Wednesday, July 27, 2011
excuses
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Quade Cooper
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Afrocentrism & Sexualities
Akhenaten, History Fantasy and Ancient Egypt
Dominic Montserrat
Dominic Montserrat as a Historian>Akhenaten in the mirror: p1-7, 10-11
· “This book is the first attempt to look at them [Akhenaten-themed theologies, painting, novels etc] and try and understand why they chose Akhenaten. I want to know what interests are served, at particular historical moments, by summoning up the ghost of a dead Egyptian king. These representations of him are not structured by Akhenaten’s own history but by struggles for legitimation and authority in the present. Such multiple and contradictory redrawing of characters from ancient history... are always more concerned with the importance of the issue discussed through them rather than their historicity.”
· “This book is about the historical Akhenaten only in a peripheral way. It is not a biography of him but a metabiography- a look at the process of biographical representation”
· “I am not really interested in Akhenaten himself, but in why other people are interested in him and find his story relevant and inspirational when he has been dead for three and a half thousand years”
· “But Akhenaten does not belong ex[c]lusively to elite culture, and so he is a marvellously rich resource for allowing a range of other voices to be heard, in spite of voices which would consign them insignificant. Most books on aspects of Egyptology give little space to these ‘fringe’ voices, but here I engage with them often.”
· “Also, I believe that it is very important for the professional community to listen to non-specialists”
· “All presenters of Akhenaten, scholarly or otherwise, have distinct personal, cultural and generic biases that shape their perceptions.”
· “In this book I spend a lot of time examining what might be called the paratextual conditions of the mythic Akhenaten- the other circumstances which help to produce specific views of him and assist in his mythologisation.”
· “It is hard to find a common denominator to these myths because they are so Protean, their different guises shifting to suit the needs of particular audiences, genres and interpreters. However, one thing which underpins many of them is the desire to find an antecedent for oneself or one’s beliefs in ancient Egypt.”
· “Since Plato, historians, politicians and theologians have looked to ancient Egypt to find justification, legitimation or authentication.”
· “Some of us are engaged in deconstruction, destabilisation, demythologisation and deideologisation of western-produced knowledge of the past. Part of this process is to create alternative points of reference and alternative discourses which reconfigure received wisdom. In other words, demoting cultural heroes and looking at them from unorthodox points of view is fashionable. So my postmodern version of Akhenaten is just as much of its time... My own prejudices, and something of my own history, will become clear from the parts of the Akhenaten myth I have chosen to survey here. Any examination of a mythologised historical character like Akhenaten inevitably ends up by adding something more to the myth, and this book is no exception.”
· “He is a sign rather than a person”
· “In that respect Akhenaten has become a sign almost entirely through the medium of archaeology”
· “The classical historians do not mention him explicitly, and so he was never a part of western cultural history ”
· “Akhenaten emerged unencumbered by cultural baggage and ready to be reborn” (1-7)
o “By examining the multiple Akhenatens of this book, I intended to do three things. I wanted first to point out the extent to which the west has internalised ancient Egypt and made it its own. The second was to enable everybody who is interested to look at Akhenaten with a little more neutrality. Academics need to remember that the histories of Akhenaten they write are just as self-revealing as those by people who have had little to do with conventional history... we acknowledge our own input rather than hiding behind the mask of objectivity. Third, it seems to me that this multiplicity of Akhenatens is telling the professional community that its role is changing. Conventional historians of Egypt present a view of an apolitical past which is over and done with, but Akhenaten’s amazing life in the western imagination shows this is anything but the case. He is not static and conservative, but political and dynamic. Different interest groups compete for the right to present him” (then goes on about technology and credibility of prof and non-prof rub shoulders and difference is b/c indistinguishable) 10-11
Akhenaten in the Mirror (chapter 1)
· (talks about chapter 5; Afrocentrism)
· “Looking at versions of Akhenaten which are constructed to challenge the status quo”
· “Paradoxically, these are the most extreme and imaginative readings of Akhenaten, while at the same time the most conservative”
· Makes point that the Afrocentric Akhenaten and the mystic Akhenaten of alternate religions overlap (sometimes).
· His definition: “a political and cultural movement which seeks to reclaim the origins of world civilisations in black Africa, and Egypt plays a central part in its discourse”
· Historians across the globe criticise it, especially its relation (“appropriation”) to Egypt, “based on old fashioned ideas about race, and actually dances to a western tune while claiming to be a radical revision of history”
o Quote (8, Gilroy, 1993: 188>> ‘The Black Atlantic: Modernity and a Double Consciousness’, London: Verso >p205)
§ “May be useful in developing communal discipline and self-worth and even in galvanising black communities to resist the encroachments of crack cocaine, but... its European, Cartesian outlines remains visible beneath a new lick of Kemetic [Egyptian] paint”
· Comment by Montserrat: “Yet the black people I met who passionately believed in a black Akhenaten were not concerned with the niceties of Afrocentrism’s status as a basis for writing cultural history: they were involved with much more immediate struggles”
· Comment by Montserrat: “I was struck by the racist assumptions that seemed to underlie some of these readings of Akhenaten. Many of these are indebted to various forms of Theosophy, whose potential for appropriation by the extreme rights has often been noted”
All from p 9. ^^^^^^^^^
· P10; Akhenaten’s sexualities
· “On manifestation is the gay Akhenaten, part of the quest for gay identity in the past that has been so important in some quarters over the last twenty years or so.”
· “Another is the polymorphously perverse Akhenaten: heterosexual monogamist no more, this Akhenaten has sex with his male lovers, mother, son-in-law and various daughters as well as his wives and concubines”
· “Gay versions are misogynistic in that they in that they write the prominent women of Akhenaten’s family out of the plot”
5- Race and Religion
· Begins with comments from the visitors’ book of an exhibition of Amarna Art in the Brooklyn Museum, quoted in Wedge 1977: 56-7, 144 (Nefertiti Graffiti: Comments on ...)
o “I think you have a good collection. But I was very disappointed about Akhenaten being grotesque. Only a white would say he was ugly”
o “Your exhibition seems to deny Akhenaten and Nefertiti were Black Africans- which they were. I am sure you did not ask any black historian to contribute.”
· Montserrat talks about autumn 1973 exhibition held in Brooklyn Museum.
· “Many African Americans who wrote comments thought that too little attention had been paid to the African origins of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and that the labelling and presentation of exhibits was racist.”
· Then talks about what chapter deals with;
o “This chapter examines the ways in which Akhenaten is used by two contemporary movements”
o Talks about need to make clear distinctions b/w Afro & alternate re.
· Afrocentrism meaning (again)
o “Afrocentrists I take to mean those who aim, among other things, to reinstate the blackness of the ancient Egyptians in an African context after centuries of white historians presenting them as proto-Europeans. Underlying this aim is the belief that political liberation and the end of exploitation can never be achieved without people of African descent re-establishing ancestral ties to their continent of origin”
· Islam: “he comes up frequently in the rhetoric of the Nation of Islam, which is both a religious and political movement.”
· Afro use “The same (often outdated) books as sources. Both favour as authorities the work of Breasted, and especially the numerous books on hieroglyphs and Egyptian religion by E. A. Wallis Budge...Budge has gone from being academically respectable in his day to a resource largely of interest to the fringe... Budge has been criticised as a servant of Eurocentrist scholarship; he certainly said some things about Akhenaten that would be now regarded as racist and, as we have seen, the same may be true of Breasted. His diffusionist beliefs about the development of culture... have a value to Afrocentrists who believe that the black Egyptian contribution to civilisation has been stolen by whites.”
· “Furthermore, exponents of alternative Akhenatens use very similar strategies to argue against conventional Egyptology. Many of them believe that there is an academic conspiracy which denies the true extent of Egyptian spiritual or cultural achievement, and deliberately falsifies the evidence by mistranslating hieroglyphs, for instance (note: Baines, 1990, 1-5; Roth, 1998; Asante, 1992, 57-9). Alternate religionists and Afrocentrists can, and do, present themselves as being far ahead of the academic community, having new ideas, new perspectives on perceived wisdom, and new evidence.”
· THEN goes onto sub-chapter on Black Pharaohs.
· Talks about Mural, Central Reading Youth Provision Black History Mural> paid for by private benefactors.
· Akhenaten depicted in it with Mohammad, Nefertiti also depicted as black.
· Akhenaten is suggested (according to Montserrat) to be the precursor of Mohammad. Fist rep of ‘black’ political and religious leaders.
· Fact that benefactors contributed (originally commissioned by Reading Borough Council), reflects and official version of history similar to a war memorial; emotive, but not necessarily historically coherent collection of symbols, images and texts.
· “Mural links Akhenaten with the prophet Mohammad as founder of Islam”
· “My intention is to look at how and why he has achieved this favoured status, rather than to comment on the historiographical questions raised by the relationship of ancient Egypt with modern Afrocentrism”
· Early as 1840’s Egypt claimed black scholars and educators; “one of whose aims was to enable oppressed black people to regain their lost heritage and achieve greatness once again.”
· Pan-African pioneer, Edward Wilmot Blyden, afro=intellectual foundations. Advocated Liberia =homeland for freed slaves, est link b/w Egyptians and modern day black people.
o Wrote: “The Negro in Ancient History”
o Argue against Eurocentric view of history.
· Pauline Hopkins, “Of One Blood, the Hidden Face”> published Coloured American Magazine
· Colossi of Karnak, negative judgements of Akhenaten’s appearance could be seen as a racist conspiracy by white historians to deny and degrade the blackness of the Egyptians.
· Wooden head of (supposed) Tiye from Medint el-Gurob, big.
· “In Afrocentric books, sculptures of Akhenaten, his mother and daughters are juxtaposed with photographs of contemporary Africans or people African decent to illustrate the facial similarities between them” (youtube video)
· Afro. Ideas are enhanced by the “political prominence of the royal women during Akhenaten’s reign can be presented as evidence for the theory of an ancient African matriarchy in which power is inherited through the female line. This theory was popularised by... Cheikh Anta Diop”
· Religious reforms appeals to Black Muslim groups, and Muslims in general.
· Some “black non-Muslims argue that black Moses was taught by Akhenaten and that monotheism is an ancient African concept”
· Akhenaten’s self-liberation from an oppressive tradition (the Amun priesthood) makes him an attractive and powerful symbol for African American political and religious figures. M. Compares Akhenaten’s name change to Elijah Muhammad (founder of the Nation of Islam) changed his ‘slave name’ after b/c Muslim & radical
· Montserrat acclaims Akhenaten’s involvement in Afrocentrism begins with Elijah Muhammad’s teacher, W.D. Fard, in Detroit approximately 1930.
o “The many impoverished black migrants from the South living in Detroit during the Depression provided a ready audience”
· Breasted, didn’t believe Akhenaten was black, rather white people were responsible for carrying civilisation. Rather racist reasons. “The Conquest of Civilisation”
o Apparently once it was thought that Ak was black, became possible to ignore his racism and adopt his heroic political leader struck chord in Fard’s supporters.
o Ak= reborn in Detroit slums. I suppose b/c he was a figure who ‘proved’ that black people could have and did have, political power. A nice thought, like Akhenaten as an image to disabled children, historically incorrect and should never be constituted as real. Just like Santa for children.
· “At roughly the same time, but in a very different social and cultural milieu, Akhenaten and his family underwent another rebirth among African Americans. This was during the ”Harlem renaissance, the great flowing of African American artistic achievement cantered around Harlem in NY”
· W.E.B. Du Bois (1869-1963): Leader of National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, argued for past and present achievements of black people.
· ‘THE CRISIS’ 1920’s HIS magazine used Amarna-derived graphics. By Black artist Aaron Douglas, i.e. portrait of Tut’s funerary mask appears September 1926 (vol 32, no 5), same year black theatre group’s poster uses Amarna elements> Cited: A.H. Kirschke 1995, ‘Art, Race and the Harlem Renaissance’, plates 19 &21
· Du Bios political works, “follows the standard line that Amarna was the apogee of Ancient Egypt. Universal humanitarianism, pacifism and domestic affection were ‘the ideal of life’ there, but originated and ruled over by a black pharaoh”
· Cited Gardener Wilkinson, Amarna’s initial excavator, that the features of Amenhotep III seemed negroid, quoted friend Anna Melissa Graves’ observation of Akhenaten
o “Though less Negroid than his mother was more of the mulatto type than his father, and the portrait busts of his daughters show them all to be beautiful quadroons, though perhaps octoroons. And this Mulatto Pharaoh- Akhnaton- was not the most interesting Pharaoh in all the long lives of the many dynasties; but he was, in many ways, one of the most remarkable human beings who ever lived.”
o ‘Benvenuto Cellini Had No Prejudice against Bronze: Letters from West Africans’ (1943) illustrated W Amarna heads opposing photos of African Americans. (Montserrat says)> Invited African Americans to personally identify with Akhenaten, and probs those of mixed race b/c daughters
· Recent scholarship = sceptical about originality/ motivations (cult existed b/c Amenhotep III set up, probs trying to get power from Amun/ Re priesthood)> but doesn’t matter to Afrocentrist teachers/educators
· Bu Bios work is reprinted for black studies and course materials for teachers. Modern Euro-American culture and values towards acknowledging lives & achievements of black people, reorienting students of African American descent to their continent of origin= feelings of self worth and multiculturalism awareness and humanistic values. CITED: Van Deburg 1997: 257-88> “Modern Black Nationalism from Marcus Garvey to Louis Farrakham”
· Modern book proposing model for Afrocentrist curriculum, C. Crawford’s “Recasting Egypt ion the African Context” (1996)
o Ak = patron saint
· “Other educational projects are placed under Akhenaten’s symbolic protection in the same way. An Amarna relief of him sacrificing appears on the cover of a teachers’ pack produced in 1992 by the Equality Issues in the Humanities Project under the auspices of the Manchester City Council Education Department. The pack is intended to help the teaching of Ancient Egypt at Key Stage 2 (7-11-year-olds) in a non-Eurocentric way, based in part on American models.”
o Akhenaten and Nef are big.
o “Students are encouraged to think about Nefertiti as an African woman of intelligence and political influence, rather than as a glamorous beauty queen” (CITED: “I am indebted to Lance Lewis for sending me a copy of this pack, which I would never have seen otherwise”)> agree with everything except the African bit.
· Other A educational materials tend to show AKI’s reign as the pinnacle of Egypt’s achievements (but the scholarly world doesn’t... I wonder why!), should be followed.
o Maulana Karenga 1960’s
o NOW? Chair of the Department of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach
o Ideas=widely adopted
o Ideas of his appropriate the idea of MAAT, but this possibly isn’t so crazy? It is also. Technically, part of other religions beliefs.
o UNTIL you get to this bit: Molefi Kete Asante MAAT= ‘the one cosmic generator that gave meaning to life’ (CITED: 1992 M.K. Asante, “Afrocentricity” N. J. Trenton)
· “The black radical traditions I have surveyed here involve a variety of concerns and the approaches which I have partly glossed over. Some black radicals are committed to making demands on the establishment in the present, others more interested in cultural recognition and pride; some have links to secular white or interracial traditions (particularly various forms of socialism), while others are more separatist and religious. Yet what strikes me is the way that Akhenaten appears in these very different political traditions in much the same ways.”
7- Sexualities
·
Akhenaten statue Stolen> Dr el-Awady
"It's the most important one from an artistic point of view," said museum director Tarek el-Awady.
"The position of the king is unique and it's a beautiful piece of art."
"During Akhenaten's so-called Amarna period, named after his capital, artists experimented with new styles."
Excuse my rant
Despite the theories that he was black, there was always a distinction in art between the Egyptians and their Nubian neighbours, colour wise (saw this at the museum on one of the artefacts).
The Nubian’s were always painted black-black, and as Akhenaten changed the colour skin of men and women to a much lighter shade (as seen when there are paintings), and the bust of Nefertiti distinctly conveys that she wasn’t Negroid, it is historically incorrect to assume that they were.
It then becomes worse if one bases these theories (as do the pathological theories) on the early art forms and to ignore the later works of Thutmose; it makes a bad historian.
Furthermore, Egyptian art since its early stages represented more than just figures as European art does, making it impossible the judge that the (the early works especially, as they seem to hold the most religious meaning) art reflects race or physical heath.
Akhenaten is an easy ‘target’ though, he is (to quote Breasted) the only ‘individual’ in Ancient Egypt, the only pharaoh who dared to change the society after thousands of years.
Thus it is easy for people to put incorrect theories on him, especially seeing as there is no definitive answer to Amarna Art.
Tutankhamen exhi. notes
· Sculptures head of a Princess from Amarna
o “The unusual elongation of the skull, which appears in other Amarna figures, may have reflected religious ideology. Possibly a familial trait, this feature also occurs in the mummy of Tutankhamen, who may have
been the half brother”
And as the children of Nefertiti they are presumably not inbred like their half brother, and Akhenaten's mummy didn't show any signs of deformities
either, perhaps it is a result of their environment? Is it possible that their skulls are so 'odd' because of the 'pillows' they slept on? If they slept on them with their lower neck would the skull change and 'hang', and so creating a very curved and elongated skull??? Just a thought i really need your advice for sir or anyone else. These pictures may help
· Face from a statue of Nefertiti (brown quartzite)
o “she appears here with naturalistic features, not (with the) exaggeration of earlier statues”
Even my sister agreed that she didn't look African American, and in another picture I showed her she said she looked slightly European, largely b/c of her delicate features
· Limestone Sculptures practice model in sunk relief (double sided)
o “A depiction of Queen Nefertiti appears on one side of this trial piece and a kneeling courtier on the other... the full lip and long neck are characterisations of the Amarna period”
Shows the struggles of the artist Bek to grasp new style, which after the re-discovery of Amarna effects MANY interpretations.
· Funerary figure of AKI, osirian: interetsing, but i think b/c of the growth in unpopularity, Akhenaten relinquished the existence of only one God.
· “carved and painted figures become less angular, exhibiting a new realism”
There was a head of the colossi there also, and I can say that the positioning DOES affect how one sees the statues, even my sister agreed!! And it helped that they positioned it the right way. Though, it still looked kinda weird.