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Forum nameOkay Activist Archives
Topic subjectRE: thats blatant thievery
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&topic_id=24559&mesg_id=24587
24587, RE: thats blatant thievery
Posted by guest, Wed May-31-00 09:09 AM
>For you to say that observing
>the genius of one culture
>than making it your own
>and not giving recognition, but
>pretending as if you have
>unearthed these jewels within your
>own culture... that's just plain
>and blatant theft!!!

sure but you're beholden to cite a specific example where this took place- what about roman and egyptian architectiure, warfare, plumbing... you're leaving a whole lot out and generalizing the rest.

>And once again you are correct
>I am making generalizations so
>I will be a little
>more specific
>
>Much of the
>Art

pottery, jewelry, painting, sculpture? you're not being very specific at all. dont even try to say sculpture cuz romans and greeks had a very different approach to portraiture and life representation than egyptians- who used symbol and form in their artistic portrayals. Was the bust of Pallas stolen from Egyptian art trends- certainly not.

>Language

Romance languages have no root in Egyptian languages- I dont see where you got this from. Maybe literature or philosophy but not the language itself. are you saying Europeans couldnt talk before they went to Egypt- preposterous.

>Symbolism

I dont remember much symbolism in European art- in any case symbolism is far too vague a concept to contribute it to one culture. Native americans used symbolism too it doesnt mean that got it from Egypt- rather symbolism is a basic form of communicating among humans.

>Architecture

see here is where your accusation of theft is off base. Who invented the wheel?- if the Egyptians where the first to use it (although you cant prove that) then is every subsequent user of teh wheel a theif? Pillars? Bricks? Architecture developped from the need of humankind to have shelter- just because i build my house with bricks doesnt mean I stole the technology from anybody- it only means that since this is a pretty effective way of building a dwelling this is probably the way i ought to go. Not to mention Romans and Greeks made several innovations on architecture as did Asian people. Where Europeans homeless before tehy went to Egypt- no but when they got there they got better ideas as to how to build their homes... did they steal the ideas- no they just wanted roofs. give them a break- damn.

>Philosophy
>Civilization structure
>Government structure

Sorry charlie- I cant name one European civilization that was based on the premise that their leader was a god. Egyptian government was not just a theocracy it was an oligarchy. European governments were largely secular.

>Mythology

Again no- Greek and Roman mythology steemed mostly from Norse religions- they by and large didnt adopt Egyptian gods because Egyptian gods supposedly had earthly vessels- them being teh Pharoah and his entourage.

>Among other things were all apart
>of the stolen legacy
>
>It is also true that much
>of what they stole was
>distorted and misconstrued
>But still there were many things
>that stood out and were
>obviously taken from Africa withOUT
>any recognition given

In all your statements you have yet to make one concrete statement as to a tradition or trait that was stolen from Egypt. If most of the things that Europeans cherished were stolen from Africa- pleas name one thing specifically.

again there is a difference between influence and theft. the misrepresentation of influence is indeed a miscarriage of information but still does not amount to theivery. In fact you said this yourself "the ways and rituals (although still sacred) did have traces of the ways of many outsiders" of the latter days of the Egyptians so by your own premise you would consider the Egyptians thieves as well- which is it gonna be?

K