Alice C. Linsley
The idea of autochthonous origin of humans is found in the origin stories of many cultures. This is also linked to skin tone. Black people were thought to be created from rich black alluvial soil and red people from mineral rich red lands. These 7000-year figurines of the Butmir Culture (present day Bosnia) show both types.
Examples include: Ainu (Northern Japan); Dene (Navajo) from an Athabaskan word meaning people or humans. The word Inuit means human. A population of ancient Anatolia called themselves the Nes, meaning humans or people. In ancient Akkadian, the word Hapiru means human being.
Sometimes the name of the people involves reduplication. That is case with the Khoekhoe of Southern Africa. The term khoe means human, and the reduplication khoe khoe makes it a plural form, humans.
Clearly, the genetic diversity of humans was explained by a connection between the people and the land where they resided. In fact, there are as many skin tones among humans as there are soil colors.
Edom in Hebrew means red. The land of Edom was called Idumea by the Greeks. Idumea means "land of red people" and, as is shown in this photo, the land of Edom is red and reddish brown. Esau of Edom is described as red in Genesis. Genesis 36:31 notes that the Horite Hebrew rulers of Edom are said to have an older royal lineage than the Israelite kings.
Along the Nile there were red people living in the "Land of Red People." Their land was rich in the red clay that washed down from the Ethiopian highlands. These soils have a cambic B horizon. Chromic cambisols have a strong red brown color. This was the land of the Red Nubians.
There were both red and black Nubians.
The Nile Valley had both red and black soil. The black soil was alluvial, the result of the annual floods. The red soil was the mineral rich material of the wilderness regions and the chromic cambisols washed down to the Upper Nile from the Ethiopian Highlands.
The equation of "African" and "black" is a recent development. Africa has always had the greatest genetic diversity. Some of the San have a yellow skin tone. Nilotic populations were especially diverse with a wide range of hair types, eye colors, and skin tones.
Another fascinating find at Nekhen was the recovery of an almost complete beard in association with the redheaded man in Burial no. 79. The man had long wavy natural red hair and a full beard.
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