Education For Life Academy

Education For Life Academy

Where Black History Lives!

The Standing on the Shoulders of Giants Curriculum

The study of ancient Egypt is inherently a study of how Western scholars have used race to control how we understand the past—and present. Despite the absurdity of Morton’s many theories, he was widely respected history. Yet, Petrie’s interpretations of ancient Egyptian history differed from DuBois’ views in significant ways. Petrie was less explicit in his belief in white racial superiority, but he continued the work of earlier scientists through careful classification of the Ancient Egyptians into different races or “types,” which perpetuated a hierarchy of humankind and a non-African origin of Egyptian civilization.

According to Petrie, the depictions of ancient Egyptians inside of tombs indicated the presence of at least three races: “an acquiline race” with a slender nose, a “snouty race typical of the lower classes,” and a “large eyed race,” all of which demonstrated to Petrie that the Ancient Egyptians were not descendants of a single source in Africa. Rather, Petrie suggested the Egyptians were conquered by an “invading race…a high class race” that migrated to Egypt from the Red Sea. Similar to Morton’s theories, Petrie described the Egyptians as “a kindred race to the Phoenicians” and claimed the invading “Dynastic race” was responsible for Egypt’s unparalleled achievements.

In addition to unearthing tombs, documents, and other artifacts, Petrie also uncovered thousands of human remains. He donated the human skulls to bolster the biological arguments that linked race and intelligence. Petrie’s collection of ancient Egyptian skulls was critical to the development of eugenics, a racist social movement in which geneticists argued that the elimination of undesirables (including the poor, mentally challenged, disabled and others considered weak, unfit, or social failures) would lead to the creation of a superior human race. Geneticists used the skulls to support Charles Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest, and they argued that social class was determined by a person’s genetic make-up. Petrie enthusiastically supported eugenics and the violent state polices that denied human rights to millions of people through colonialism and other forms of oppression.

Undoubtedly, the eugenics movement promoted white supremacy in its aim to improve the human race. The racial ideology had been popular in Britain and the United States before it influenced the policies of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Adolph Hitler, inspired by the eugenics movement, carried out a program of elimination in Germany that resulted in the murder of millions of people including gypsies, gays and lesbians, Jews and other non-whites.

The Legacy of Scientific Racism

Although the eugenics movement was later repudiated as a racist pseudo-science that had no basis in reality or facts, the racial theories of Morton, Gliddon, Petrie and other scholars, were a part of mainstream thinking. Indeed, their ideas continue to shape common interpretations of ancient Egyptian history. Even today, most depictions of Ancient Egypt in history books and Hollywood films project images that deny African origins. Brown-skinned or dark-skinned Africans are rarely acknowledged in popular representations, and the preoccupation with Cleopatra VII during Greek rule over Egypt perpetuates the same racial images of Egypt as non-African.

It is important to reiterate that modern conceptions of race did not exist in ancient times. Yet, the racialization of ancient Egypt as white, light, Asian, Mediterranean, or Caucasian has played a critical role in minimizing Africa and Africans in world history.