Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 10:43:21 -0400
To: Athena Discuss 
Subject: Re: Melanin content of mummies

Vdismas@aol.com wrote:
(( cuts ))
>      If however, by "people of color" you mean people who are tropical,
> sub-Saharan Africans--Bantu or Masai or Twa--then you are correct.  Using
> this definition, I do not think that the majority of ancient Egypt's
> population were people of color.

This sounds to me like a strong statement of prior belief,
probably arrived at using considerations that have nothing
to do with what is known about the ancient Egyptians themselves,
rather what the author knows, or thinks they know, about 
Bantu, Masai and Twa people today.  She(?) is not ready to 
accept that people suchas they might have been the ones to 
have produced the accomplishments of ancient Egypt.  
There is an irony here that merits remarking.  Diop, 
in _The African Origin of Civilization_ 
(Lawrence Hill Books, 1974), quotes Champollion the Younger, in
his 13th letter to his brother, remarking (about certain bas-reliefs
he had seen in various tombs):

  "According to the legend...they wished to represent the
   inhabitants of Egypt and those of foreign lands.  Thus
   we have before our eyes the image of the various races
   of man known to the Egyptians... the last one is what
   we call flesh-colored, a white skin of the most delicate
   shade, a nose straight or slightly arched, blue eyes,
   blond or reddish beard, tall stature and very slender,
   clad in a hairy ox-skin, a veritable savage... he is
   called Tamhou.... I certainly did not expect, on arriving
   at Biban-el-Moluk, to find sculptures that could serve
   as vignettes of the history of the primitive Europeans,
   if ever one has the courage to attempt it.  Nevertheless,
   there is something flattering and consoling in seeing
   them, since they make us appreciate the progress we
   have subsequently achieved."

It strikes me that were those ancient Egyptians to visit us
here today, they might have as difficult a time attributing
the accomplishments of Western Civilization, such as they
are, to the people they knew as Tamhou, the savages of their
day.

I am reminded also of the news reports a year or two ago
in which it was claimed that Colin Powell and Princess
Diana might be distant cousins.  That in itself is unremarkable,
because in some sense we are ultimately all related anyway.
But the reporting seemed to imply that this relationship
was to Powell's credit, when, whether by accomplishment
or pedigree, in light of what we know of Tamhou,
it should at least arguably have been the other
way 'round--Diana should be the one to feel honored by
the relationship.  Be that as it may, I wish only to make the
point that strongly held prior beliefs are apt to make fools
of those holding them, especially where the beliefs are
about people, and what they are presumed, on surface
consideration, not to be capable of.

> V. N. Weiner

Regards,

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