My local art museum pulled something similar in the late 90s. They were doing a display of early Egyptian art and African art of similar designs that they claimed was older and therefore the noble Africans invented art first a the Egyptians copied it.
Except we’re not talking about techniques or any fancy designs or styles. It was “Look! The Africans made dolls and several hundred years later Egypt made dolls too - so the Egyptians learned it from the Africans!” And aside from the fact that the dolls had 2 legs and 2 arms and a head, that’s where the similarity ended. I was outright mocking the assumption to friends, pointing out that 2 inventors, continents apart, could easily have had the same ideas about dolls at the same time, like children drawing stick figures. Same with the pottery - look they both had plates with colored squares painted on them but the African one is older so it must’ve come from there!
They’ll twist history into a gordion knot to get their narrative.
My local art museum pulled something similar in the late 90s. They were doing a display of early Egyptian art and African art of similar designs that they claimed was older and therefore the noble Africans invented art first a the Egyptians copied it.
Except we’re not talking about techniques or any fancy designs or styles. It was “Look! The Africans made dolls and several hundred years later Egypt made dolls too - so the Egyptians learned it from the Africans!” And aside from the fact that the dolls had 2 legs and 2 arms and a head, that’s where the similarity ended. I was outright mocking the assumption to friends, pointing out that 2 inventors, continents apart, could easily have had the same ideas about dolls at the same time, like children drawing stick figures. Same with the pottery - look they both had plates with colored squares painted on them but the African one is older so it must’ve come from there!
They’ll twist history into a gordion knot to get their narrative.
Two humans made dolls that look like humans. What a shock.