Re: theres is no such thing as african american

Dara <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> offered this sage advice: 
:> 1) Ibn Khaldun was a Tunisian Arab.
:> 2) He is not normally taught in classes at Harvard. There are some courses 
:> on Islamic history and African history that offer him, but any school 
:> would look at the Muqqadimah if they were teachign African and.or Islamic 
:> history. 

: Tunisia is NOT in Africa? Being an Arab is by language not by race or
: geography.

Of course it is. I would add that "Arab" is considered an ethnicity and 
somewhat racially varied, especially in medieval North Africa. Ibn Khaldun 
himself identified as "Arab" not "African". 

: Please refer to Prof. Gould's "Mismeasuer of MAN" which has the roots
: of the craniology traced into the early US medical history and he has
: examaples of sample data measurements from HARVARD lab which he
: himself re-performed the testst to prove invalidity I believe on
: African American skulls

I know which "lab" is it that you are discussing: it was at the
Anthropology Department, conducted by Agassiz and Boas, late nineteenth
century. I've seen their personal papers as well as those of their
students -- they are on archive and I used them when doing a paper in grad
shool. They got their ideas on identifiying black people from studies
conducted in Europe on Jews -- Gould doesn't mention this, nor does he 
mention that even though the cranial analyses were done on African 
Americans, the methods mostly were applied on NATIVE Americans, skulls 
collected at gravesites, most of which are now at the Smithsonian, where 
Boas was also employed. I've seen those skulls too, when I worked at the 
Smithsonian. 

None of this stuff is taught at Harvard anymore, save for the occasional 
history class to look at the history of anthropology in the US. 

 : Thans for comments I enjoy them

: -DARA


-- 
--
"That little man says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause
Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? From God and a
woman! Man had nothing to do with Him."

                                        --Sojourner Truth, 1851