Michael F. Robinson - The Lost White Tribe : Explorers, Scientists, and the Theory That Changed a Continent download EPUB, DJV
9780199978489 English 0199978484 In 1876, in a mountainous region to the west of Lake Victoria, Africa - what is today Ruwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda - the famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley encountered Africans with what he was convinced were light complexions and European features. Stanley's discovery of thisAfrican "white tribe" haunted him and seemed to substantiate the so-called Hamitic Hypothesis: the theory that the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, had populated Africa and other remote places, proving that the source and spread of human races around the world could be traced to and explained bya Biblical story. In The Lost White Tribe, Michael Robinson traces the rise and fall of the Hamitic Hypothesis. In addition to recounting Stanley's "discovery," Robinson shows how it influenced others, including that of the Ainu in Japan; or Vilhjalmur Stefansson's tribe of "blond Eskimos" in the Arctic; or the9,000-year-old skeleton found in Washington State with what were deemed "Caucasian features." As Robinson shows, race theory stemming originally from the Bible only not only guided exploration but archeology, including Charles Mauch's discovery of the Grand Zimbabwe site in 1872, and literature,such as H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, whose publication launched an entire literary subgenre dedicated to white tribes in remote places. The Hamitic Hypothesis would shape the theories of Carl Jung and guide psychological and anthropological notions of the primitive.The Hypothesis also formed the foundation for the European colonial system, which was premised on assumptions about racial hierarchy, at whose top were the white races, the purest and oldest of them all. It was a small step from the Hypothesis to theories of Aryan superiority, which served as thebasis of the race laws in Nazi Germany and had horrific and catastrophic consequences. Though racial thinking changed profoundly after World War Two, a version of Hamitic validation of the "whiter" tribes laid the groundwork for conflict within Africa itself after decolonization, including theRwandan genocide. Based on painstaking archival research, The Lost White Tribe is a fascinating, immersive, and wide-ranging work of synthesis, revealing the roots of racial thinking and the legacies that continue to exert their influence to this day., In 1876, in a mountainous region to the west of Lake Victoria, Africa--what is today Ruwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda--the famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley encountered Africans with what he was convinced were light complexions and European features. Stanley's discovery of this African "white tribe" haunted him and seemed to substantiate the so-called Hamitic Hypothesis: the theory that the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, had populated Africa and other remote places, proving that the source and spread of human races around the world could be traced to and explained by a Biblical story. In The Lost White Tribe, Michael Robinson traces the rise and fall of the Hamitic Hypothesis. In addition to recounting Stanley's "discovery," Robinson shows how it influenced encounters with the Ainu in Japan; Vilhjalmur Stefansson's tribe of "blond Eskimos" in the Arctic; and the "white Indians" of Panama. As Robinson shows, race theory stemming originally from the Bible only not only guided exploration but archeology, including Charles Mauch's discovery of the Grand Zimbabwe site in 1872, and literature, such as H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, whose publication launched an entire literary subgenre ded icated to white tribes in remote places. The Hamitic Hypothesis would shape the theories of Carl Jung and guide psychological and anthropological notions of the primitive. The Hypothesis also formed the foundation for the European colonial system, which was premised on assumptions about racial hierarchy, at whose top were the white races, the purest and oldest of them all. It was a small step from the Hypothesis to theories of Aryan superiority, which served as the basis of the race laws in Nazi Germany and had horrific and catastrophic consequences. Though racial thinking changed profoundly after World War Two, a version of Hamitic validation of the "whiter" tribes laid the groundwork for conflict within Africa itself after decolonization, including the Rwandan genocide. Based on painstaking archival research, The Lost White Tribe is a fascinating, immersive, and wide-ranging work of synthesis, revealing the roots of racial thinking and the legacies that continue to exert their influence to this day., In 1876, in a mountainous region to the west of Lake Victoria--what is today Ruwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda--the famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley encountered Africans with what he was convinced were light complexions and European features. Stanley's discovery of this African "white tribe" haunted him and seemed to substantiate the so-called Hamitic Hypothesis: the theory that the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, had populated Africa and other remote places, proving that the source and spread of human races around the world could be traced to and explained by a Biblical story. In The Lost White Tribe of Africa, Michael Robinson traces the rise and fall of the Hamitic Hypothesis. In addition to recounting Stanley's "discovery," Robinson shows how it influenced others, including that of the Ainu in Japan; or Vilhjalmur Stefansson's tribe of "blond Eskimos" in the Arctic; or the 9,000-year-old skeleton found in Washington State with what were deemed "Caucasian features." As Robinson shows, race theory stemming originally from the Bible only not only guided exploration but archeology, including Charles Mauch's discovery of the Grand Zimbabwe site in 1872, and literature, such as H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, whose publication launched an entire literary subgenre dedicated to white tribes in remote places. The Hamitic Hypothesis would shape the theories of Carl Jung and guide psychological and anthropological notions of the primitive. The Hypothesis also formed the foundation for the European colonial system, which was premised on assumptions about racial hierarchy, at whose top were the white races, the purest and oldest of them all. It was a small step from the Hypothesis to theories of Aryan superiority, which served as the basis of the race laws in Nazi Germany and had horrific and catastrophic consequences. Though racial thinking changed profoundly after World War Two, a version of Hamitic validation of the "whiter" tribes laid the groundwork for conflict within Africa itself after decolonization, including the Rwandan genocide. Based on painstaking archival research, The Lost White Tribe of Africa is a fascinating, immersive, and wide-ranging work of synthesis, revealing the roots of racial thinking and the legacies that continue to exert their influence to this day., While exploring East Africa in 1876, five years after his famous encounter with David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley encountered four Africans with light complexions and European features. They came from the slopes of Gambaragara, a snow-capped mountain west of Lake Victoria. That such a towering range existed in the heart of equatorial Africa was astonishing enough. "But what gives it peculiar interest," Stanley wrote, "is that on its cold and lonely top dwell a people of an entirely distinct race, being white, like Europeans." Stanley's story had the ring of the fantastic about it, but it was taken seriously by his readers, scientists and explorers, even Africans themselves. Rather than an eccentric claim, they saw it as an important piece of evidence in a theory which asserted that whites had lived in Africa since antiquity. In TheLost White Tribe of Africa, Michael F. Robinson traces the rise and fall of this theory, known as the Hamitic Hypothesis, and the scientific expeditions that gave it life. The Hamitic Hypothesis was not simply a curiosity of anthropological science; for almost one hundred years, it held sway in Europe and Africa, from the corridors of science to the colonial offices of Nairobi and Kampala. Supporters pointed to a variety of sources: the kingship legends of African tribes, the migration stories of the Hebrew Bible, the discovery of ancient ruins in Egypt and Zimbabwe, and the physical differences observed--by Stanley and many others--among African peoples. European colonists relied upon the hypothesis to justify their presence in Africa; scientists used it to explain away the accomplishments of African civilizations; and Africans themselves linked it the idea to legends of the Bacwezi, a light-skinned people who were thought to have reigned over a vast kingdom in East Africa. Yet TheLost White Tribe of Africa is not only a story about Africa; it is also about the West. Americans and Europeans were captivated by these reports of mysterious white tribes. From Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, a novel that drew heavily on the discovery of the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe, to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, to Carl Jung's 1925 expedition locate the heart of primitivism itself, theories involving whites in Africa had profound effects upon Western culture and thought. Even after they fell out of favor in the 1960s, these theories remained popular in white-ruled nations such as South Africa and Rhodesia. Robinson carries his story to the present, probing current debates about racial identity and the concept of race as a biological category. Whether or not the Gambaragarans were white in the racial sense believed by Stanley, they touched something deep within the Western imagination. Were these tribes real, a fantasy, or some collective distortion of mind? Who they were and how they changed the world make up the subject of this illuminating work.
9780199978489 English 0199978484 In 1876, in a mountainous region to the west of Lake Victoria, Africa - what is today Ruwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda - the famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley encountered Africans with what he was convinced were light complexions and European features. Stanley's discovery of thisAfrican "white tribe" haunted him and seemed to substantiate the so-called Hamitic Hypothesis: the theory that the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, had populated Africa and other remote places, proving that the source and spread of human races around the world could be traced to and explained bya Biblical story. In The Lost White Tribe, Michael Robinson traces the rise and fall of the Hamitic Hypothesis. In addition to recounting Stanley's "discovery," Robinson shows how it influenced others, including that of the Ainu in Japan; or Vilhjalmur Stefansson's tribe of "blond Eskimos" in the Arctic; or the9,000-year-old skeleton found in Washington State with what were deemed "Caucasian features." As Robinson shows, race theory stemming originally from the Bible only not only guided exploration but archeology, including Charles Mauch's discovery of the Grand Zimbabwe site in 1872, and literature,such as H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, whose publication launched an entire literary subgenre dedicated to white tribes in remote places. The Hamitic Hypothesis would shape the theories of Carl Jung and guide psychological and anthropological notions of the primitive.The Hypothesis also formed the foundation for the European colonial system, which was premised on assumptions about racial hierarchy, at whose top were the white races, the purest and oldest of them all. It was a small step from the Hypothesis to theories of Aryan superiority, which served as thebasis of the race laws in Nazi Germany and had horrific and catastrophic consequences. Though racial thinking changed profoundly after World War Two, a version of Hamitic validation of the "whiter" tribes laid the groundwork for conflict within Africa itself after decolonization, including theRwandan genocide. Based on painstaking archival research, The Lost White Tribe is a fascinating, immersive, and wide-ranging work of synthesis, revealing the roots of racial thinking and the legacies that continue to exert their influence to this day., In 1876, in a mountainous region to the west of Lake Victoria, Africa--what is today Ruwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda--the famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley encountered Africans with what he was convinced were light complexions and European features. Stanley's discovery of this African "white tribe" haunted him and seemed to substantiate the so-called Hamitic Hypothesis: the theory that the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, had populated Africa and other remote places, proving that the source and spread of human races around the world could be traced to and explained by a Biblical story. In The Lost White Tribe, Michael Robinson traces the rise and fall of the Hamitic Hypothesis. In addition to recounting Stanley's "discovery," Robinson shows how it influenced encounters with the Ainu in Japan; Vilhjalmur Stefansson's tribe of "blond Eskimos" in the Arctic; and the "white Indians" of Panama. As Robinson shows, race theory stemming originally from the Bible only not only guided exploration but archeology, including Charles Mauch's discovery of the Grand Zimbabwe site in 1872, and literature, such as H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, whose publication launched an entire literary subgenre ded icated to white tribes in remote places. The Hamitic Hypothesis would shape the theories of Carl Jung and guide psychological and anthropological notions of the primitive. The Hypothesis also formed the foundation for the European colonial system, which was premised on assumptions about racial hierarchy, at whose top were the white races, the purest and oldest of them all. It was a small step from the Hypothesis to theories of Aryan superiority, which served as the basis of the race laws in Nazi Germany and had horrific and catastrophic consequences. Though racial thinking changed profoundly after World War Two, a version of Hamitic validation of the "whiter" tribes laid the groundwork for conflict within Africa itself after decolonization, including the Rwandan genocide. Based on painstaking archival research, The Lost White Tribe is a fascinating, immersive, and wide-ranging work of synthesis, revealing the roots of racial thinking and the legacies that continue to exert their influence to this day., In 1876, in a mountainous region to the west of Lake Victoria--what is today Ruwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda--the famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley encountered Africans with what he was convinced were light complexions and European features. Stanley's discovery of this African "white tribe" haunted him and seemed to substantiate the so-called Hamitic Hypothesis: the theory that the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, had populated Africa and other remote places, proving that the source and spread of human races around the world could be traced to and explained by a Biblical story. In The Lost White Tribe of Africa, Michael Robinson traces the rise and fall of the Hamitic Hypothesis. In addition to recounting Stanley's "discovery," Robinson shows how it influenced others, including that of the Ainu in Japan; or Vilhjalmur Stefansson's tribe of "blond Eskimos" in the Arctic; or the 9,000-year-old skeleton found in Washington State with what were deemed "Caucasian features." As Robinson shows, race theory stemming originally from the Bible only not only guided exploration but archeology, including Charles Mauch's discovery of the Grand Zimbabwe site in 1872, and literature, such as H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, whose publication launched an entire literary subgenre dedicated to white tribes in remote places. The Hamitic Hypothesis would shape the theories of Carl Jung and guide psychological and anthropological notions of the primitive. The Hypothesis also formed the foundation for the European colonial system, which was premised on assumptions about racial hierarchy, at whose top were the white races, the purest and oldest of them all. It was a small step from the Hypothesis to theories of Aryan superiority, which served as the basis of the race laws in Nazi Germany and had horrific and catastrophic consequences. Though racial thinking changed profoundly after World War Two, a version of Hamitic validation of the "whiter" tribes laid the groundwork for conflict within Africa itself after decolonization, including the Rwandan genocide. Based on painstaking archival research, The Lost White Tribe of Africa is a fascinating, immersive, and wide-ranging work of synthesis, revealing the roots of racial thinking and the legacies that continue to exert their influence to this day., While exploring East Africa in 1876, five years after his famous encounter with David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley encountered four Africans with light complexions and European features. They came from the slopes of Gambaragara, a snow-capped mountain west of Lake Victoria. That such a towering range existed in the heart of equatorial Africa was astonishing enough. "But what gives it peculiar interest," Stanley wrote, "is that on its cold and lonely top dwell a people of an entirely distinct race, being white, like Europeans." Stanley's story had the ring of the fantastic about it, but it was taken seriously by his readers, scientists and explorers, even Africans themselves. Rather than an eccentric claim, they saw it as an important piece of evidence in a theory which asserted that whites had lived in Africa since antiquity. In TheLost White Tribe of Africa, Michael F. Robinson traces the rise and fall of this theory, known as the Hamitic Hypothesis, and the scientific expeditions that gave it life. The Hamitic Hypothesis was not simply a curiosity of anthropological science; for almost one hundred years, it held sway in Europe and Africa, from the corridors of science to the colonial offices of Nairobi and Kampala. Supporters pointed to a variety of sources: the kingship legends of African tribes, the migration stories of the Hebrew Bible, the discovery of ancient ruins in Egypt and Zimbabwe, and the physical differences observed--by Stanley and many others--among African peoples. European colonists relied upon the hypothesis to justify their presence in Africa; scientists used it to explain away the accomplishments of African civilizations; and Africans themselves linked it the idea to legends of the Bacwezi, a light-skinned people who were thought to have reigned over a vast kingdom in East Africa. Yet TheLost White Tribe of Africa is not only a story about Africa; it is also about the West. Americans and Europeans were captivated by these reports of mysterious white tribes. From Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, a novel that drew heavily on the discovery of the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe, to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, to Carl Jung's 1925 expedition locate the heart of primitivism itself, theories involving whites in Africa had profound effects upon Western culture and thought. Even after they fell out of favor in the 1960s, these theories remained popular in white-ruled nations such as South Africa and Rhodesia. Robinson carries his story to the present, probing current debates about racial identity and the concept of race as a biological category. Whether or not the Gambaragarans were white in the racial sense believed by Stanley, they touched something deep within the Western imagination. Were these tribes real, a fantasy, or some collective distortion of mind? Who they were and how they changed the world make up the subject of this illuminating work.