for his screed.
One more time: Ancient Egypt during the Pharaohnic era--and before--was a "melting pot" of people of various origins that including Africans and Middle Easterners. They were not "closely related" to Europeans; Izzy has misread that entirely, but merely related.
/zombie roadkill voice off