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FREEDOMWAYS THIRD QUARTER 1966 science: it was due to the slave trade and Negro slavery. It was due to the fact that the rise and support of capitalism called for rationalization based upon degrading and discrediting the Negroid peoples. It is especially significant that the science of Egyptology arose and flourished at the very time that the cotton kingdom reached its greatest power on the foundation of American Negro slavery. We may then without further ado ignore this verdict of history, widespread as it is, and treat Egyptian history as an integral part of African history.* Let this be our position also, for in studying the scientific accomplishments of the Egyptians let it be said at the outset that we are also studying the achievements of brown and black men. This is in strictest accordance with scientific fact, in spite of the Teutonic grievances of scholars like Will Durant, who in his book Our Oriental Heritage syllogistically proves that the Egyptians were "white" in reality and just brown or black in skin color. His argument runs something like this: In the calm light of modern scientific research we must at long last concede that the Aryans are not the fathers of civilization. Archaeological evidence proves that it was the "Hamite" race who are, by the way, members of the "white" race. Ergo: The Egyptians were "white." I often wonder how the different races of men would have been classified had Asians or Africans been the codifiers. In view of these matters it is easy for us to see that "it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness." And a study of scientific thought during the colonial era will empirically demonstrate the scientific validity of this propositon. Whether we're in Australia, Asia, Africa, or the Americas, primitive folk everywhere have some form of counting. The complexity of their counting systems depends more or less upon their social maturity (the complexity of their social needs), and not their intelligence. The Andamans, a tribe of Oceanic Negritoes, have number names limited to one and two, but by a repetitious process they can reach ten; and we have every reason to believe that should the need to count higher consistently present itself, in like manner it would be fulfilled. Another tribe, the Pitta-Pitta, of Queensland are able --- • W. E. B. Du Bois, The World and Africa, p. 99. 242
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Reopened for Editing 2024-02-09 12:37:38