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'Hamitic' is an obsolete ethno-linguistic classification of some ethnic groups within the Afroasiatic (previously termed "Semito-Hamitic") language family.
The term Hamitic originally referred to the peoples believed to have been descended from the biblical Ham, one of the Sons of Noah. Over history, there have been several separate, but interrelated, interpretations of the term. In the Bible, the sons of Ham include peoples who were traditionally enemies of the Jews, notably the Egyptians and the Canaanites. While the Canaanites competed with the Israelites for the same territory, Ham's sons were said to have fathered the peoples of Africa. Of Ham's four sons, Canaan, fathered the Canaanites, while Mizraim fathered the Egyptians, Cush the Cushites and Phut the "Libyans".[1]
During the Middle Ages and up until the early 19th century the term Hamitic was used by some Europeans to refer indiscriminately to Africans. In the 19th century, a "Hamitic language group" was proposed by ethnolinguistics, uniting various, mainly North-African languages. A "Hamitic race" was also identified, referring to those Africans whom Europeans considered "advanced", or most similar to themselves and Semitic peoples.
Today the Hamitic concepts have been widely discredited, and are often referred to as the 'Hamitic Myth'. The Hamitic language group is no longer considered a useful concept, though the phrase Semito-Hamitic is a dated term for the Afro-Asiatic linguistic group. The notion of a "Hamitic race" is similarly widely abandoned.
The Hamitic Myth was used as a justification for European colonial policy in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the slave trade in earlier times.[2][3]
Early interpretations of the Bible led many Western scholars to believe that all of humanity was descended from Noah. Chapters 9 and 10 of the Book of Genesis deal with the branching off and splitting up of Noah's sons into the world. The name of Cush, Ham's eldest son, means 'black' in Hebrew, and "Caanan" means 'trader,' 'trafficker' or 'lowland.' The word "Ham" in Hebrew moreover means "hot" or "multitude", and is thus not necessarily a racial reference.[4] See article Curse of Ham.
The 6th Century AD Babylonian Talmud states that "the descendants of Ham are cursed by being Black and are sinful with a degenerate progeny."[5]. Slave holders, slavery defenders and racial theorists would also use these formulations to justify African slavery in the Americas.[6]
After Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, European interest in that country increased dramatically. With the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics and the rapid increase in knowledge of Ancient Egyptian civilization, European academics became increasingly interested in the origin of the Egyptians and their connection to other groups nearby. The traditional Biblical genealogy associated the Egyptians with other descendants of Ham, notably the black-skinned Cushites in Sudan.
Non-religious and Darwinian writers also theorised that the Biblical stories contained an element of truth about the ancestry of some black African populations, who may have migrated into Central Africa from the North. These peoples were assumed to be racially superior to other Africans.
As a result of this reevaluation, Hamitic took on a new, more positive connotation for Europeans. During the 19th century Europeans explored more and more of Africa. In their travels, they found many different physical types, and they valued those that appeared most like themselves or had a redeeming cultural characteristic.
Soon the Hamitic theory became an important ideological instrument of colonialism, especially in German politics.
The term "Hamitic" was used for the first time in connection with languages by the German missionary Johann Ludwig Krapf (1810-1881), but with regard to all languages of Africa spoken by black people. It was the Egyptologist Karl Friedrich Lepsius (1810-1877), who restricted it to the non-Semitic languages in Africa which are characterized by a grammatical gender system.
As racial theories became increasingly complex and convoluted, the term Hamitic was used in different ways by different writers, and was applied to many different groups Ethiopians, Eritreans, Berbers, Nubians, Somalis and many others.
Racial theory was very hierarchical; Europeans saw these peoples as leaders within Africa, "teaching" lesser peoples the ways of civilization, just as they saw themselves teaching the Hamitic peoples. This was illustrated, for instance, in Rudyard Kipling's poem titled ''The White Man's Burden''.
However, the allegedly Hamitic peoples themselves were often deemed to have 'failed' as rulers, a failing that was sometimes explained by interbreeding with "non-Hamites". So, in the mid-20th century the German scholar Carl Meinhof (1857-1944) claimed that the "Bantu race" was formed by a merger of Hamitic and "Negro races". The 'Hottentots' (Nama or Khoi) were formed by the merger of Hamitic and Bushmen ("San) races" — both being termed nowadays as Khoisan peoples). Such theories are now completely outdated.
In 1917 George Wells Parker founded the Hamitic League of the World. Its aims were:
:''"To inspire the Negro with new hopes; to make him openly proud of his race and of its great contributions to the religious development and civilization of mankind and to place in the hands of every race man and woman and child the facts which support the League's claim that the Negro Race is the greatest race the world has ever known."''
In Rwanda, the Hamitic hypothesis was a racialist hypothesis created by John Hanning Speke which stated that the "Hamitic" Tutsi people were superior to the "Bantu" Hutus because they were deemed to be more "White" in their facial features, and thus destined to rule over the Hutus.[7]
Although the actual origin of the Tutsis is disputed, if they had once been a ruling-class of invaders, they had long since lost that social position.
This hypothesis was a significant factor in the Rwandan genocide. Because of the wide-spread tribalism in the area, and the belief among Tutsis that they were superior to the Hutus, the Hutus began to see the Tutsis as an outside invader to their land.
These ideas were still in wide circulation until the mid 20th century. The Hamitic hypothesis is rejected by most scholars today on a multitude of grounds. Most "scientific" observations of the time were heavily culturally biased and generally returned results that suited Europeans. Many observations of the time have been corrected since then to reveal a much more complex picture of ethnic groups than was initially thought. Nonetheless, the term Hamitic is still used in some anthropological and historical academic settings. .
The term's linguistic use was effectively terminated by Joseph Greenberg (''The Languages of Africa'') in the 1950s, who introduced the use of geographical rather than racial terms for Africa's language families.
1. William M. Evans, "From the Land of Canaan to the Land of Guinea: The Strange Odyssey of the ‘Sons of Ham,’" American Historical Review, 85 (February 1980), 15-43
2. Edith R. Sanders, "The Hamitic Hypothesis; It Origin and Functions in Time Perspective," Journal of African History, 10 (1969), 521-23; William M. Evans, "From the Land of Canaan to the Land of Guinea: Michael D. Biddis, "Gobineau and the Origins of European Racism," Race, 7 (January 1966), 255-70; Frederickson, Black Image, 71-96.
3. Michael D. Biddis, "Gobineau and the Origins of European Racism," Race, 7 (January 1966), 255-70; Frederickson, Black Image, 71-96.
4. The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Classic Edition by James Strong (Nelson Reference: 1991)
5. Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry, (Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 28-117
6. Lewis, op. cit.
7. We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Letters From Rwanda, , Philip, Gourevitch, Picador, 1999, 0312243359
The term Hamitic originally referred to the peoples believed to have been descended from the biblical Ham, one of the Sons of Noah. Over history, there have been several separate, but interrelated, interpretations of the term. In the Bible, the sons of Ham include peoples who were traditionally enemies of the Jews, notably the Egyptians and the Canaanites. While the Canaanites competed with the Israelites for the same territory, Ham's sons were said to have fathered the peoples of Africa. Of Ham's four sons, Canaan, fathered the Canaanites, while Mizraim fathered the Egyptians, Cush the Cushites and Phut the "Libyans".[1]
During the Middle Ages and up until the early 19th century the term Hamitic was used by some Europeans to refer indiscriminately to Africans. In the 19th century, a "Hamitic language group" was proposed by ethnolinguistics, uniting various, mainly North-African languages. A "Hamitic race" was also identified, referring to those Africans whom Europeans considered "advanced", or most similar to themselves and Semitic peoples.
Today the Hamitic concepts have been widely discredited, and are often referred to as the 'Hamitic Myth'. The Hamitic language group is no longer considered a useful concept, though the phrase Semito-Hamitic is a dated term for the Afro-Asiatic linguistic group. The notion of a "Hamitic race" is similarly widely abandoned.
The Hamitic Myth was used as a justification for European colonial policy in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the slave trade in earlier times.[2][3]
| Contents |
| Earlier uses of the term |
| Post-Egyptian use |
| Within colonialism |
| Hamitic League of the World |
| Rwanda |
| Today |
| References |
Earlier uses of the term
Early interpretations of the Bible led many Western scholars to believe that all of humanity was descended from Noah. Chapters 9 and 10 of the Book of Genesis deal with the branching off and splitting up of Noah's sons into the world. The name of Cush, Ham's eldest son, means 'black' in Hebrew, and "Caanan" means 'trader,' 'trafficker' or 'lowland.' The word "Ham" in Hebrew moreover means "hot" or "multitude", and is thus not necessarily a racial reference.[4] See article Curse of Ham.
The 6th Century AD Babylonian Talmud states that "the descendants of Ham are cursed by being Black and are sinful with a degenerate progeny."[5]. Slave holders, slavery defenders and racial theorists would also use these formulations to justify African slavery in the Americas.[6]
Post-Egyptian use
After Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, European interest in that country increased dramatically. With the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics and the rapid increase in knowledge of Ancient Egyptian civilization, European academics became increasingly interested in the origin of the Egyptians and their connection to other groups nearby. The traditional Biblical genealogy associated the Egyptians with other descendants of Ham, notably the black-skinned Cushites in Sudan.
Non-religious and Darwinian writers also theorised that the Biblical stories contained an element of truth about the ancestry of some black African populations, who may have migrated into Central Africa from the North. These peoples were assumed to be racially superior to other Africans.
Within colonialism
As a result of this reevaluation, Hamitic took on a new, more positive connotation for Europeans. During the 19th century Europeans explored more and more of Africa. In their travels, they found many different physical types, and they valued those that appeared most like themselves or had a redeeming cultural characteristic.
Soon the Hamitic theory became an important ideological instrument of colonialism, especially in German politics.
The term "Hamitic" was used for the first time in connection with languages by the German missionary Johann Ludwig Krapf (1810-1881), but with regard to all languages of Africa spoken by black people. It was the Egyptologist Karl Friedrich Lepsius (1810-1877), who restricted it to the non-Semitic languages in Africa which are characterized by a grammatical gender system.
As racial theories became increasingly complex and convoluted, the term Hamitic was used in different ways by different writers, and was applied to many different groups Ethiopians, Eritreans, Berbers, Nubians, Somalis and many others.
Racial theory was very hierarchical; Europeans saw these peoples as leaders within Africa, "teaching" lesser peoples the ways of civilization, just as they saw themselves teaching the Hamitic peoples. This was illustrated, for instance, in Rudyard Kipling's poem titled ''The White Man's Burden''.
However, the allegedly Hamitic peoples themselves were often deemed to have 'failed' as rulers, a failing that was sometimes explained by interbreeding with "non-Hamites". So, in the mid-20th century the German scholar Carl Meinhof (1857-1944) claimed that the "Bantu race" was formed by a merger of Hamitic and "Negro races". The 'Hottentots' (Nama or Khoi) were formed by the merger of Hamitic and Bushmen ("San) races" — both being termed nowadays as Khoisan peoples). Such theories are now completely outdated.
Hamitic League of the World
In 1917 George Wells Parker founded the Hamitic League of the World. Its aims were:
:''"To inspire the Negro with new hopes; to make him openly proud of his race and of its great contributions to the religious development and civilization of mankind and to place in the hands of every race man and woman and child the facts which support the League's claim that the Negro Race is the greatest race the world has ever known."''
Rwanda
In Rwanda, the Hamitic hypothesis was a racialist hypothesis created by John Hanning Speke which stated that the "Hamitic" Tutsi people were superior to the "Bantu" Hutus because they were deemed to be more "White" in their facial features, and thus destined to rule over the Hutus.[7]
Although the actual origin of the Tutsis is disputed, if they had once been a ruling-class of invaders, they had long since lost that social position.
This hypothesis was a significant factor in the Rwandan genocide. Because of the wide-spread tribalism in the area, and the belief among Tutsis that they were superior to the Hutus, the Hutus began to see the Tutsis as an outside invader to their land.
Today
These ideas were still in wide circulation until the mid 20th century. The Hamitic hypothesis is rejected by most scholars today on a multitude of grounds. Most "scientific" observations of the time were heavily culturally biased and generally returned results that suited Europeans. Many observations of the time have been corrected since then to reveal a much more complex picture of ethnic groups than was initially thought. Nonetheless, the term Hamitic is still used in some anthropological and historical academic settings. .
The term's linguistic use was effectively terminated by Joseph Greenberg (''The Languages of Africa'') in the 1950s, who introduced the use of geographical rather than racial terms for Africa's language families.
References
1. William M. Evans, "From the Land of Canaan to the Land of Guinea: The Strange Odyssey of the ‘Sons of Ham,’" American Historical Review, 85 (February 1980), 15-43
2. Edith R. Sanders, "The Hamitic Hypothesis; It Origin and Functions in Time Perspective," Journal of African History, 10 (1969), 521-23; William M. Evans, "From the Land of Canaan to the Land of Guinea: Michael D. Biddis, "Gobineau and the Origins of European Racism," Race, 7 (January 1966), 255-70; Frederickson, Black Image, 71-96.
3. Michael D. Biddis, "Gobineau and the Origins of European Racism," Race, 7 (January 1966), 255-70; Frederickson, Black Image, 71-96.
4. The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Classic Edition by James Strong (Nelson Reference: 1991)
5. Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry, (Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 28-117
6. Lewis, op. cit.
7. We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Letters From Rwanda, , Philip, Gourevitch, Picador, 1999, 0312243359
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