This article is about the history of the controversy about the race of the ancient Egyptians. For discussion of the scientific evidence relating to the race of the ancient Egyptians, see Population history of Egypt and Genetic history of Egypt.
The Ancient Egyptian classification of ancient peoples (from left to right): a Libyan, a Nubian, an Asiatic, and an Egyptian. Drawing by an unknown artist after a mural of the tomb of Seti I; Copy by Heinrich Menu von Minutoli (1820). In terms of skin colour, the Libyan has the lightest complexion, followed by the Asiatic who is yellowish in appearance. The Egyptian is reddish-brown, while the Nubian is black.[1] Each group is also marked with their own distinctive hairstyles and clothing.[2] The representation of ethnic groups in Egyptian iconography has been a source of dispute among scholars.[3][4]
The question of the race of ancient Egyptians was raised historically as a product of the early racial concepts of the 18th and 19th centuries, and was linked to models of racial hierarchy primarily based on craniometry and anthropometry. A variety of views circulated about the racial identity of the Egyptians and the source of their culture.[5]
Some scholars argued that ancient Egyptian culture was influenced by other Afroasiatic-speaking populations in North Africa, the Horn of Africa or the Middle East, while others pointed to influences from various Nubian groups or populations in Europe. In more recent times some writers continued to challenge the mainstream view, some focusing on questioning the race of specific notable individuals such as the king represented in the Great Sphinx of Giza, native Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, Egyptian Queen Tiye, and Greek Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra VII.[citation needed]
Mainstream scholars reject the notion that Egypt was a white or black civilization; they maintain that applying modern notions of black or white races to ancient Egypt is anachronistic.[6][7][8] In addition, scholars reject the notion, implicit in the notion of a black or white Egypt hypothesis, that Ancient Egypt was racially homogeneous; instead, skin color varied between the peoples of Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt, and Nubia, who in various eras rose to power in Ancient Egypt. Within Egyptian history, despite multiple foreign invasions, the demographics were not shifted substantially by large migrations.[9][10][11]
^Burrell, Kevin (2019). "Cushite Ethnic Identity in the Context of Ancient Egypt". Cushites in the Hebrew Bible. Brill Publishing. p. 99. doi:10.1163/9789004418769_004. ISBN 978-90-04-41876-9. S2CID 214258815.
^Eaverly, Mary Ann (2013). Tan Men/Pale Women: Color and Gender in Archaic Greece and Egypt, a Comparative Approach. University of Michigan Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-472-11911-0.
^Matić, Uroš (November 2020). "Ethnic Identities in the Land of the Pharaohs: Past and Present Approaches in Egyptology". Elements in Ancient Egypt in Context. doi:10.1017/9781108885577. ISBN 978-1108885577. S2CID 229429843.
^Sabbahy, Lisa (2019). All things ancient Egypt : an encyclopedia of the ancient Egyptian world. Santa Barbara, California. pp. 158–160. ISBN 978-1440855122.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Sanders 1969, pp. 521–532.
^Lefkowitz, Mary R.; Rogers, Guy Maclean (1996). Black Athena Revisited. UNC Press Books. p. 162. ISBN 978-0807845554. Retrieved May 28, 2016 – via Google Books.
^Bard, Kathryn A.; Shubert, Steven Blake (1999). Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge. p. 329. ISBN 978-0415185899. Retrieved May 28, 2016 – via Google Books.
^Howe, Stephen (1999). Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes. Verso. p. 19. ISBN 978-1859842287. Retrieved May 28, 2016 – via Google Books.
^Montellano, Bernard R. Ortiz De (1993). "Melanin, afrocentricity, and pseudoscience". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 36 (S17): 33–58. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330360604. ISSN 1096-8644.
^"Slavery, Genocide and the Politics of Outrage". MERIP. March 6, 2005. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
^Brace, C. Loring; Tracer, David P.; Yaroch, Lucia Allen; Robb, John; Brandt, Kari; Nelson, A. Russell (1993). "Clines and clusters versus 'Race': a test in ancient Egypt and the case of a death on the Nile". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 36 (S17): 1–31. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330360603.
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