General Articles

21 Oct, 2021

A Historical Look at the god Yahweh By Michael Hope aka Urban Historian

: Blak Pantha; General Articles; Hits: 930

Introduction

Due to the influence of the Abrahamic traditions around the world, we probably have heard the name Yahweh in the book of Exodus as the “I Am that I Am” (Exodus 3:14). Yahweh was the national god of the Ancient Israelites mentioned in the Christian Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible. The name Yahweh is comprised of four consonants YHWH that were used to remind Ancient Israelites to say the word Adonai which translates to lord. Ancient Israelites used the word Adonai as a place name for their god which was a really common theme in the Near East when adherents were referring to a deity. YHWH is also referred to as the Tetragrammaton, this is due to the prophet Moses who is said to have given the name YHWH to the Israelites (Knight, Douglas A.; Levine, Amy-Jill 2011).

In this article, I will take a historical look at the god Yahweh and focus on the development of the deity through the Near East. I will look at what historians of the Near East, Old Testament scholars, and archeologists have to say about the origins of the god Yahweh within history. Although a focus of Yahweh in the biblical narrative will be germane to this article, the bible won’t be the only reference point I will draw from. Extra-biblical passages will be used to develop a sound understanding of the deity Yahweh. I will then end with a conclusion highlighting the major points in this article and how they are relevant for understanding this particular deity today.

The origins of Yahweh

There is disagreement among scholars when referring to the origin of Yahwism. Both Old Testament Scholars J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes state, “The origins of Yahwism are hidden in mystery. Even the final edited form of Genesis – II Kings in the Bible presents diverse views on the matter. Thus Genesis 4:16, attributed by literary critics to the so-called `Yahwistic' source, traces the worship of Yahweh back to the earliest days of the human race, while other passages trace the revelation and worship of Yahweh back to Moses in the Book of Exodus” (Miller, J. M. & Hayes, J. H. 1986). However, the Ben-Gurion University archaeologist Nissim Amzallag specializing in the Near East states that he disagrees with the obscurity of Yahweh’s origins. He states that Yahweh was originally a god-centered around metallurgy that was formed during the Bronze Age (Amzallag, Nissim 2009). Amzallag supports this claim by citing the copper mines of the Timnah Valley in southern Israel and also extra-biblical passages that show similarities of Yahweh to other deities of metallurgy in the surrounding area. Amzallag also notes that although we are told that Yahweh is the god of the Israelites in the book of Exodus the god was heavily worshiped by the people in Canaan (Amzallag, Nissim 2009). Amzallag provides a list of people that worshipped Yahweh besides the Israelites which include Kenities, Moabites, Edomites, and Midianites. There is also evidence of Edomites who worked and operated the mines at Timnah that converted an Egyptian temple to the god Hathor to a temple of Yahweh (Amzallag, Nissim 2009).

Although it is stated throughout the Bible that Yahweh is the sole creator deity, master, and architect of the universe his initial Canaanite origin continues to shine through biblical and extra-biblical text. Canaanites were henotheist and worshipped many gods headed by a supreme deity within their pantheon. We find Yahweh a part of the Canaanite pantheon where he is a subordinate to the Most High god El. Looking at the book of Deuteronomy, we can find this hierarchy in the Canaanite pantheon on full display. “The Most High, El, gave to the nations their inheritance” and that “Yahweh's portion is his people, Jacob and his allotted heritage” (Deuteronomy 32:8-9). These passages show a cultural layover from past believes from early Israelites and Canaanites. So, the claim that Israel always worshipped one god is only found later in Israelite tradition. Most of the powers and characteristics of the god Yahweh were consolidated during the Jewish exile in Babylon. During the 6^th century, BCE Jews found themselves in Babylonia after the Kingdom of Judah fell to Babylonian conquest. After the Babylonian captivity was over the Hebrew scriptures started to become canonized during Second Temple Judaism. This is where the concept of a messiah was formed, which Yahweh would send to liberate the Jewish people.

The Moabite Stone

One of the earliest mentions of Yahweh was found in the Moabite Stone or also referred to as the Mesha Stele. The Moabite Stone was erected by King Mesha the king of Moab to commemorate his victory over Israel in the 9^th century BCE. In the Stele there is an inscription that mentions how King Mesha “took the vessels of Yahweh to Kemosh” (Kerrigan, M. 2018) after his defeat of the Israelites. Kemosh was the chief god of Moab, the objects that were taken from the Israelites were sacred objects that were used for worship in the temple. The Moabite Stone was discovered in 1868 of the common era in modern-day Jordan. Two years after the discovery of the Moabite stone, it was published as the first extra biblical inscription that mentioned Yahweh. The findings from the Moabite stone report the same event as mentioned in the biblical narrative of II Kings 3. However, in the biblical narrative, the Israelites claim victory over the Moabites while the artifact claims that the Moabites won the battle.

In 1844 in the city of Soleb located in Nubia the archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius documented the ruins of the city but didn’t choose to excavate. Years later in 1907 archaeologist and Egyptologist James Henry Breasted photographed the ruins but didn’t excavate the site. It wasn’t until fifty years later when the site would be excavated by the archaeologist Michela Schiff Giorgini. Giorgini found references to a group of people that were referred to as the “Shasu of Yahweh” (Mark, J. J. 2018). The site was built by Amenhotep III which referred to Yahweh as a god that was worshipped by a group of people that were before the events that took place in the bible. From the excavation, the Shasu were Semitic nomadic people who were viewed by Egyptians as outlaws or bandits. The Shasu were also mentioned in a column at a temple in Soleb; where the inscription notes them as Egypt’s enemy. Throughout scholarship, there have been attempts to tie the Shasu to the Hebrews and the Habiru, but the claims made by these scholars haven’t met their burden of proof. Whoever the Shasu people were in history, they were not the Hebrew people or the Habiru who had Canaanite ancestry.

The recordings of the Shasu of Yahweh by Amenhotep III have opened the door to place Yahweh in earlier history. However, this finding also suggests that maybe Yahweh isn’t endemic to Canaan. This finding leans towards the desert god theory and that the Hebrews adopted Yahweh as a god. In the Book of Exodus, some scholars have interpreted the descriptions of Yahweh appearing as a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day that Yahweh was a storm deity or weather deity (Smith, Mark S. 2001). Another line of evidence to this claim of Yahweh being a storm deity or weather deity is how he guides Moses to water sources in both Numbers: 20 and Exodus 17:6. As of now the more generally accepted idea amongst scholars is that Yahweh originated in what was southern Canaan. Here we see Yahweh as a lesser god within the pantheon of the Canaanites as well as the nomadic Shasu. In the next section, we will look at Yahweh in the Biblical text.

Yahweh from a Biblical perspective

As discussed in the previous section, Yahweh was worshipped by other groups of people other than the Hebrews. From extra-Biblical sources we know some of the groups of people such as the Canaanites, Habiru, and the aloof Shasu. But what does the bible say about other groups of people worshipping Yahweh and who this god actually is. This section will be dedicated to answering these questions.

The Biblical text mentions other groups of people who worshipped Yahweh. There are also accounts of Yahweh coming from Edom to physically help the Israelites in battle (Deuteronomy 33:2, Judges 5:4-5). However, the Biblical narrative paints a different picture from other groups of people who historically have worshipped Yahweh. In the Biblical text, Yahweh is the one and only God who has created the universe and all life on the planet. Yahweh then chose a group of people out of his creation to be his own. Yahweh is very involved with the lives of his creation, and on occasion disciplining his creation like in the flood narrative in Genesis. Years after the great flood Yahweh selects Abram later called Abraham to relocate to Canaan and settle (Genesis 1-25).

Abraham does as Yahweh instructs and a community is then developed then continued by his son Isaac and then his grandson Jacob also referred to as Israel. Jacob has children of his own with is favorite being Joseph. Joseph’s brothers grew jealous of their father’s favoritism of Joseph and his gift of dream interpretation. Joseph’s brothers came up with an idea to solve their jealously problems caused by their brother by selling him to the Ishmaelites or the Midianites; as the Bible notes both groups of people as the initial buyer (Genesis 37:28, Genesis 37:36). Now in Egypt Joseph rises to the top after much trial and error and uses his skills of dream interpretation to save Egypt from famine (Genesis 25-50). The Book of Genesis concludes with Joseph telling his brothers that Yahweh will bring them out of Egypt to the promised land found in Canaan.

As the years passed after the death of Joseph the Israelite population grows too populous for the citizens of Egypt. An unnamed pharaoh enslaves the Israelites and then orders all the male infants to be killed (Exodus 1-22). Due to this order by the pharaoh, a Levite woman hides her baby boy in a basket and sends him downriver to be found by the pharaoh’s daughter. Pharaoh’s daughter takes the baby in and names him Moses (Exodus 2:1-10). When Moses is an adult, he learns of his Israelite heritage. One day he sees, an Egyptian beating an Israelite and stopping him by killing him. Moses then flees to the land of Midian where he encounters Yahweh taking the form of a burning bush (Exodus 3, 4: 1-17). After this encounter, Yahweh instructs Moses to go back to Egypt where he’s to free his people with the help of the Ten Plagues. After his people are free Moses starts to lead the Israelites to the land of Canaan. After some years of walking through the desert, Moses strikes a rock to make water come out which he wasn’t instructed by Yahweh to do (Numbers 20). For this Yahweh forbids Moses from reaching the promised land. Moses then turns to Joshua to be the leader of the Israelites and take back the land of Canaan as Yahweh had instructed. Yahweh is in full control in the Exodus narrative and fully plans out how the conquest of Canaan should be enacted. In the next section, we will look at how Yahweh is represented not only in the Bible but in the Canaanite Pantheon as well.

Yahweh in the Pantheon of Canaanite deities

Although the Biblical narrative is important to understanding Yahweh as a deity the text is not straightforward. The Biblical narrative also includes the Canaanite deity El whose name is within the name Israel which means he who struggles with God or who perseveres with God. In the Canaanite Pantheon El was the king or chief deity of the gods like Zeus is in the Greek Pantheon. We can see El giving Yahweh authority over the people of Israel “When the Most High [El] gave to the nations their inheritance when he separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the Sons of God. For Yahweh's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage” (Deuteronomy 32:8-9, Masoretic Text). This passage in Deuteronomy echoes cultural layover from Canaan. The Canaanites like most groups of people of the Near East and ancient civilizations worshipped many gods. Yahweh was a part of the pantheon of the Canaanite deities who was then looked at by the Israelites as their sole deity.

Yahweh from metallurgy god to supreme being

The scholar Nissim Amzallag states that Yahweh was a god of metallurgy. Nissim Amzallag uses both the Biblical text and extra-Biblical resources to back up his position. Amzallag states, “An essential link between Yahweh and copper is suggested in the Book of Zechariah where the dwelling of the God of Israel is symbolized by two mountains of copper (Zech. 6:1-6). In his prophecies, Ezekiel describes a divine being as a man was there, whose appearance shone like copper' (Ezek. 40:3), and in another part of this book, Yahweh is even explicitly mentioned as being a smelter (Ezek. 22:20). In Isaiah 54:16, Yahweh is explicitly mentioned as the creator of both the copperworker and his work…Such involvement of Yahweh is never mentioned elsewhere for other crafts or human activities (Amzallag, Nissim. 2009).” Amzallag also uses information about other surrounding deities that are gods of metallurgy to support his claims. Amzallag states, “the god of metallurgy generally appears as an outstanding deity. He is generally involved in the creation of the world and/or the creation of humans. The overwhelming importance of the god of metallurgy reflects the central role played by the copper smelters in the emergence of civilizations throughout the ancient world (Amzallag, Nissim. 2009).” Comparing the characteristics of gods like the Mesopotamian deity Enki and the Egyptian deity Ptah Amzallag finds shocking similarities. One of the most compelling evidence for the position of Yahweh being a god of metallurgy is that of Yahweh being a god of the Edomites. Amzallag looks at the name of the god of the Edomites, Qos, and draws the conclusion that Qos is an epithet for Yahweh. This is significant due to the Edomites being a people of metallurgy and were the workers found at the copper mines at Timna. Amzallag also notes that Edom is not mentioned in the Bible as being a rival of Israel supporting a foreign deity. This leads Amzallag to conclude that the two groups of people actually worshipped the same god.

Yahweh has also gone through some considerable transformation. Yahweh has gone from being one of many deities within a pantheon to the sole god of the Israelites. During the Iron Age, we can see some of the transformations to Yahweh that would be indefinable through history. In this time period, iron was replacing bronze and the cooper smelters lost their unique status of people seeing their work as magical. As with the economic and material change in the region, the Israelites during this age also wanted to make a change. Israelites living in Canaan wanted to distance themselves from the Canaanites as much as possible. They also wanted to establish their political and military strength. To do this they elevated Yahweh as not a leaser god to El but as a higher god than him and disregarded the rest of the pantheon as their own. Yahweh still retained the association with fire, forge, and smoke which were common traits for storm deities and warrior deities. During the Iron Age Yahweh went from a god of material transformation to one of supreme power and advocate for conquest.

Scholars Hayes and Miller state, “Perhaps the most noticeable characteristic of Yahweh in Israel's early poetry and narrative literature is his militancy. The so-called “Song of the Sea” in Exodus 15:1-18 and the “Song of Deborah” in Judges 5 are typical in their praise of Yahweh, the divine warrior who could be counted on to intervene on behalf of his followers…Thus it may have been primarily in connection with Israel's wars that Yahweh gained status as the national god. During times of peace, the tribes will have depended heavily on Baal in his various local forms to ensure fertility. But when they came together to wage war against their common enemies, they would have turned to Yahweh, the divine warrior who could provide victory” (Miller, J. M. & Hayes, J. H. 1986). We can see Yahweh as a warrior deity in the Hebrew Bible or Christian Old Testament. There is also imagery in a few passages of the New Testament (Ephesians 6:11, Philippians 2:25, II Timothy 2:3-4, I Corinthians 9:7). Next, we will look at the early to late beliefs of the Israelites and the surrounding people groups of the Israelites.

The early to late beliefs of the Israelites and surrounding people groups of the Near East

Early on the people of Canaan which included the Israelites adhered to a tradition of ancestor worship. In this tradition, the people of Canaan venerated the “god of the house” and their earthly ancestors. This form of veneration was intended to establish a tribal, family, and personal connections (Van Der Toorn, K. 2017). As ancestor veneration fizzled out the traditional religious practice evolved into the worship of deities such as Asherah, Baal, Utu-Shamash, El, and Yahweh. As the Israelite community continued to develop in Canaan there became a point to distance themselves from the people groups around them. As noted before the Israelites then elevated Yahweh to the supreme deity position that El traditionally held in the Canaanite pantheon. Although Yahweh was elevated to this position the Israelites themselves didn’t embrace monotheism at the time. The Israelites embraced henotheism and saw the worship of other gods as useful but acknowledged Yahweh as the head deity. The henotheistic nature of the Israelites held true throughout the time of the Book of Judges which predates monarchy in the Kingdom of Israel (1080-722 BCE).

After the death of Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel had split in two as a new political power arose the Kingdom of Judah and its capital Jerusalem. During this time both Kingdoms warred periodically and allied when facing a threat to both their nations. This held true until 722 BCE when the Assyrians conquered Israel and deported the Israelites in the area and replaced them with Assyrians. To the south Judah had held off the Assyrian assault by paying tribute to Assyria. Not long after the Assyrian Empire fell to the Babylonians in 612 BCE. The Babylonians invaded Judah in 598 destroying the Kingdom of Solomon. The Babylonians also took the leading citizens of Judah back to Babylon. This time period of Babylon’s control over the area in Jewish history is referred to as the Babylonian Captivity. The Babylon Captivity lasted from (598-538 BCE) until the empire fell. During 538 BCE Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia. Cyrus allowed the Jewish leaders held in Babylon to return to their homes in Judah.

Now that the leaders of Judah were back home an explanation of their time in exile had to be explained. Within traditions of faith, an understanding of quid pro quo or this for that explanation was usually favored as the meaning behind good and bad events. The leadership of Judah had to find a reason that all these horrific events happen to them. The temple was destroyed and the clergy and leaders were exiled this in their tradition had to be the result of not paying enough attention to Yahweh. Yahweh then became the reason for the Jewish people being exiled. To the Jewish clergy, Yahweh was angry with them and this was a form of punishment for worshiping other gods.

As the Jewish people returned home Jewish clergy revised Judaism and the Torah became canonized with new ways to understand its contents. This time period in Jewish history was called the Second Temple Period (515 BCE-70CE). The development of monotheism had arisen out of the Second Temple Period in which the Hebrew Scriptures were revised for a monotheistic belief system. The monotheistic beliefs revised during the Second Temple Period made way for other belief systems that would be influenced by Judaism such as Christianity. Adherents of Christianity would continue the veneration of Yahweh who eventually became known as Jehovah or in more modern terms God.

Conclusion

As we have covered throughout this article Yahweh was the name of the national god of the people of Israel. The origins of the god Yahweh are likely to have a date between the early Iron Age and late Bronze Age (Miller, Patrick D. 2000). Looking at the oldest Biblical literature we can see Yahweh depicted as a warrior deity and storm deity. In the early literature, we see that Yahweh was worshipped as one of many deities belonging to a pantheon that included gods like Asherah, Baal, and El. In later periods we see the fusion of El and Yahweh as they became conflated, epithets like El Shaddai became equated with Yahweh alone (Smith, Mark S. 2002).

Looking at the end of the Jewish captivity in Babylon the concept of many gods was rejected as Yahweh was claimed to be the sole creator of the universe. During this period the understanding of the Hebrew scriptures changed as monotheism took control. In the Second Temple Period even saying the name Yahweh in the public square was taboo (Leech, Kenneth 2002). Place names for Yahweh were spoken instead like Adonai. It was this time in Jewish history that laid the foundation for other religions like Christianity and Islam. Christianity adhered to Yahweh under the name Jehovah or God. Islam would develop Yahweh under the name of Allah which means the God or God. Today Yahweh forms a base for the world's three monotheistic religions. From simple Canaanite origins to supreme deity of the universe Yahweh has truly transformed throughout history.

Bibliography:

Amzallag, Nissim. (2009). Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. https://www.academia.edu/12054337/YHWH_The_Canaanite_god_of_metallurgy.

Kerrigan, M. (2018). The Ancients in Their Own Words. Fall River Press.

King James Bible. (2017). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1769)

Knight, Douglas A.; Levine, Amy-Jill. (2011). The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us (1st ed.). New York: HarperOne.

Leech, Kenneth (2002). Experiencing God: Theology as Spirituality. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Mark, J. J. (2018). Yahweh. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Yahweh/.

Miller, J. M. & Hayes, J. H. (1986). A history of Ancient Israel and Judah. Westminster Press.

Miller, Patrick D. (2000). The Religion of Ancient Israel. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22145-4.

Smith, Mark S. (2001). The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts. Oxford University Press.

Smith, Mark S. (2002). The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (2nd ed.). Eerdmans.

Van Der Toorn, K. (2017). Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel. SBL Press.

06 Mar, 2021

Pseudo: What’s in A Word By Blak Pantha

: Blak Pantha; General Articles; Hits: 991

A word that has been passed around the conscious community and woke circle since around 2015. Many people use it to describe nonscientific data, false info, and even if they don’t like or agree with someone. Few people actually know where or who this word comes from and how it became a popular mainstay in the conscious/woke community. First, let us define this infamous word and then go back a bit to the first person and group that used this word in what we know as the conscious community.

First off let’s define the word pseudo. Pseudo means being apparently rather than actually as stated: SHAM, SPURIOUS. We must also define the term pseudoscience which is a system of theories, assumptions, and methods erroneously regarded as scientific (Websters Dictionary). I list both of the definitions because they are tied together in the story of how this word has seemingly evolved.

When you talk about this word you would be remiss if you don’t mention the Amen Ra Squad. In particular brother Ankh West. He’s the first person I saw using this word. Originally the term was a shortened version of the term pseudoscience. This was a time when our community was heavily saturated with charlatans that all attempted to use science to validate their illegitimate claims. It was brother Ankh West that decided to put together a team called the Amen Ra Squad to combat this false unscientific information. Citing that the information presented had not gone through the rigor of the scientific method was the basis for deeming it pseudoscience. This was eventually shortened to the term pseudo and the people propagating this info were deemed pseudos. This word caught on like wildfire and became a word that many people it described took offense to. Fans and fellow researchers used it in Facebook groups and YouTube chat rooms frequently. It became the number one buzzword of the community and was always met with much aggression and hostility.

Suddenly around 2018 things started to change, people outside of Ankh and his circle of supporters started using this word. I’m not sure if the people who picked it up even knew its source. Nevertheless, the word started to evolve beyond its pseudoscientific origin. Now it was presented as the root word of pseudoscience only. I believe people took the word for its literal meaning and started to call people pseudo because they deemed them false. People called members of the Amen Ra Squad pseudo as if they weren’t its presenters. Chaos from the left and chaos from the right. I’m writing this to set the record straight and try to put this word in its proper context.

Pseudoscience is a process absent of the scientific method, for example, the claim that black people can’t get the coronavirus because we have melanin is pseudoscience (and I hope I don’t have to explain why) so Ankh West would call that pseudo. There is no scientific data or evidence that one could evaluate to come to that consensus. Believing in God does not make you a pseudo, simply because that’s not a scientific claim, now if you said God will cure your stage 4 cancer if you ask him to, now we are getting into an unfalsifiable claim and moving into Pseudoscience. Simply for something to be regarded as pseudoscience or pseudo it must either be presented as science or attempt to use scientific principles or terms in a way that are not falsifiable or tested. For example if I say the energy from this crystal can cure anemia. This claim is pseudo but on the contrary, if you tell me Jesus Christ is your lord and savior and he is the king of kings, this is not pseudo due to it not being scientifically based, presented as science, or has the ability to be falsifiable.

Pseudoscience is still running amuck in our community. From illegitimate health and nutrition claims to archeological falsehoods to genetic misrepresentations of people to astrology, to crystal magic. Nothing has really changed from 2015 except the use of this word and its popularity. Amongst pseudoscience is their companions the ever-present confirmation and cognitive bias. Confirmation bias is your tendency to seek out information that supports something you already believe, is a particularly pernicious subset of cognitive bias. “You remember the hits and forget the misses,” (Neil Degrasse Tyson). Cognitive bias is your tendency to believe that something is true even if it smacks in the face of data that says otherwise (i.e., you might think a fair coin that has landed on heads five times when flipped is more likely to land on tails on the sixth flip—even though the odds are still 50-50). Bias in general is the vehicle that drives you to the pseudo territory. Pseudoscience fails under testing and verification, remember this great Afrikan American proverb started by our brother Asar Imhotep. Demonstration beats conversation.

In conclusion, I hope the reading audience has learned about the history of this word’s usage, its meaning, its companions, and some examples. In the future let’s use this word responsibly and with good character.

Until next time Alaafia Amandla Abibifahodie!

References
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pseudo
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pseudoscience
Neil deGrasse Tyson Teaches Scientific ... - MasterClasswww.masterclass.com › classes › neil-degrasse-tyson-te...

30 Sep, 2019

The Mutapa Kingdom, Culture, and Decline: By Michael Hope aka Urban Historian

: Blak Pantha; General Articles; Hits: 947

The decline of Great Zimbabwe

The causes for the decline of Great Zimbabwe during the 15th century were attributed to many factors. Some of these factors include shortages in gold deposits, overworking of the land, overpopulation, food shortages, and deforestation. During the second portion of the 15th century, the Shona people had migrated north from the region of Great Zimbabwe and established a new state, the Kingdom of Mutapa. The Mutapa Kingdom control lands south of the Zambezi River in modern-day Zimbabwe and a small section of southern Zambia.

Mutapa Kingdom, Architecture, and Trade

The valley of Mazoe Mutapa had grown to become quite promising and even exerted dominance over neighboring chiefdoms such as Mbara, and Mannyika. Reef gold deposits were found in the Mutapa Kingdom, but never equaled the ones found in Great Zimbabwe. The Monarchs of the kingdom ruled over the population of warriors who fought for the ruling class against rival ethnic populations and chiefdoms. Warriors to the Monarchs were also cattle herders and farmers. The ruler of the Mutapa kingdom was referred to as Mwene Mutapa which means master pillager or lord of metals. The Mwene Mutapa resided in an enclosed compound with several buildings for his Queen and other ruling elite. Along with the Mwene Mutapa there were other ruling officials such as chief musician, head of the army, royal doorkeeper, and chief of medicine. The system of government rested on the shoulders of the Mwene Mutapa and nine minters which ruled over their own estates and had judicial powers, one being casing the death sentence on persons who were found guilty of crimes that were the server.

Having many resources that were in high demand the Mutapa Kingdom traded ivory, animal hides, gold, and copper. These items were usually traded for glass beads from India and embroidered textiles off the coast of East Africa known as the Swahili coast. Only the kingdoms elite trade goods who maintain peoples loyalty by handing out gifts. Mutapa unlike other kingdoms in the region like Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe didn’t have stone deposits to build walls or houses. Instead, the capital was sheltered by a wooden palisade, and the buildings were made with dried mud and wooden poles.

The Portuguese and the Decline of Mutapa

Following the exploration of Vasco da Gama in 1498-1499 CE the Portuguese established a presence in the rich trading cities of the Swahili Coast. From the time of the 1530s CE, the Portuguese made efforts to not only establish their own trading system within the Kingdom of Mutapa which would interfere with the systems of rulership in the kingdom but also to convert the Mwene Mutapa and the rest of the population to Christianity. Not only were the Portuguese trying to enforce their will on the Shona people, but the Muslim merchants trading on the Swahili Coast as well. Staying firm in their traditional systems of belief the Shona people rejected all the foreign religions that were brought to them.

Around the time of 1633 CE, the Portuguese made no headway with diplomatic approaches to obtain a major position in the trade. The Portuguese then sought to cut out the Swahili merchants and attacked the Kingdom of Mutapa which wasn’t at full strength because of civil war. Due to the fall of Mutapa, the Portuguese took it upon themselves to write the first records written about southern African people. In their writings, the Portuguese mistranslated Mutapa to mean Benemetapa. Furthering the garbled translation the Portuguese explorer Diego De Goes states "The king of Benametapa lives in great style, and is served with great deference, on bended knee" (quoted in Ki-Zerbo, 6).

Bibliography:

Curtin, P. African History. (Pearson, 1995).

Garlake, P. Early Art and Architecture of Africa. (Oxford University Press, 2002).

Hrbek, I. (ed). UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. III, Abridged Edition. (University of California Press, 1992).

Ki-Zerbo, J. (ed). UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition. (University of California Press, 1998).

McEvedy, C. The Penguin Atlas of African History. (Penguin Books, 1996).

Oliver, R. (ed). The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 3. (Cambridge University Press, 1977).

Oliver, R.A. Cambridge Encyclopedia of Africa. (Cambridge University Press, 1981).

Pikirayi, I., "Palaces, Feiras and Prazos: An Historical Archaeological Perspective of African-Portuguese Contact in Northern Zimbabwe," The African Archaeological Review Vol. 26, No. 3 (Sep., 2009): 163-185.

Cartwright, Mark. "Mutapa." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Last modified March 20, 2019. https://www.ancient.eu/Mutapa/.

15 Jan, 2021

The Grandeur that Darwin Saw By Michael Hope aka Urban Historian

: Blak Pantha; General Articles; Hits: 1865

Introduction:

I wouldn’t consider myself a contrarian in totality, only in the sense of fundamental religious acceptance. For some, being indifferent towards religious orthodoxy is the ultimate contrarian position, for that, I embody the definition. In the sense of the scientific consensus, I couldn’t distance myself enough from the views of a contrarian. Instead, I apply a healthy portion of skepticism to claims made by this form of inquiry. Science is, by all means, the best way to understand the natural world. Furthermore, science is the greatest driver of the world’s economy from iPhones to stem cell research. So, science appreciation is undoubtedly practical. From such rigorous methods comes innovation spun from the human creative mind. This union between the creativity of humans and the cold demonstrable truths of the world is a process to truly relish. I agree with Charles Darwin, “There is grandeur in this view of life...” as stated in the origins of species (Darwin, C. & Kebler, L. 1859, p. 490). My goal here is to highlight the grandeur that Darwin saw which is the poetry of reality.

Does it Matter:

Matter is commonly defined as the substance of physical objects. Matter can be found in the infinitesimally small atomic world to the voluminous observable universe. Let’s imagine that we have access to the Hubble Space Telescope. We pick a direction to point our telescope and see planets, galaxies, and maybe a white dwarf or two. What we just witnessed is the visible components of the universe. By modern estimates, the visible components of the observable universe make up only 4.9 percent of its mass. The rest of what makes up the observable universe is dark matter around 26.8 percent, and 68.3 percent dark energy (Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Armitage-Caplan, C.; et al. 2013). As we continue to observe the visible components in the universe we see matter follows defined physical laws. The laws that matter follows have produced viable models that cosmologists used to explain the evolution and structure of the observable universe. The laws that matter follows, also have mathematical expressions. These mathematical expressions form a group of physical constants that are static across the observable universe (Varshalovich, D.A.; Potekhin, A.Y. & Ivanchik, A.V. (2000). So, what is poetic about this, the universe is matter in motion.

Humans and stars:

Picture yourself on a beach on a warm summer night. The waves of the ocean rolling rhythmically over your feet. You suddenly look up to marvel at the night sky. Because of this blissful experience, the thought might cross your mind: what can produce such beautiful complexity? Being very inquisitive, you find the answer to your question in a respectable scientific article. You learn in a nutshell, that the physical laws of the universe and all its naturalistic processes are the mechanisms that formed the marvelous night sky. Although this is testable and is the current scientific census being void of any emotional attachment; the reality of this scientific understanding is undoubtedly sublime. Learning about the naturalistic processes that formed the observable universe doesn’t strip the personal value one might have for the known universe. I believe learning how nature works only adds value to how we view the natural world. Verifiable scientific evidence is endowed with its own type of emotional appeal, one that is very much poetically driven as any writings from Shakespeare, or Hughes.

Don’t believe me, let’s test how poetic verifiable scientific evidence really is. Stargazing is a fun activity and can be romantic with a significant other. On a clear night away from the city, the human naked eye can see anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 stars. Administration for such an experience is not uncommon and can provide one with a positive feeling. However, this is not the poetry of reality I’m speaking of. Let’s dive deeper, stars like the ones you’re viewing are responsible for all the heavy elements in your body and on earth. Those elements were ejected due to an ordinary star going supernova. As the elements dispersed some mixed with other matter in the universe and formed new stars. Other scattered elements formed with planetary bodies like Earth. Because of these exploding stars, Earth is rich with heavy elements (Louisiana State University, 1999). From the calcium in our bones to the iron in our blood were all formed in the cores of stars, we are literally made of stardust, isn’t that poetic?

Well if that doesn’t tickle your fancy then let’s take this fact about stars into consideration. A quote by Neil deGrasse Tyson, “There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on any beach, more stars than seconds have passed since Earth formed, more stars than words and sounds ever uttered by all the humans who ever lived” (Tyson, N. G. 2017). This quote highlights the stupendous amount of stars in the observable universe. It also grants the reader a cosmic perspective that they might not have had. This perspective lets us know how small we really are in the vast ocean of stars, in an ever-expanding universe; but it also allows us to recognize how astounding it is, knowing the universe is in us.

Natural watchmakers:

Complexity can be seen throughout the natural world, there is probably no area better to see complexity than in life science. Due to the overwhelming complexity of organisms on this planet; Pre-Darwinian philosophers and theologians concluded this complexity must have an intelligent designer. The famous champion of this view was William Paley. In his book “Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity”, William Paley claimed that complex structures found in nature could’ve only come about due to a god, or an intelligent designer. Paley states, “In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; I might possibly answer, that, for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever: nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer I had before given, that for anything I knew, the watch might have always been there” (Paley, W. 1803). Living in a Pre-Darwinian era Paley’s argument seemed sound as an explanation to why there is so much complexity. Unbeknownst to Paley, there were natural watchmakers doing the work. What seemed to be an obvious design, is in fact the random process of mutation and the non-random process of natural selection. When we look at the wings of an Amazonian parrot, the teeth of a great white shark, the bark of a red oak tree, and the human eye; we’re seeing natural selection and other natural mechanisms like genetic drift act upon the variation in a given population of organisms.

Let’s take a look at the evolution of the eye. The eye has been an attractive study for many researchers due to the eye being an analogous organ found in many animal species. Before complex eyes, simple light processing photoreceptor cells helped organisms navigate their environment. Photoreceptor cells have two types of molecules, opsin, a light detection protein, and chromophore which is the pigment that takes in light (M F Land; R D Fernald 1992). Due to these light-sensing cells that form eyespots organisms like the Planarian (a species of flatworm) are granted the ability to distinguish light in a given direction. The evolution of the image forming eye has evolved independently in many organisms. Currently, the earliest fossil of complex eyes is dated to the Ediacaran Period form in stem mollusk (McMenamin, Mark A. S. 2016). Vertebrate eyes are even more complex than of mollusks. The camera type eye of vertebrates is composed of epithelial cells that have heavy concentrations of protein crystallin. Crystallins are known to reside in two families, α-crystallins and βγ-crystallins. The function of these proteins were for other tasks, but have adapted in their current role for animal vision (Slingsby, C.; Wistow, G. J.; Clark, A. R. 2013). It’s through these slow changes in eye evolution that we can see beautiful red-orange sunsets, the vast Uyuni Salt Flat, or the pink flamingos of Lake Nakuru.

Even though I can go on about the different adaptations that natural selection has produced to assist organisms in a particular environment; there is an overarching poetic point that needs to be made. This overarching point is steeped in connectivity. All life on Earth is connected through a last universal common ancestor termed LUCA (Kampourakis, Kostas 2014). Life on earth has approximately been around for 3.5-3.8 billion years. Through the fossil record, we can see the constant progression from ancient biogenic graphite to fossilized multicellular organisms (Ohtomo, Yoko; Kakegawa, Takeshi; Ishida, Akizumi; et al. 2014). The realization of this consecutiveness stream of replication through natural processes found in every organism strips away the egotism of humans. Leaving us with the profoundly poetic truth of us not coming into this world from the external, but being grown from within it.

Conclusion:

An individual who possesses a scientific mind is an individual devoted to critical thinking. This analytical style of thinking is steeped in logic and rationality. The scientific mind can contribute to discoveries made on the frontier of science, as well as what develops innovations. To a respectable scientist, critical thinking is somewhat intuitive, although like most skills it takes practice to reach proficiency. However, science doesn’t have a monopoly on critical thinking. An avid consumer of information should adopt critical thinking as a way to make informed judgments about the information they come across. Just as science doesn’t have a monopoly on critical thinking, literature doesn’t have a monopoly on poetry. Since John Keats’s famous worry about the unweaving of the rainbow by Isaac Newton’s explanation of the color spectrum; science and poetry have been in bed with one another. This union between the two practices seems unlikely at first glance. However, after careful analysis, we can see that science and poetry can’t be divorced. Science and poetry have an unwavering married bound to objective reality.

References:

Darwin, C. & Kebler, L. (1859) On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: J. Murray. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/06017473/.

Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Armitage-Caplan, C.; et al. (Planck Collaboration) (March 22, 2013). "Planck 2013 results. I. Overview of products and scientific results – Table 9". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 571: A1. arXiv:1303.5062.

Varshalovich, D.A.; Potekhin, A.Y. & Ivanchik, A.V. (2000). "Testing cosmological variability of fundamental constants". AIP Conference Proceedings. 506: 503. arXiv:physics/0004062.

Louisiana State University. (1999). Physicist Finds Out Why "We Are Stardust...". ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 27, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/06/990625080416.htm

Tyson, N. G. (2017). Astrophysics for people in a hurry.

Paley, W. (1803). Natural theology, or, Evidences of the existence and attributes of the Deity: Collected from the appearances of nature. London.

M F Land; R D Fernald (1992). "The Evolution of Eyes". Annual Review of Neuroscience. 15: 1–29.

McMenamin, Mark A. S. (2016). Dynamic Paleontology: Using Quantification and Other Tools to Decipher the History of Life. Springer.

Slingsby, C.; Wistow, G. J.; Clark, A. R. (2013). "Evolution of crystallins for a role in the vertebrate eye lens". Protein Science. 22 (4): 367–380.

Kampourakis, Kostas (2014). Understanding Evolution. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.

Ohtomo, Yoko; Kakegawa, Takeshi; Ishida, Akizumi; et al. (2014). "Evidence for biogenic graphite in early Archaean Isua metasedimentary rocks". Nature Geoscience. 7 (1): 25–28.

30 Sep, 2019

The Dangers of the Believing Mind By Michael Hope aka Urban Historian

: Blak Pantha; General Articles; Hits: 904

The believing mind, what a magnificence yet dangerous force in human society. For most people, without the concept of belief, life would simply be incomplete, and inconsequential. What I aim to layout is the beauty of reality with complete objectivity and unwavering bluntness. What I’ve always found quite interesting is the diversity of belief systems across the world and how people interact with these beliefs. In the general sense of the word belief is the attitude or better yet the concept that something is true with no fundamental evidence to substantiate its claim.

More often than not the concept of belief is paired with religion. This concept takes form when stories that are told throughout the religious text such as the story of Noah in the Abrahamic texts are taken as literal history. When these stories are excepted as actual history, the believing mind takes control and the concept can become quite dangerous. One of the more pure examples of the danger of the believing mind is the dismissal of scientific truths because of the conflicting ideas of religious belief. The practicality towards the natural world is extremely low when the devote believer is presented evidence of how life began on earth or climate change.

Why do we believe, is it a fundamental human evolutionary concept or something more recent? According to studies done by the Centre for Advances in Behavioral Science and neuroscientist at Coventry University suggest that religious beliefs are not linked to intuition or rational thinking. What was concluded from the studied was that these beliefs are linked to upbringing and a socio-cultural process.[1] What this seeks to explain is that if a Christian in Alabama believes that Christianity is better than Islam that’s based on his upbringing; because if that same child was raised in Iraq than his views of Christianity would coincide with his views of Islam at the present.

I would like to say that nonliteral religious beliefs can exist harmoniously with the advancements brought about by today's technological and scientific societies. This vision is all but a dream as we wittiness religious extremist during 9/11 who would inflict bodily harm to themselves or others over what they believe. In the less extreme sense of taking one's life, the religious tradition of a person may prevent one's children from receiving proper medical care such as the Measles outbreak in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community. This community believes in the ever-growing conspiracy theories that vaccines cause autism. [2] The ideals of ultra-religious communities such as Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community have now allowed measles to make a comeback affecting the people around them.

In conclusion, the dangers of the believing mind can be monumental. Logical thinking is subdued to a minor level in which one can act upon religious views without the application of critical thinking. I find it perplexing as we currently observe the largest of the worlds rainforest burn while individuals utter “we need not to concern ourselves because this is Gods plan”, “or pray and ask for it to stop that's all we can do.” This is a serious issue that is being downplayed by religious thought. What is thought as harmless religious statements are actually the formation of the dangerous believing mind?

1. Coventry University. "Why do we believe in gods? Religious belief 'not linked to intuition or rational thinking': The study challenges a growing trend that has attempted to show that believing in the supernatural is something that comes to us 'naturally' or intuitively." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 8 November 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171108092429.htm>.

2. Frost, Mary “Measles outbreak in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish areas continues to climb.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle. https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2018/12/13/measles-outbreak-in-brooklyns-orthodox-jewish-areas-continues-to-climb/