[quote="michael_ital"]Something I read.
Somali Race and Ethnicity
Back to your specific questions on the concept of race now. Among these groups, you have noted that the Somalis and "Ethiopians" look different from other African peoples.
It is unclear why the Somalis peoples look more Caucasian, even though they have dark skin like the Oromo Cushites or Bantu Africans. There seems to be no generally accepted explanation among scholars.
Some Somali clans claim descent from Arab tribes. This appears to be due to intermarrying since the contact with Islam. This however, is another source for more "Caucasian" features we find among the Somali groups, even with their black skin.
Ethiopian Race and Ethnicity
The "Ethiopians" are easier to explain. The large, dominant ethnic groups of Ethiopian highlands (including Eritrea) are speakers of a group of Semitic languages, brought to the area from the Arabian peninsula, likely by the Sabean peoples. This group is referred to in various ancient texts, including the Old Testament and the Quran. The name is a form of the name Sheba.
The identity of ancient Sheba is uncertain, and is associated with the term Cush also. The languages of the region were mixed from ancient times with Semitic and Cushitic. (For instance, the ancient Chaldeans, in the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates River in the Persian Gulf, who later took over the Babylonian Empire from the Assyrians, were Cushitic.)
Arabic and Hebrew are closely related languages in the same family as the languages of Amharic and Tigrinya.
See the related articles on these at the end of this article.
The Sabeans were one base of the peoples in the Horn of Africa now speaking Semitic languages. Other racial or genetic contributions to this stock are from the Cushite peoples. In the area are Eastern and Northern Cushites. The Eastern group I have mentioned in the Oromo and Somali.
The Beja are the only remaining Northern Cushite group there now. Peoples speaking Cushitic languages range form dark brown up to very light.
Egyptian and Nubian
The ancient Egyptians also spoke a language broadly related to the Cushite and Semitic languages in the broader Afro-Asiatic family. The Egyptians were apparently lighter skinned, like the Semitic Phoenicians, Hebrews, other Canaanites and the Arabs. Their descendants are primarily identified in the Coptic Egyptians (mostly Christian) who now speak Arabic.
In addition, we can add the Nubian mix. Traditionally farther west around the White Nile and up into Egyptian territory we find the Nubian peoples, whose speech is classified as Sudanic. Nubian peoples were in ancient "Upper Egypt" and at one time became the ruling dynasty in all Egypt (the "Black Pharaohs").
Their influence, if not direct rule, would have included much of traditional "Cush," usually thought to include Ethiopia and parts of Sudan. It is possible they also contributed to the genetic mix of the Horn area.
http://strategyleader.org/peopledefinit ... icity.htmlIt's long, but well worth the read.[/quote]
WHAT HAVE I BEEN SAYING ASK MAHAMAD99_SEX. THAT SOMALIS ARE FROM THE AFRO-ASIASTIC FAMILY. I KNOW MY STUFF, I GO TO ONE OF THE TOP UNIVERSITIES IN AMERICA.
