Africoid Involvement in Asian Spirituality
Asia has long been home to ancient Africoid cultures and peoples. The word Africoid here refers to those native inhabitants of Asia whose phenotype closely resembles that of Africans. Asia's Africoid populations include such groups as the Dravidians of India and various peoples of Southeast Asia and the South Seas referred to as Melanasians, Oceanic Negroids, Negritos, Australoids and more. Though many of these peoples were once designated a name which indicates an association with Black Africans, in recent years anthropology has changed its position on their racial categorization. Most modern researchers have concluded that though these Africoid populations of Asia share a phenotypic similarity with Black Africans, they share genetic similarities moreso with other Asians. Thus they are often classified as Asian racial sub groups. Such classifications have led to controversy over the very definition of the notion of "race." Is it determined by genotype or phenotype? Where does the "Black" race, being the oldest, begin and end? The answers to these questions have yet to be resolved. At any rate this page hopes to give a brief glimpse of the involvement of Africoid Asian populations in some of the major spiritual movements on the continent.
Either by migration or violent incursion, the effect of these northern tribes upon their darker neighbors was spiritually detrimental. An hierarchal system, Varna, (meaning color) was instituted by the ruling class of fairer-skinned northern nomads placing them at the top and darker skinned peoples at the bottom. Today this rigid socio-religous code is called the caste system. Cruel and harsh, this caste system controlled every aspect of daily life. It was written, "A Sudra (Black) who insults a twice-born man (white), shall have his tongue cut out. If he mentions the names and castes of the (twice-born) with contempt, an iron nail, ten fingers long, shall be thrust into his mouth. If he spits on a twice-born both his lips shall be cut off; if he urinates on him, the penis; if he breaks wind, the anus." This color-orientated social order became an integral part of the newly formed Hinduism. Even beneath these were the Outcastes. Despised as Untouchables and labeled as the physical manifestation of sin, they were forced to live outside communities, they ate from broken dishes and gained their clothes from corpses. They were made to practice humiliating acts such as attaching a cup to their chins to catch offensive spittle, and walking with a broom to sweep away signs of their pollutive passing. Today India is a virtual melting pot. The Africoid and Caucasian phenotypes have given way to a type more fitting of modern Indians. Even many Dravidians are hard to distinguish. But there still exist many Africoid types which live within India. The castes are mixed to a certain degree, thus color of skin is no longer a definitive description of a lower caste member. However one such group of Outcastes, the Dalits, have in recent decades strongly advocated a "Black African" connection to their roots. One of their most prominent spokesman is the Indian scholar, VT Rajeshekar. Pictured above is his work, Dalit: The Black Untouchables of India. (Photo and Information courtesy of Africans in Early Asiaed. by Ivan Van Sertima and Dalit: The Black Untouchables of India by VT Rajshekar)
China and Southeast Asia In Early Asia
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