And where did the Mesopotamians move from? If you don't see the political context of the science then too bad.

Like, you know people till now take pride in the exploits and culture of their supposed ancient ancestors, never mind that for the the vast majority of people, there is no simple and direct line from some ancient illustrious people to them.

The latent political context is the assumption driving the research, that Egyptian culture had to have come from somewhere else, so let's go look for it. You see the same thing when evidence of cultural achievements elsewhere in Africa is unearthed.

Of course you will find a somewhere else, no matter how tenuous the connection, in which case my first sentence above comes into play: let's keep finding the somewhere else until we all get back to Africa, supposedly the birthplace of it all.

EDIT: Since this is being misunderstood, this what I actually mean: For some reason, this finding somewhere else is not applied consistently. Either we should keep finding the somewhere else for all cultures for as far back as we can, or else stop with this nonsensical subtext that just because a culture has some roots from elsewhere, so therefore it cannot have made innovations by itself beyond its supposed origins.

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Spooky23 a day ago | parent | next [-]

One of the problems with modern discourse is everyone has a platform, myself included, and grievance and pride tend to make compelling narratives. There’s alot of quacking and noise.

There’s no dishonor in learning more and figuring it out. People babbling about stealing “dibs” from Africa are intellectually not really understanding what they are reading and applying their 2025 perspectives and problems to people hundreds of generations ago who had no conception of Africa, Europe and Asia as artifacts as we see them today.

Think about the situation on the ground. Egypt was the closest thing to Eden on earth. Mesopotamia was the birthplace, in the region if not the world, of the next level of urbanization and state power and economics. So yeah, no doubt through intermarriage, trade, teaching and migration the knowledge of Mesopotamia spread and influenced the Nile… and to great effect… the Egyptian civilization thrived for many centuries.

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eddythompson80 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's exactly the brand of nonesense that is sold to people there as "progressive" and "anti-colonialism" while infact it's just pure nonesense.

Of course every culture/society had to have come from some previous place/culture/society that changed over time due to an incredibly long and complex set of circumstances. The story one must believe to accept your view is that at a flick of the wrist, humans turned from Cave Men to some vague list of "root societies/civilizations" people moved around. Understanding how that movement happened 15 thousands years ago won't make the jews take over Egypt I promise.

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jjtheblunt 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

i think you accidentally worded this in a way you might not have meant.

you said a culture (singular) had to have come from another culture (singular), missing the possibility of blending, as worded.

	▲	eddythompson80 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah definitely meant to it plural

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prmph 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I think you misunderstand my point. You are kind of confirming my point.

What I am saying is that for some reason, this finding somewhere else is not applied consistently. Either we should keep finding the somewhere else for all cultures for as far back as we can, or else stop with this nonsense that just because a culture has some roots from elsewhere, so therefore it cannot have made innovations by itself beyond its supposed origins.

	▲	wredcoll 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> Either we should keep finding the somewhere else for all cultures for as far back as we can, I'm not a scientist, but as far as I can tell... do that? Half the interest in archeological type studies seems to be "ok, this the earliest history we know of, what came before that?" I agree that humans tend to get way too entitled about (maybe) sharing genes with someone who did something cool in past history, but learning about which populations migrated to egypt and from where and when, seems unrelated.
	▲	pastage 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Of course nationalism and rasism infects science, especially what findings are considered canon in a culture. That only means you might have such findings not that it is the only thing created.

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geuis 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Stop downvoting this comment please.