There must have been some strange chemical in the rain falling over Europe (including Britain) during the 19th century. There was a concerted effort by a considerable number of prominent people, including some described as scholars, to prove that the ‘white race’ (a newly coined phrase) was genetically superior to other races. Race was defined by skin colour. Some terrible, unchristian and supercilious statements were placed on the record.
The ‘black’ peoples of Egypt (probably the oldest human civilisation, going back a minimum of about 11,000 years), of Sumer (5,000 to 6,000 years old), of India (judging by its cosmology, some thousands of years old) , and of China (a minimum of 5,000 years old) could not possibly have taught the Europeans anything (so it was claimed).
Yet, it was the Arabs who took their scientific learning (much acquired from the Chinese, Indians and Persians) to Europe. Europe had not then escaped from its Dark Age.
Since learning is acquired mostly by transmission, and thereby subsequently shared, what is there to boast about in any temporary relative advantage?
But, the self-selected spokesmen for the ‘white race’ sought to place it on top of the human cultural tree. (But, as a teacher once told me, even monkeys are known to fall from trees.) For that, this relatively new race needed a culture ancestor. It found it with the Greeks. What do we know about the Greeks? As a nation, it was put together only in the 18th century, with its first king an import. Long before that, Athens and Thebes were created (so I have read), and occupied in part, by the ancient Egyptians, with the indigenous Greeks providing the rest of the population.
Pythagoras and other eminent Greeks studied in Egypt for years. Why would they do that?
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 