Woo! Spoonist Americas, Euroland, Asia, Australia peoples are horners? My God *laughing*. what did you really want to get at with that statement? If I didn't know you I could have said you were resurrecting the Biological Concept of 'Race' or even discarded and racist concepts like Hamitic theorem, and that might be what some might think. plz clarify cos some people who do not have as much knowledge as you in genetics, especially in African genetics, might be mislead by your statement.Spoonist wrote:All so called afroasiatic genes are from horners. Americas, euroland, asia to australia - all horners. So within that genepool lies the potential for all human diversity we see outside of africa today. Top that of with the diversity of geography of the sahara, the atlas, the magreb, the tibesti, the bab-el-mandeb, the nile delta,etc. For you to claim that there was no diversity is contradicting Keita, your main source.Big Triece wrote:How varied in skin tone would you suggest an ancient population to be, which was comprised of Nilo Saharan and various Horn African populations? .
But really the funny part of the above statement is your apparently linking 'genes' with skin tone cos that was what Big T was talking about. I know you know that 'Afroasiatic genes'(what the hell does this mean anyway?) is not the reason why EVERY INDIGENOUS African Afroasiatic population is dark skinned('Black' in a social sense) but it is because they have been long term residents of the hot northeast/East African environment and so have adapted to the tropical environment(developing tropical/supertropical elongated limb proportions and the accompanying skin colour intensification) and have transferred this trait to their descendants. So the point Big T was making which I also made here: post was that since the Ancient Egyptians were in the main, made up of Afrasan and Nilosaharan Northeast African populations who left a desiccating Sahara and are themselves tropically adapted,then they would be dark skinned.
I dont understand why people dont get it? See, Africa is like divided geographically into 2 trends climatically: a tropical forested and savanna centre and deserts on its 2 sides(Saharan and Namib Deserts). Then at both tips after these deserts are two sub-tropical environments('coastal' North Africa including most of Egyptian Nile and 'coastal' south African tips where they even have winters). Now, the Khoisans have been long term residents of the sub-tropical environment in southern Africa and so expectedly they have intermediate limb proportions and are the lightest(with groups such as some high Yellow Nigerians) INDIGENOUS Africans. Flip over the other side of the continent-Egypt. The early Egyptians who came into Egyptian Nile(which as Keita said in your video was almost devoid of populations) from a desiccating Sahara were tropicallly/supertropically adapted(remember most of Egyptian Nile is in a sub-tropical environment like the case of the Khoisans but they unlike them were tropically adapted). Now, since using other lines of evidences(linguistics,geographic,archaeological,biological,genetics) we know that people actually moved mainly from the tropical Sahara into the Egyptian Nile at this time should we be surprised?(the only pause is that this main group of people meant and absorb a smaller no of people already in the Nile-although again the results we have shows that they were also tropically adapted or more likely absorbed the small no of people that came from the near east where we had sub-tropically adapted populations).
Recall, we know that by ecologically principle, a tropically adapted human population would be dark skin, and that is what we have: ALL INDIGENOUS AFRICAN POPULATIONS WHO ARE TROPICALLY/SUPERTROPICALLY ADAPTED ARE DARK SKIN, I REPEAT ALL OF THEM. THE ONUS IS THEREFORE, ON THOSE THAN SAY OTHERWISE TO -i. show evidence that the ancient Egyptians defiled this trend ii. tell us WHY only the ancient Egyptians did so?
Let me conclude by making something clearer: Indigenous African skin colour is diverse and range from very light Brown/high yellow(Khoisans/Igbos) TO very dark Brown(Dinka/Akan) and usually one finds some of these variations in same population by the way. My argument is that most Ancient Egyptians would have had VARIATIONS in skin colour within this range. We dont know for sure the exact colour(s) and we may never know but since they were mainly a tropically adapted indigenous African population that were dark skin, then they can be regarded as 'Black' Africans(in a social sense). PS: My definition of a 'Black' African is any Indigenous dark-skinned African population and the majority of the ancient Egyptians would most probably meet this minimum.
As I have shown in my last post, even an article(on 'Race') of the OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA of ANCIENT EGYPT while rejecting the concept of Biological 'Race' says that 'it is REASONABLE' to regard the ancient Egyptians as 'Black Africans' (in a social sense) while recognizing diversity in indigenous Africans. Nancy Lovell article(Physical Anthropology )The ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ANCIENT EGYPT also implied same.
NOTE: Am talking about Most, not all(and I dont know the actual proportions of course as those small no of people from the Near East that enter at various times into Egypt early on as I have maintained throughout this thread may have added additional variability to Egypt-but certainly the vast majority esp in Upper Egypt wold have been 'Black').
It is important on the other hand to consider the other alternatives that you were talking about. Keita said that it was POSSIBLE that light skinned persons(completely Africans) could have evolved this trait in coastal north Africa i.e though not likely,there is nothing in genetics that would made it impossible. I agree with Keita. But in the sciences, there is a difference bw a thing been POSSIBLE(really in science practically every thing is possible) and a thing been likely, talkless of it been the case. That is why one has to use different lines of evidences to arrive at the most likely occurrence. It is not enough to point out 'anything is possible' POSSIBILITY but you should go ahead to provide evidences why that path would be likely.
For instance, is there a histological study out there that have shown that some indigenous Egyptians were light-skinned(the 2 studies I know and that I provided in my last post-and yes this is not even extensive enough- indicates that they were dark-skinned)? Is there a study that some early Egyptians were not tropically/supertropically adapted or even is there any evidence available of a tropically/supertropically adapted African population that is not dark-skinned? Is there any evidence that a large group of intermedaite proportion peoples came into Early Egypt or that those POSSIBLE light-skinned populations became part of Egypt and were significant(Keita himself in the video you uploaded said there most of Egyptian Nile was sparsely populated and that the main population source was from the Sahara)? Did the Egyptians themselves say they were light-skinned or did they paint themselves as such? etc etc. So on what basis should your telling us that something is POSSIBLE(essentially just raising DOUBT) indicate that it is the most likely or even just likely. I have an open mind and I Know that this topic is not certain yet but I also know which of the narrative is most likely cos all available lines of evidences seems to favors it(and if you are honest you should also know) and which is less likely.
By the way, Keita in that video said that the Ancient Egyptians were in the main 'Somali-like' and 'dark skinned' because they were 'tropically adapted'. Also, in an email to EgalitarianJay he said that the skin tone of upper Egypt and Nubia was likely the modal tone for most of the ancient Egyptians based on all the evidences(he however said that we can not be sure until more extensive histological studies are done on Egyptian mummies of all periods and regions).
Yea you said it was a rhetorical question but just out of interest plz after Big T would have given an answer I would like to see your own answer cos I dont get the significance of the question.Spoonist wrote:In which compass point would you say the sahara and the maghreb is compared to the El-Badari region?
http://egyptopia.com/Map+of+El+Badari_3 ... 54_en.html
And yes that is a rhetorical question