The computer geniuses here at Hacker News have decided the main argument of this article are wrong. But among archaeologists ritual defacement is understood to be a regular thing that happens to art all over the world. Roman coins defaced: https://www.coinsweekly.com/en/Defacing-the-past-damnation-a... Teotihuacan icons demolished and destroyed by fire: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/sep/24/teotihu...
Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
131–140 of 157 posts
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#132Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
>and looked like different creatures These are your words. These are your thoughts.
Great contribution. Allow me to expand. The known world to you consists of various tribes of humans who all share rather similar physical phenotypes (white skin, soft, slightly curly to straight hair, similar facial features), with reasonably similar technology (metalworking, beasts of burden, farming, government of some sort, written language, the wheel) and suddenly you discover a group of beings with none of these…
The problem with this is that it is 100% incorrect. After 1492 (and to a lesser extent before then), Western Europeans were fully aware of African Civilization, particularly those in West Africa.. They traded with them. They wrote correspondences to them, see: "Letters to the King of Portugal" [0]. Africans obviously farmed, starting between the years 8000 and 6000 BCE [1], the metalworking of West Africans is and was well known [1]. During the Iron Age "A profitable trade had developed by which West Africans exported gold, cotton cloth, metal ornaments, and leather goods north across the trans-Saharan trade routes, in exchange for copper, horses, salt, textiles, and beads. Later, ivory, slaves, and kola nuts were also traded" [2]. They had governments obviously (see reference [0]). They had the wheel "Nubians from after about 400 BCE used wheels for spinning pottery and as water wheels. It is thought that Nubian waterwheels may have been ox-driven" [3]. Heck, even the largest university of the middle ages (12th century) was located in Mali, in West Africa, and it wasn't even something that was unknown to Europeans [4] & [5]. I could go on and on.
So all of what you are saying is based totally off of what _you_ think and not any facts, or even what Europeans that encountered Africans thought. What you are saying is entirely based off of your lack of knowledge of African and apparently even European history.
The inferiority idea developed later, specifically in America as a rationalization of the slave trade. It was literally something that was made up to justify what they were doing.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afonso_I_of_Kongo [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_West_Africa#Prehist... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_West_Africa#Iron_Ag... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel#History [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu#Education [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Timbuktu
--edited for clarity
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's double-down on this and point out that the marauding Burmese desecrated temples of their neighbours -- knocking heads off Buddhas -- and they were of identical religions!
I believe Muslims recognise Jesus as a prophet [1], so there was more going on there than different religions. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_Islam
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
The character of a comment thread can change quickly here. I don't doubt the possibility that it was an overwhelming opinion when the parent decided to comment on it , even if no longer the case. So maybe the flaw is to over generalize the gist of the thread early in its history.
And on top of that, if GP didn't post this comment, then it might still be the prevailing sentiment in the comment threads. This is a case where making the observation that something is the prevailing sentiment can change what that prevailing sentiment is. I don't know if this is true in this case, but I've seen it happen in the past. In some ways what you'd really like is a feature to go "back in time" in the commen…
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
>and looked like different creatures These are your words. These are your thoughts.
Great contribution. Allow me to expand. The known world to you consists of various tribes of humans who all share rather similar physical phenotypes (white skin, soft, slightly curly to straight hair, similar facial features), with reasonably similar technology (metalworking, beasts of burden, farming, government of some sort, written language, the wheel) and suddenly you discover a group of beings with none of these…
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#137> Such a practice seems especially outrageous to modern viewers, considering our appreciation of Egyptian artifacts as masterful works of fine art, but Bleiberg is quick to point out that “ancient Egyptians didn’t have a word for ‘art.’ They would have referred to these objects as ‘equipment.’” When we talk about these artifacts as works of art, he said, we de-contextualize them. this is very interesting and I have n…
We kind of don't have a word for "art" either. Historically/etymologically, art means "skilled work" or just "stuff made by people" (as in artifact). The word/concept seems to have evolved gradually to its current meaning with all its complex connotations of beauty, metaphorical depth and existing for its own sake. Even early modern and Renaissance art was probably seen differently to how we see it. A lot of the best…
The other connotations assigned to art are just the ways that the wealthy think of themselves.
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#138To stop the Goa'uld from getting in?
I wish Hacker News had a way to flag this post funny.
(Parent is a Stargate reference)
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
We kind of don't have a word for "art" either. Historically/etymologically, art means "skilled work" or just "stuff made by people" (as in artifact). The word/concept seems to have evolved gradually to its current meaning with all its complex connotations of beauty, metaphorical depth and existing for its own sake. Even early modern and Renaissance art was probably seen differently to how we see it. A lot of the best…
I don't think this is an valid argument. I think that "art", as understood now, is pretty much the word for "art". A language is an evolving thing and the usage defines the meaning. Many words change their meaning and new words emerge. > Even early modern and Renaissance art was probably seen differently to how we see it. A lot of the best statues and paintings had religious purposes, kind of like Egyptians. Nearly e…
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
White man bad! I think the sickness is in our own very recent culture's push to deface historic European culture, and rationalize all sorts of interpretations of evilness by, ironically, dehumanizing Europeans, as you're doing here.
Putting people in Zoos is a good thing? It dehumanizes Europeans to say that it is sick to put people in Zoos? Also, I never said anything about white people. I was talking specifically about the Western Europeans who put people in Zoos. I think your comment perfectly illustrates the lengths people will go to and the ways in which they will contort their minds in order to uphold an strange idea that is dear to their…