In March 2023, the rapper Gims despite himself caused a buzz when an
extract from an interview for the OuiHustle show broadcast on YouTube
went viral in which he declared: "The pyramids that we see there, at the
top, there has gold. Gold is the best conductor for electricity. They
were damn antennas. People had electricity! ". What followed were
comments about the black knights who existed 50,000 years ago.
Like many of his fellow researchers, the anthropologist, prehistorian
and mythologist Jean-Loïc Le Quellec took this for yet another joke
before taking seriously, not the rapper's words, but the underlying
speeches. The Egypt of the pharaohs is the object of numerous fantasies
and Egyptology has been used for political purposes for several
centuries: from the Roman Empire to Pop culture via Napoleon and the
Place de la Concorde in Paris, the Egyptomania is everywhere. Sometimes
for the better...and often for the worse.
The author shows how Pharaonic Egypt, proving to be an insurmountable
golden age, produced discourses of "reverse evolutionism", thus
testifying to the decline of civilizations and that of humanity, like a
"myth of reverse progress", "romantic archaeologists" using
archaeological data to construct their narrative. Everyone finds their
origins and arguments for their cause: abolitionist pastors from the
19th century, Afrocentric activists from the Nation of Islam or white
supremacists!
Gims' speech is symmetrical to that of Sarkozy who affirmed in July 2007
that "the African man has not entered enough into History", a speech
delivered in Dakar at the Cheikh-Anta-Diop University of which the work,
Negro Nations and Culture (1955) is a reference for black supremacists,
such as Kémi Séba whose speech is the positive (or negative, it depends)
of that of Richard Lynn, racialist psychologist and eugenicist.
Educated and accessible, Jean-Loïc Le Quellec's work reminds us that it
is always necessary to question the nature of myths and the discourses
they underlie.
David (UCL Savoies)
Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, Our ancestors the pharaohs, five centuries of
illusions about ancient Egypt, LÉditions du Détour, March 2024 280
pages, 22.90 euros.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Jean-Loic-Le-Quellec-Nos-ancetres-les-pharaons-cinq-siecles-d-illusions
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
extract from an interview for the OuiHustle show broadcast on YouTube
went viral in which he declared: "The pyramids that we see there, at the
top, there has gold. Gold is the best conductor for electricity. They
were damn antennas. People had electricity! ". What followed were
comments about the black knights who existed 50,000 years ago.
Like many of his fellow researchers, the anthropologist, prehistorian
and mythologist Jean-Loïc Le Quellec took this for yet another joke
before taking seriously, not the rapper's words, but the underlying
speeches. The Egypt of the pharaohs is the object of numerous fantasies
and Egyptology has been used for political purposes for several
centuries: from the Roman Empire to Pop culture via Napoleon and the
Place de la Concorde in Paris, the Egyptomania is everywhere. Sometimes
for the better...and often for the worse.
The author shows how Pharaonic Egypt, proving to be an insurmountable
golden age, produced discourses of "reverse evolutionism", thus
testifying to the decline of civilizations and that of humanity, like a
"myth of reverse progress", "romantic archaeologists" using
archaeological data to construct their narrative. Everyone finds their
origins and arguments for their cause: abolitionist pastors from the
19th century, Afrocentric activists from the Nation of Islam or white
supremacists!
Gims' speech is symmetrical to that of Sarkozy who affirmed in July 2007
that "the African man has not entered enough into History", a speech
delivered in Dakar at the Cheikh-Anta-Diop University of which the work,
Negro Nations and Culture (1955) is a reference for black supremacists,
such as Kémi Séba whose speech is the positive (or negative, it depends)
of that of Richard Lynn, racialist psychologist and eugenicist.
Educated and accessible, Jean-Loïc Le Quellec's work reminds us that it
is always necessary to question the nature of myths and the discourses
they underlie.
David (UCL Savoies)
Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, Our ancestors the pharaohs, five centuries of
illusions about ancient Egypt, LÉditions du Détour, March 2024 280
pages, 22.90 euros.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Jean-Loic-Le-Quellec-Nos-ancetres-les-pharaons-cinq-siecles-d-illusions
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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