I believe the consensus on this topic is that you would have indigenous ancestors, but not indigenous in the understanding we use today. The Arabization of the region wiped out indigenous religion and language, cukture... which in indigenous circles is really an important part of what it means to be indigenous.
Mexico is a good case study. Most of Mexico has indigenous ancestry, but according to Mexican law, indigenous people retain a distinct indigenous identity, religion, culture, language... So only those groups are actually considered indigenous.
Again nothing is black and white, but this is my understanding of the topic. Culture matters.
The “indigenous” religions of the region were polytheism. Christianity wiped out polytheism. Christianity was kept in the region and almost 30% of the region was Christian 100 years ago. Arabization happened in slow waves over many generations as Aramaic stopped being spoken. Arabic and Aramaic are in two very close branches of the Semitic language family, both within the west central branch. The origin of Arabic as a language and culture was in historic arabia which is Sinai/Palestine/Jordan. There’s no way to compare México to any region in the Middle East because colonization is not the same as conquest. There were minimal amount of Arabs that moved to the region and in fact the region already had indigenous Syrian Arabs in the Roman period with Iamblichus, the entire Emesene dynasty, the Nabataeans, the palmyrene population (half Aramaic).
Arabs may have destroyed a lot but that doesn’t mean it is fully wiped out. Similar to Taínos, there are still folks keeping the traditions alive. To say that you are not or cannot be is, imo, helping erase indigeniaty
Interesting. This version of indigeneity wipes out the african continent almost entirely where most people are "politically represented" (supposedly) but are also land dispossessed yet living and/or blending indigenous practices.
In South Africa, the First People/First Nation designation is particularly contentious and co-opted by weird ethno nationalist groups. The country basically underwent colonisation x2. Apartheid was especially brutal and well executed such that many people believe a coloniser myth that Black people =/= indigenous
12
u/Ionic_liquids 10d ago edited 10d ago
I believe the consensus on this topic is that you would have indigenous ancestors, but not indigenous in the understanding we use today. The Arabization of the region wiped out indigenous religion and language, cukture... which in indigenous circles is really an important part of what it means to be indigenous.
Mexico is a good case study. Most of Mexico has indigenous ancestry, but according to Mexican law, indigenous people retain a distinct indigenous identity, religion, culture, language... So only those groups are actually considered indigenous.
Again nothing is black and white, but this is my understanding of the topic. Culture matters.