Hamite

Hamite, group of peoples, originally of northern and north-eastern Africa and the Canary Islands. Anthropologists (and linguists) are in dispute about the precise ethnological definition of the Hamite; they generally define the group as including the following: the Berber of North Africa; the Fula, Tuareg, and Tibbu of the Sudan; the ancient Egyptians; the major Ethiopian peoples; and the Guanche, an extinct people of the Canary Islands. The term “Hamite” is vague and covers groups with widely different physical and cultural characteristics: some anthropologists propose that it should be dropped from usage. The Hamites are more usually described on a linguistic rather than a racial basis today.

Hamitic groups are credited with originating the oldest extant writing in the world, the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the ancient Egyptians, and were the earliest engineers and architects to work in massive stone.

See also Afro-Asiatic Languages.