Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009

0
Afrocentrism: Development of I deology, Methodology and Application in
Pseudoarchaeology












Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
1
Afrocentrism: Development of I deology, Methodology and Application in
Pseudoarchaeology
Following the age of European expansion into the western hemisphere or New
World in the sixteenth century, an empirical form of ethnocentrism came to predominate
the vast fields of philosophy and logic, which contributed to the already hegemonic
world-view of a Christendom; the western Europe of that era; as the zenith of human
accomplishments and high culture placed on top of the Great Chain of Being. This
hierarchy which upheld European culture and history on a pedestal termed civilized
contrasted the developing; as a result of the decline and colonization of New World
populations alongside the expanding Trans-Atlantic slave trade which objectified
Africans; view of non-European peoples as inherently inferior and designated the castes
of barbarian and savage in varying colonial and imperial contexts as a means of
justifying European domination and ethnocentric logic. For several centuries after the
accumulation of the colonial wealth; acquired from the New World and economic
ventures in the African continent which aided the emergence of Europes Renaissance;
this model of western superiority, evident in Americas icons and mythos of classical
Greco-Roman heritage, stood unopposed as the perceived primordial version of history.
Continuity of ethnocentric; in this case Euro centrism; rationales and dogma came to a
halt (or slowed pace) with the abolishment of slavery and racial segregation, placing
American society as a developing dichotomy of a Black (African) and White
(European) society, setting the context for a reactionary development of an African-
centered ideology and pedagogy termed as Afrocentrism. In this overview of
Afrocentrism, attention will be directed at the emergence of African-centered ideology
Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
2
and its development as an academic orientation functioning to forward a race-based
political, cultural and historical ideology amidst its erroneous application of
Eurocentrisms hierarchical-based views of the others (e.g. non-Africans opposed to
Eurocentrisms non-Europeans), as evident in Afrocentric application of
pseudoarcheaological methods concerning the claimed African-origin of civilization at
large, with emphasis directed to disputed non-autochthonal origins of Mesoamerican
civilization.
Origins of African-centered Epistemology
In Afrocentric Voices: Constructing Identities, [Dis]Placing Difference Kanishka
Chowdhury introduces the concept Afrocentrism as a contemporary African-American
academic theory whose advocates hold a position loosely based on certain archeological
and anthropological studies [focus will be directed at what is implied by loosely and
certain later]to establish Egypt as a Black society which has a developmental
genealogy including the prominent figure of W.E.B. Du Bois whom argued that the
ancient Egyptians were Negroes. An oppressed mass of displaced peoples as a result of
European-bondage and cultural domination were deterred from progressing their cultural
development and autonomy; in terms of African peoples identity and collective esteem;
by archaic racialized views of Africa as Hegel describes a land of savages, a land with
out history which contrastingly mirrored the notion of inherent European superiority
which function in an opposite manner: to oppress the others (1997:35-36; 38).
This painstakingly epoch of oppression brought figures such as Du Bois to the
forefront promoting ideals which; contrary to the Slave-masters teachings; celebrated
African descent, as evident in his work of The Souls of Black Folk proclaming of being
Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
3
first and foremost as a son of Africa while later implicitly framing the discourse in
opposition to Eurocentric indoctrination as he continues to comment that the blood of
my African fathers spoke through me and cast off the English restraint of my training and
surroundings. Du Bois frequent references to the ideals of Africa, Egypt and
Ethiopia were an early logical and organized attempt to shake off the hegemonic racial
stigmas which were embedded in the Black/White society of the pre-Civil Rights
movement America, a time which still was in the Jim Crow-mentality concerning race
relations. Kenneth W. Stikkers, in discussing the contributions of Du Bois to
methodological Afrocentrism, notes that his rhetoric functioned to call for African-
Americans to see their thinking, self-understanding, and libratory efforts as essentially
tied to those of Africans, in effect allowing this ideological grounding to mobilize the
shaking off of Eurocentrisms endemic negation of African historicity and cultural
awareness and a movement towards Pan-Africanism symbolized by the later emergence
of Afrocentrism in academia (2008:46).
More importantly however is the concept of a then-Black/White America,
which according to Du Bois had made the African populace experience their lives via
dualism concerning identity and culture in which, as William Cobbs Jr. details in Out
of Africa: The Dilemmas of Afrocentricity, the theft of our names, languages, gods.. left
us [Africans] culturally schizoid haunted by what Du Bois termed double
consciousness. This double consciousness or dualism, as Du Bois defined in 1897,
referred to the struggle of being an American and Negro in a European White-
American dominated society (1997:122-123).
Afrocentric Ideology & Its Function In Academia
Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
4
A mere decade prior to the civil rights movement of the 1960s witnessed the
emergence of foundational Afrocentric scholars such as Cheik Anta Diop and Molefi
Kete Asante; which will be discussed further in detail; which utilized previous African-
centered epistemological orientations to conceptualize a foundation for African-
centered education and cultural development based upon self-determinism but most
importantly, with a primary aim [of Afrocentric ideology], as Du Bois alluded to in the
struggle within the dualism to challenge the then unopposed ideological Eurocentric
paradigm which upheld Classic Greco-Roman; not Egypt/ Africa; as the source of high
culture and civilization in antiquity, and Europe; as a continent; the center of this [eastern
Mediterranean, not Western-European] cultural heritage. The rest of the world or
others (including Africa) became delineated as the uncivilized periphery which was
given civilization via colonization.
This ethnocentric view of Europe as a cradle of greatness was prominent in
compulsory education for the most part of the 20
th
century and therefore functioned in
opposition to the reactionary then-developing Afrocentric ideological framework. As
Elaine Richardson in Critique On The Problematic Implementing Afrocentricity Into
Traditional Curriculum notes
in their quest for equality and freedom African-Americanscome from schoolswith
400-plus years of stereotypes hanging over their headsthis idea of preparedness [e.g.
Eurocentric indoctrination] is...to experience another 4 or more years of mis-
educationa form of training designed for...the dominant societythat inadvertently
works to the demise of the oppressed people in the society (Richardson 2000:196).
Such orientation is founded upon the African-centered approach of the aforementioned
W.E.B. Du Bois, who in accordance to the notion of Eurocentric pedagogy as
Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
5
miseducation noted that African-Americans must develop their own distinct and
superior culture in order to confront the color-lines delineated by the powers that be
(Dunn 1993: 28). The notion of superior culture, mirroring the implications of
Eurocentrism and its championing of Europe as superior, was to be framed by such
figures as the Senegalese Cheik Anta Diop and Molefi Kete Asante of Nigerian heritage.
Diffusionism, and the notion of Egypt as the Original Black Civilization
In Eurocentrism VS. Afrocentrism: a Geopolitical Linkage Analysis Linus A.
Hoskins details the structural relations of both -isms or black vs. white perspectives
by defining Afrocentrism as an authentic and specific [unmistakenly and only African]
culture and historyone that did not begin in Father Europe but a human/ world history
that began in Mother Africa [Adding to this assertion that] Euro centrismrepresents a
racist, divisive, ahistorical, and dysfunctional view of world history. A superior-model,
as the aforementioned notes, elicits an assumed superiority as result of human origins and
[more loose assumption] of Africanness or Blackness is forwarded. Moreover, Hoskins
further notes Afrocentrism postulates that African people are the subject of
world/history/culture/civilization and not the object of Eurocentrismit not only trains
but equips us with the necessary tools and research methodology to engage in critical
thinkingfrom an African perspective and reference point (1992: 247; 254).
Building upon this orientation of methodological Afrocentrism, one cannot leave
out the Diopian-school of thought; referring to Cheik Diop and his supporters; which
can be considered the foundational researchers of African-centered research, whose
efforts were forwarded in a holistic [e.g. not just in terms of cultural-historical
archaeology] application in the social sciences by Molefi Asante. This school of thought
Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
6
is founded upon, as Asante notes the centrality [e.g. placement as center of diffusion] of
the ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) civilization and the Nile Valley cultural complex as
points of referencesin same way Greece and Rome serve as reference points for the
European worldthus Afrocentrism expands [diffuses African history] human history by
creating a new path for interpretation (1987: 9). In a sense, this approach is rather
idealistic; as the desired interpretation leaves the margin of error open in association to
pseudoarchaeological methods which function to forward desired interpretation of
contexts via the accumulation of purported data.
Cheik Anta Diop provided the tiers of methodological framework for others in
academia to utilize in other cultural-historical archaeological contexts. This methodology
for interpretation of origins of civilization utilized the oppositions (e.g. Eurocentric
ideology) racialized notions of Mongoloid/Negroid/Caucasoid in order to formulate a
hegemonic black model in which members of the black race included persons with
straight or wavy hair such as the Dravidians of India and those with curly or coiled hair
such as West Africans, moreover incorporating the western notion of the hypo descent
and the one-drop rule (Montellano 1997:419-420). From this same approach to
phenotype (e.g. comparative view of populations despite temporal and spatial
differences) Afrocentrism developed a notion that all complex cultural developments
outside of Egypt implied diffusion, whether direct or indirect influence. Comparative
methodology and interpretation of cultural patterns among societies fused with
ethnocentric, nationalist-driven interpretations to forward agendas of African cultural
diffusion, as noted by Asa G. Hilliard III in his mention of [concerning emerging studies
in Egypt] this revolution can and will have great meaning for people of African descent
Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
7
all over the world (1992:10). Civilization was conceptualized as having originated in the
Nile c.3100 BC and African agency allowed the non-African peoples; which became
recipients of a more assumed prestigious Egypto-Nubian culture; to progress from
savage and barbarian social organization to civilized state-level societies (1992:10)
(Montellano 1997:420).
Application of Afrocentric Methodology in New World Civilizations
The new world, the western hemisphere or the Americas presented a
challenge for the Eurocentric notions of origin of civilization from the onset of the age of
colonialism in which Europeans from abroad perceived the classical civilization of the
Maya as having descended from western counterparts. The mystery surrounding the
earliest Mesoamerican forms cultural development are represented in the archaeological
record by the Olmec, to which no specific current linguistic and cultural identifiers are
associated to, that is the Olmec are known solely for the material evidence they left which
predate later more complex forms of the Olmec blue print manifested by the later
Zapotec, Maya and Toltec cultures.
The contextual interpretation of the wealth of material evidence associated with
the Olmec culture was fused with Afrocentric metholodology along the lines of 1978s
They Came Before Columbus by Ivan Van Sertima. Accordingly, Egypto-Nubian rulers
were said to have organized an expedition, and via the aid of prevailing ocean and wind
currents near the North African coast, the expedition was pushed across the Atlantic
into Mesoamerica. The superior Nubians, according to this narrative, provided the
inferior Olmecs a rich ritual complexes including mummification, pyramid building, use
Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
8
of symbolic purple dye, weaving alongside other technical-feats which they utilized to
create this hyrbrid civilization (Montellano 1997:420).
The colossal heads which depict indigenous rulers, depicting features common in
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region such as the epicanthic fold, full lips and broad nose
are commonly forwarded as the smoking gun or as definitive evidence for African
presence solely based upon observable features which are clearly not exclusively
Africans, as Hawaiians, Polynesians, Phillipinos, Cambodians and varying regions in
Mexico and central America also exhibit these features among their native populations.
Ivan Van Sertima forwards his case in an updated thesis Early America Revisited as he
supports the aesthetic interpretation of assumed African features in the colossal heads
as he mentions their Negro-ness could not be explained awaytheir coloration, fullness
of lipsgenerally fleshed nosesall these had been skillfully and realistically portrayed
(1998:19). Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Bernard Ortiz de Montellano, and Warren Barbour, in
Robbing Native American Cultures take it upon themselves to address the above
referenced claims alongside other loosely and certain appropriated contextual data
forwarded by Ivan Van Sertima and his theoretical adherents. One primary allegation
raised towards Sertimas claim of the colossal heads depicting black Egypto-Nubians is
the fact North and East Africans (which accordingly must have been the models for the
heads) commonly have straight noses and less full lips, while it is West Africans
(spatially separated from the Nile region of diffusion) that commonly exhibit these
features (Montellano 1997:422-423). The fact (as pictured below) the original inhabitants
of the region exhibit these features falsely designated as exclusive African features
Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
9
should be common sense enough to combat the circular (non-scientific) reasoning based
upon Western racialized views of Africans as all having broad lips and noses.
One obvious methodological error Sertima overlooks manifests in his rebuttal to
the claim East/North Africans are atypical in phenotype, as to mean they are not
exclusively representative of one African type but represent a polytypic, that is a
variety of phenotypes that differ from the stereotypical; the same stereotype inherent in
ethnocentric descriptions of Olmec art; Negro. Sertima utilizes this tactic to claim that
albeit the majority of depictions of pharaohnic Egyptians align with the non-stereotypical
type among the varied polytypic model, the Olmecs still represent a sizeable
demographic of ancient Egypt, as to validate his claim and refute his critics allegation of
erroneous methodology (1998:33). Therein lies the invalid assumption however. If one
overviews the phenotypical variation across Mesoamerica, North and South America
collectively, one observes the differences in height, pigmentation, and facial features
that is to mean just like Sertima claims Egyptians were polytypic the inhabitants of the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the surrounding regions are not atypical but polytypical as
well. Sertimas denial of this possibility is evident as he compares claims of the colossal
heads depicting spitting images of the native to actual, not-well received theories of
were-jaguars or forged artifacts, associating the claim of the heads depicting
indigenous peoples with fanciful claims (1998:39).

Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
10

(Montellano 1997:426).
The authors of Robbing Native American Cultures further provide an un-refutable
argument considering the lack of non-local evidence for development of Olmec
civilization amidst pseudoarchaeological methods employed to forward a New World
origin or catalyst influence from African diffusion of Egypto-Nubian civilization. If
trans-Atlantic contact is certain and not just a possibility or speculator claim in the
formative period of Olmec civilization then we would be aware of radiometric-dated
artifacts of African origin or organic remains such as flora/fauna (e.g. subsistence plants
from Africa or non-native beasts of burden) however no such item has ever been found in
any controlled archaeological excavation (Montellano 1997:422;428). The relevant
scenario of the fact not one American flora-fauna remain has been found to date pre-1492
in Africa, or the further lack of presence of smallpox in the New World also provides
conflicting evidence for African diffusionist claims. As noted in the previously reference
Voices: Constructing Identities, [Dis]Placing Difference by Kanishka Chowdhury,
Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
11
Afrocentrism is a term constantly redefined within alternative cultural moments
(1997:36). This notion of redefinition within alternatives is central to analyzing
Afrocentric claims in the New World, as the authors of Robbing Native American
Cultures point out the fact Sertima has meticulously revised his chronological timeline of
supposed contact since the 1980s as radiometric dating pushed backed Olmec civilization
to 1200 BC (Montellano 1997:421). Olmec Chronology has now been pushed farther
back, further complicating an Egypto-Nubian diffusion.
Archaeological Realities Concerning Olmec Civilization
In this brief section evidence of local development of Formative Mesoamerican
civilization will be provided in the context of contemporaneous developments to Olmec
chronology which the archaeological record details. It should be noted that no non-local
[New World] artifact has ever been dated in accordance to Olmec chronology, less found
to be of African origin. The developments of pottery and diffusion of shared aesthetic
attributes further point to an already emerging shared indigenous Formative-period
style which according to Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Bernard Ortiz de Montellano, and Warren
Barbour, in Robbing Native American Cultures is further supported by evidence of
Mokaya culture of the Soconusco region of Chiapas reaching a stratified level
organization by 1650 BC which in turn influenced the Gulf Olmecs (Montellano
1997:421).
Origins of Pottery
In the formative period (2500 BC) the Olmec corn cultural-complex of the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec region of Mesoamerica is preceded by the emergence of the
engagement of dependency on agricultural subsistence, as evident by the presence of
Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
12
domesticated maize (4300 BC), squash and tecomate-bottle gourd remains in the Guila
Naquitz (8000 BC) cave site (Austin 2001:12). The parallel growth of agricultural
dependency influenced social and ideological cultural frameworks; while utilization of
ceramics solves storage and cooking needs, while also being produced by the merchant-
class and traded as objects of value among elite (Halperin).
Implications of Ceramics
Economic exchanges in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica incorporated items of prestige,
such as Jadeite celt assemblages from the Olmec site of La Venta shaped as corn cobs
with iconographic references to quetzal plumes (reference to preciousness, i.e. value)
indicating an economic system based on objects of wealth, however much of widespread
sharing of ideas and utilitarian items entailed by trade emerges with the innovation and
diffusion of ceramic production (Taube). Abeja phase pottery of 2300 BC in the
Tehuacan Valley, followed by the Barra phase of 1600BC in Chiapas, indicate gourd-
based stylistic form and shared the utility of tecomate-fruits used as open top water-
containers, implying use in social-religious (elite faction feasting) and subsistence
contexts (Coe 2002: 38).
The utilization of tecomate and tecomate-based pottery was elaborated upon via
later Esperidion phase; c.1500 BC; ceramics functioning as a solution for reliance on
grains and use of pottery for storage surpluses and cooking needs, while aesthetically
functioning as cultural-religious visual representations preceding Later terminal
Formative and Classic period public art works and inscriptions (Austin 2002: 83). As in
other cultural regions in the world, ceramic artistic representations served as ideological
and aesthetic templates influencing textile, codicil (manuscripts, books) and architectural
Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
13
artworks, much in the same manner of the ethno historical analogy of the artistic
implications Maya cylindrical vases upon pre-Colombian semasiographic and
hieroglyphic writing systems, as having contributed to the development of later
iconographic and symbolic ideological representations in the early Formative. No
counterparts of these developments are present in Africa nor the Old World in the same
chronology, less material evidence of ball-courts or rubber production which began with
the Olmec.
Closing Comments Concerning Afrocentrism/ Eurocentrism as Ideological Paradigms
This overview of Afrocentric ideology and its application in archaeological
research; via the methodology of pseudoarcheaology; (that is: archaeology lacking
material, scientific, evidence and rather based on conjecture) is meant to point out the
erroneous approaches undertaken by both forms of ethnocentrism whether it is
European diffusion or African diffusion of human civilization and the inherent Old
World-centered view of cultural historical origins of state-level societies. This Old
World-centered view may be termed, in the traditions of W.E.B. Du Bois a dualism
(which referred to the African-Americans struggle of being an anglophile or American
while also being an African) of a Black/White orientation of human history. Early
European explorers and Afrocentric scholars who forwarded diffusionists claims seem to
hold dearly the wishful thinking of all prestige aspects of human organization to have
originated not from the New World but somehow must have had something to do with the
Old World: Europe, Africa and Asia a world, much like the large part of American
history, which viewed itself as being Black and White. In the founding of the United
States of America, the native was mad an outcast in his own land from the beginning of
European expansion, while people of African descent were forcibly made and later
Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
14
integrated into the larger society. Afrocentrism and early forms of Eurocentrism;
concerning diffusionism; seem to leave out the non-Black/white aspect of human
ingenuity, and in the reactionary function of Afrocentrism (against Eurocentrism) claims
of African-origins of civilization serve to knock down the hegemonic imposition of
white dominance over black historical consciousness while inadvertently deeming
indigenous peoples as static and not capable of developing their own civilization, which
the wealth of available material evidence points to as being an independent development.
































Mario Guevara ANTH137 W2009
15
Works Cited
Asante, Molefi Kete. The Afrocentric Idea. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1987.
Austin, Alfredo. Mexicos Indigenous Past. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma. 2001.
Chowdhury, Kanishka. Afrocentric Voices: Constructing Identities, [Dis]placing
Difference. Jun, 1997. Vol 24. No. 2. pp 35-36. College Literature.
Coe, Michael. Mexico: Olmecs to Aztecs. London: Thames & Hudson. 2002
Cobbs, William Jr. Out of Africa: The Dilemmas of Afrocentricity. Winter 1997. Vol 82
No.1 Pp122-132. Association for the study of African-American Life and History,
Inc.
Dunn, Frederick. The educational philosophies of Washington, DuBois and Housting:
Laying the Foundations for Afrocentrism. Winter, 1993. Vol 62. No. 1. Pp24-34.
Journal of Negro Education.
Halperin, Christina. Western Mesoamerica 1/15/2008; 2/05/2008. University of
California Riverside, Watkins 1350 2008
Hilliard III, Asa G. The Meaning of KMT (Ancient Egyptian) History for Contemporary
African American Experience. Summer 1992. Vol 49 No.1/2. pp10-22. Clark
Atlanta University.
Montellano, Bernal de Ortiz. Robbing Native American Cultures. June 1997. Vol 38
No.3 pp419-441. University of Chicago Press.
Stikker, Kenneth W. An outline of methodological afrocentrism with particular
application to the thought of to W.E.B. Du Bois. 2008. Vol 22 No.1 Pp.40-49.
Journal of speculative philosophy.
Taube, Karl A. Eastern Mesoamerica 10/11/2007. University of California Riverside,
Watkins 1350 2007