Hamitic

Hamitic is an outdated theory that claims that the so-called Hamitic race is superior to the negroid races of African. John Hanning Speke started the theory. Karl Richard Lepsius and Carl Meinhof extended the theory by using languages to divide people into Hamitic or non-Hamitic. That categorization is no longer in use.

Alternative theories
Another way to classify people into Hamitic or non-Hamitic is by ethnic roots. Negroid people were perceived as Shemetic, as opposed to the Hamitic Ethiopian, Sudanese, and some other West African ethnic groups as attested by the genealogy of ancient ethnic lineages. For instance, a person who has ancestry from Rome would be considered closer to a Hamite than a person whose ancestry is in Africa.

Ironically, the Hamites include some of the darkest Sub-Saharan African groups like the Nilotes, who were considered closest to Europeans, as opposed to the Chadic Sub-Saharan Africans, who share a common RB1 lineage. 

The Hamitic theory also was one factor in classifying the negroid races of Africa upon colonization. That was one factor leading to the Rwandan genocide, which pitted the Tutsis against the Hutus despite their strong similarities and long co-existence.

Related pages
 Semites
 Scientific racism
 Rwandan genocide denial

Category:Historical races
Category:Racism
Category:East Africa
Category:Mediterranean
Category:History of Africa