A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean

196 Stuart Tyson Smith

Johannes Siapkas). In artwork, their skin color varies, with Nubians being the darkest,
matching the clinal north-to-south darkening of skin color as one approaches the equator
(Keita 1993). This was not an ancient expression of race or racism, as some have tried to
argue (Sarich and Miele 2004;contraKeita and Kittles 1997). Since Nubians could fully
integrate into Egyptian society and rise to prominent positions in the state bureaucracy,
dark skin did not denote inferiority (Smith 2003; cf. Snowden 1983). Instead, distinc-
tions in skin color and geographical origin implied a common ancestry that spoke to
primordial ties, a key component of ethnic identity. Dress, jewelry, hairstyle, and tattooing
reflect different cultural practices, also reinforcing a common category in constructions
of ethnic identity. Textual evidence emphasized differences in speech and religious prac-
tice, again all features commonly used in constructing ethnicity. The elements selected
to represent each ethnic group were not entirely arbitrary, but made up of genuinely
observed cultural traits that were selected to create ethnic stereotypes.
When tied to power relations, however, the features selected to define the ethnic
“other” are often negative and subordinating (Eriksen 1992). Ancient Egyptian and
Near Eastern ideology created and manipulated a positive ethnic self juxtaposed
to negative ethnic “others” in order to legitimize the power and authority of their
kings (Liverani 1990; Loprieno 1988; Smith 2003). In each case, the king pacified

Mediterranean^ S

ea

Red Sea

Asaitic

(yellow)

Libyan

(yellow)

Nubian

(Black)

Memphis

Egyptian Thebes

(red)

Aswan

Miam

Askut

Tombos

Kerma

Colony

Cataract

City Napata

6 Meroe

5

4

3

Kush (Upper Nubia)^2

Wawat (Lower Nubia)^1

Figure 13.1 Map of Northeast Africa with the ethnic stereotypes and sites mentioned in text.
Source: Adapted from Figure 16.1 in Smith (2007a).