Table of Contents
Negrito-like people in the Near and Middle
East 1. Egypt 2. Lebanon, Israel, Syria 3. Turkey 4. Iraq, Kuwait 6. Yemen 7. Oman, Persian Gulf islands
47. Negrito-like People
The Near and Middle East
by George Weber
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Table of Contents Negrito-like people in the Near and Middle
East 1. Egypt 2. Lebanon, Israel, Syria 3. Turkey 4. Iraq, Kuwait 6. Yemen 7. Oman, Persian Gulf islands |
Negrito-like people in the Near and Middle East
Wherever in the area under review in this chapter, people resembling Negritos occur, these are always found in the lowest social strata. People there that are higher up the social scale also tend to think of the Negrito as the descendants of former African slaves. Indeed such human "imports" were common in the area from antiquity until very recently.
However, many "African-like" black people in and around the Arabian peninsula are not Negrids (modern black Africans) but are more likely to be Negritos or Veddoids. True, mere "looks" can be deceiving and do not provide a solid base for determining a population's ancestry. DNA analysis or craniometry would give much more reliable results. Unfortunately, the Negrito- and Vedda-like people that interest us here are close to a taboo subject in the relevant countries. The Negrito are at the bottom of highly stratified, hierarchical societies and they tend to do the "lowest" type of work, like rubbish collection. Even an expression of mild interest from an outsider in these people can cause sharply negative reactions which makes any kind of contact with (let alone providing help for or doing scientific research on) these unfortunate people practically impossible.
The hypothetical routes of the first emigration of both pre-humans and anatomically modern humans out of Africa. All routes are likely to have been used at one time or the other. The earliest migration of modern humans was likely to have taken place around 100,000 years ago and to have followed the coastlines. Around 60,000 years ago they had reached India.
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red dots Significant excavation sites in the Arabic peninsula Archaeological sites found up to to 2003 predating
100,000 years: thick yellow
arrows thin black arrows Adapted from M. Petraglia, M. Mirazon Lahr, and A.M. Alsharekh, "The Palaeolithic of the Arabian Peninsula", Journal of World Prehistory 17:141-179, 2003 |
Saudi Arabia remains a country largely inaccessible to scientific population studies. Consequently, very little is know of the genetic structure of its people. Under such circumstances it need not be very significant that no Negrito-like populations (or genetic traces of such) have been reported from there. It is likely that a situation not too dissimilar to that described above for the Yemen also exists, at least in some parts, in Saudi Arabia.
Prehistoric archaeology in Saudi Arabia is a relatively young field. It all started in the 1970s when a number of accidental discoveries drew attention to the potential of the area. There is now growing archaeological activity that has already brought to light evidence of Arabia as a hunting ground and corridor of passage for early pre-human and human migrations.
Dr. Mike Petraglia and his team (funded by the The Leverhulme Trust) have found evidence that so far consists of stone tools of the the Oldowan toolmaking tradition (started around 2.5 million years ago in Africa and lasted for around 1 million years) and of the following Acheuleen tradition (started around 1.8 million years ago, again in Africa,and lasted until around 150,000 years ago).
The tools have not yet been put into a typological series nor have they been dated scientifically yet. Only tools but no bones have been found so far so that their makers can only be assumed to have been Homo erectus. The site Shuwayhitiyah (no. 1 below) shows a close relationship to East African Oldoway. The sites along the coasts of the Red Sea as well as inland are younger with Acheuleen tools. The Dawadmi site (no. 2 below) is especially large and shows tools of both types, indicating that it may have been in use for long periods.
The situation regarding the Yemeni aboriginal population is unclear and hard data is missing. Moreover, the terms used to describe the populations involved in scientific literature are confusing. They have never been clearly defined in their meaning and/or are dependent on one racial classification or the other (see Appendix 02 on "Classification of Human Races"). The Vedda and Veddoid people are a group much like the Negrito and Negritoids, distributed in India, Sri Lanka and all over south and southeast Asia and perhaps further afield (see our maps in "What does 'related' mean".
The only major difference to the Negritos is that the Veddoids have long, only slightly curled hair while the Negrito have their very tightly curled peppercorn hair. How the two groups are related is still very much an open question. It has been speculated that the Negrito represent the first migration of anatomically modern Homo sapiens out of Africa while the Veddoids are the descendants of the second wave. Others think that the two are different branches from the same original group. Nothing has been definitively established but hopes are high that DNA investigations will bring some light into the darkness here.
The writer, explorer-anthropologist and photographer Carleton S. Coon (1904-1981) in the 1950s has photographed the and published the following pictures of two men from the Yemen. showing some Negritoid, resp. Veddoid physical traits. Photographs of of such people from the Yemen are extremely rare and we are most grateful for Dr. Coon's son for permission to reproduce them here.
Negrito and Negrito-like people
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Yemeni Negritoid "Arab" man |
Negrito of the Great Andaman group |
Andamanese Negrito of the |
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Yemeni Veddoid man |
Vedda from Sri Lanka |
From the description given below by our correspondent, it seems that the aboriginal population of the Yemen is more likely to be Negritoid because of their peppercorn hair. Whether the tribes mentioned as Veddoid by the Encyclopaedia Britannica (see below) are really Veddoid or Negritoid cannot be decided on the basis of the present limited knowledge.
A visitor to the Yemen (who
wishes to remain anonymous) has sent us the following report
describing impressions gained gained in the Yemen during the
early 2000s. We thank our correspondent for this fascinating
input. I noticed immediately that there
are people there (in the Yemen) that do not resemble the
Arabs in any way and that do not seem to have much to do
with the Arab Yemenis even though they are part of Yemeni
society. I am not an anthropologist but I think I can say
with a fair degree of certainty that there are Negritos in
the Yemen. I have read your description on your web-site and
they largely fit the black-skinned Yemenis that I have see:
short stature, black skin and that odd type of hair on their
heads. It must be said that the Negritos in the Yemen are
particularly noticeable because of the their short stature
since the Yemeni Arabs also are not very tall (Yemeni women
around 1.6 m/ 5.25 ft, men are a little taller). The Negritos are popularly called
"Black Yemenis". Nobody seems to know where they come from
and how long they have been in the country. Some claim that
they have been brought to the Yemen as slaves at once time
or another, others say that they have "always" been living
there as part of the Arab population. The "Black Yemenis"
are virtually all muslims. What has surprised me is the social
status of these people. The "black Yemenis" are at the
bottom of the Yemeni social structure and are despised as
below even beggars. One also has to know that Arabs are
highly racist: white skin = good/high, dark skin =
bad/evil/low. Society is structured as follows: at the top
are a few sheikhs and princes who hold religious as well as
political power. The president of the republic also has to
be counted here. At this level power is balanced and money
distributed. Below are a few respected families and clans
who have chosen and hold their own corner within the system
and exercise power there. The descendants of the last
Qasimid Imam of San'a overthrown in 1962 belong here. There
is no middle class, really, except perhaps in the capital.
That is why the poorer, less educated classes who form the
mass of the population follow immediately below the upper
classes. Within the lower classes there are many levels
according to profession and skin colour. Still lover the the
beggars and street vendors and at the very bottom are the
"black Yemenis". These people with black skin work
mostly as street sweepers and in garbage removal. Female
"black Yemenis" are of prostitutes. Many live in shacks and
collect their food from garbage cans. I was shocked to see
how they were treated by the "light-skinned" Yemenis. I have
often seen how they were beaten and kicked. As to myself, I
have always found them quite friendly. One incident has remained with me:
I had just come back from a long trip and wanted to take my
luggage from the roof of the Jeep. A "black Yemeni" passed
and wanted to help me but before he could do so he was
pushed aside by a light-skinned Yemeni using abusive
language towards him. This new man then helped me and
explained "hoa mush tamam" ("he is not a good person"). When
I asked him why he said such a thing, he explained "he is
black". I observed more and more that the Yemenis are afraid
of the "black Yemenis" and do not want to have anything to
do with them. It is very rare to see a
light-skinned Yemeni married to a dark-skinned woman. This
is a taboo that prevents a mixing of Arabs and "black
Yemenis". Another thing I noticed: the
Yemenis distinguish between black African migrants (who are
also black) and "black Yemenis". There are quite a few
Somalis and other Africans in the Yemen. Although they are
black-skinned, too, they are treated
better.
Cavalli-Sforza's magnum opus The History and Geography of Human Genes of 1994 describes the Yemeni and Saudis simply as "Arab". This they are in their vast majority, no doubt. But it seems also that DNA sampling in this case has left out an important and historically relevant but socially "embarrassing" stratum of Yemeni society. While the plight of black Yemenis as described is tragic, the fact that there appears to be little mixing between the groups provides genetic science with an unexpected chance to identify the origin and antiquity of these "black Yemenis".
While our correspondent refers to Yemeni society in the city, the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1985 edition) adds another angle: an aboriginal population in Yemen living a traditional tribal life:
Non-mediterranean Veddoids (Australoids) are found as minorities, increasing in number and importance as one moves eastward until they constitute the chief element in the tribes of al-Mahra: there they also speak a language of their own, different from Arabic but belonging, like it, to the Semitic language group. Isolated communities of African origin, remnants of ancient invasions or slave groups, include the Hujurs in the western part and the Sibyan in the Hadramawt.
Why would it be important and interesting to establish the origin and age of the Yemeni aboriginal population(s)?
When the first anatomically modern humans left Africa around 100,000 years ago (following Homo erectus who must have done so hundreds of thousands of years earlier), they moved into the Middle East and Asia. They had to wander north either down the valley of the Nileor along the coast of the Red Sea to the the Sinai peninsula to spread into the Middle East and around the Mediterranean. There has been so much movement of people around the Sinai for such a long time that any genetic traces of the first migration that might still possibly linger there are now unlikely to be traceable.
A third possibility has long been discussed and that is the crossing of the Red Sea and into the Arabian peninsula at its narrowest point: the Yemen. The main obstacle to this route would have been a sea crossing which has been thought beyond the capabilities of pre-humans or early modern humans. However, it is now thought that many of these early humans lived a beachcombing life and may have been better acquainted with the sea than has been thought possible. Unfortunately, the ancient shoreline is now deep below the sea and virtually inaccessible to archaeologists. Beachcombers develop an intimate relationship with the sea and it would have been surprising if they did not develop some form of seagoing transport, canoe or raft. Crossing the Red Sea into Yemen may not have been so difficult for such people as is sometimes claimed. The latest archaeological discoveries from Saudi Arabia now show that Homo erectus did cross the Red Sea, and that more than a million years ago. Anatomically modern early Homo sapiens would have had no problem doing so 100,000 years ago.
For a discussion of the possible route taken by the out-of-Africa migrants see Forster and Matsumura, reprinted on this web-site.
8./9. Iran and Pakistan / The Men of Makran (Gedrosians)
Iran and Pakistan have provided a great deal of evidence of a human presence from the earliest times, but unfortunately, such evidence consists almost entirely of stone tools. Such tools provide us with a good view of the technological development through the ages but they tools do not tell us what kinds of humans made them.
The tools found all along the coastlines of Iran and Pakistan show that early people have passed through there and that the area was part of the story of early pre-human (Homo erectus) and human (Homo sapiens) migrations eastwards to India and beyond.
Like Mesopotamia, Iran and Pakistan are so rich in glamorous archaeological treasures from the neolithic to historical times, that research into the comparatively unspectacular palaeolithic stone tools and fire places, however ancient, has not been pursued and published with the vigour the subject would deserve.
If there are Iranian and Pakistani archaeologists reading these lines, maybe they will feel moved to consider digging for the deepest human past of their country. Here is an idea that occurred to the president of the Andaman Association (George Weber) when visiting the spectacular exhibition "7000 Years of Persian Art" at the Basel Antiquities Museum, Switzerland, in March 2003. The museum displayed a map of Iran and parts of Pakistan that showed the path Alexander the Great and some of his army took when returning to the west from the furthest point reached in the east, in what is now Pakistan. The march took place in late 325 BC and passed through the forbidding desert of Gedrosia (also known as Makhran) now straddling Iran and Pakistan. The map had a special impact on George since he had flown over this very area on a commercial flight from the Far East to Europe some years before - and had vivid memories of the unearthly landscape that had passed below him then for several hours: there had been no signs of human existence, just rocky landscapes and yellow-orange sands.
In J.B. Bury's A History of Greece (Macmillan St. Martin's Press, 1900, reprint 1973; page 814) the following description of Alexander's army in Gedrosia can be found the following:
"... Then he (Alexander) descended into the waste of Gedrosia. No resistance met him there, for there was no folk to resent his intrusion; only a few miserable villages in the hills, or more miserable fishing hamlets on the coast. The army moved painfully through the desert of rocks and sand, waterless and barren...
The reference to a few "miserable villages" allegedly offering no resistance is intriguing. They were merely figures that briefly stood in the conquering hero's path.
Nevertheless, in Robin Lane Fox' s Alexander the Great (originally Allen Lane, 1973; Penguin Books, 1986, our references are to the Penguin edition) we find a few more details on how Alexander's soldiery saw the locals:
"... The closer they (Alexander's army in Gedrosia, ed.) kept to the coastline, the less their comfort from the Gedrosian natives. The men of Makran were 'inhospitable and thoroughly brutish'. They allowed their nails to grow from birth to old age and they left their hair matted: their skin was scorched by the sun and they dressed in pelts of wild animals (or even of the larger fishes). They lived off the flesh of stranded whales'. They were a people still living in the Stone Age and they used their long nails instead of iron tools: the army named their neighbours the Fish-Easters, because they caught fish in nets of palm bark and ate them raw. Their houses were built from oyster shells and whale bones, like Eskimos' in some warmer environment; a few sheep ranged on the edge of the sea, where the desert gives way to pebbles and salt cliffs; these were killed and eaten raw, but their flesh tasted horribly fishy. Dead fish had infected the whole district, and in the heat, which never moderates even on an autumn evening, it rotted and stank. It was as well that the army had picked the sweet nard grass which grew in the desert valleys, for they used it as a bedding or roofing for their tents to dispel the smell of surrounding decay." (ref. pp. 393-394)"...By now, some four hundred miles along the coast, interpreters and pilots had been recruited from the natives, and Nearchus (Alexander's admiral in charge of the fleet following the army along the coast, ed.) would converse with them through Persian interpreters of his own. Their reports, when twice translated, caused alarm. Certain islands, they claimed, lay close to the coast of Makran and were haunted by evil spirits, whom the Greeks, reared on Homer's Odyssey, identified with the Sun and an unnamed sea nymph. (ref. p. 396)
What is most intriguing here is the reference to translators having to translate twice, i.e. the natives did not speak an Iranian tongue.
Could these "natives" have been the remnants of an earlier wave of migration from the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent? Could they have been Negritos? They could indeed. Palaeolithic and later stone tools have been found almost everywhere in Iran, including the coast ,but they do not tell us what people made them. On the Negritos in Iran, sources are few, vague and ambiguous. Richard N. Frye is typical in this respect in his "The Heritage of Persia" (Weidenfels and Nicholson, London, 1962, p. 10) where he writes that
"the existence of Negritos in coastal areas of south Persia, however, may testify to an aboriginal population to be connected with Negritos in Africa and the East Indies or Polynesia".
Although he seems to take the existence of early Negritos along the Iranian coast for granted, he does not mention his source or any evidence. He also never mentions the Negritos in his book again.
At the Andaman Association we are not looking for Alexander and his deeds of derring-do but for the missing Iranian and Pakistani links in the Great Human Migration - many tens of thousands of years before the famous conqueror. We would like to know what people lived there at this relatively early day in history.
The director of the Iranian National Museum, Mohammad Reza Karga, spoke at the opening of the exhibition in Basel. For us, the exhibition was spectacular but as usual in such matters, skewed in the direction of art appreciation, rather than archaeology and prehistory.
Would the director and his Iranian (and indeed Pakistani) fellow archaeologists and prehistorians please take note of our cry and perhaps consider a small research project or two on the Gedrosian natives? The results might be interesting.
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