Ancient Egyptians in Black and White: ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ and the Hamitic Hypothesis

Author:

Reed Justin Michael

Abstract

In this essay, I consider how the racial politics of Ridley Scott’s whitewashing of ancient Egypt in Exodus: Gods and Kings intersects with the Hamitic Hypothesis, a racial theory that asserts Black people’s inherent inferiority to other races and that civilization is the unique possession of the White race. First, I outline the historical development of the Hamitic Hypothesis. Then, I highlight instances in which some of the most respected White intellectuals from the late-seventeenth through the mid-twentieth century deploy the hypothesis in assertions that the ancient Egyptians were a race of dark-skinned Caucasians. By focusing on this detail, I demonstrate that prominent White scholars’ arguments in favor of their racial kinship with ancient Egyptians were frequently burdened with the insecure admission that these ancient Egyptian Caucasians sometimes resembled Negroes in certain respects—most frequently noted being skin color. In the concluding section of this essay, I use Scott’s film to point out that the success of the Hamitic Hypothesis in its racial discourse has transformed a racial perception of the ancient Egyptian from a dark-skinned Caucasian into a White person with appearance akin to Northern European White people.

Publisher

MDPI AG

Subject

Religious studies

Reference112 articles.

1. The Old Testament World;Albright,1952

2. The Legend of Noah: Renaissance Rationalism in Art, Science, and Letters;Allen,1963

3. Imperialism and Racial Geography in James Henry Breasted’s Ancient Times, a History of the Early World

4. Does the New ‘Exodus’ Movie Whitewash the Bible?http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/10/showbiz/exodus-whitewash-bible/

5. Beyond Identification: The Use of Africans in Old Testament Poetry and Narratives;Bailey,1991

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