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These Edo craftsmen were under the strict supervision of their Portuguese owners. Look at the quality of their work. No one else surpassed work of this quality during antiquity. Why would anyone in their right mind sell a first class labor force to an adversary or anyone for that matter. It takes year to produce a first rate craftsman. Your skilled labor is your bargaining chip. When you sell your bargaining chips you have nothing left to bargain with. Your adversary will never buy anything made by you when he can purchase your skilled craftsmen and have them do the work for him at what ever “price he is willing to pay” them. 
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PORTUGUESE EDO IVORY SALTCELLAR AND EDO IVORY BELT MASK
If Western Art had first taken root someplace else we could probably show a few African Western Art pieces and dismiss the subject concerning "Roots of Western Civilization in Africa", but we could not do that since both Western Art and Western Civilization began in Africa. Another reason why we could not dismiss the beginnings of Western Art in Africa was because the first examples of Western Art were some of the finest early examples of Western Art anywhere. Since Western Art produced in African and Europe were some of worlds best artworks this makes it imperative that we begin the history of Western Art by starting with Western Art produced in Africa and Europe.
Western Civilization is hybrid, but European Civilization is hybrid as well. There is no French Civilization, no English Civilization, no German Civilization, no Russian Civilization, no Spanish or Portuguese Civilization only European Civilization. None of these people have an alphabet or numbering system of their own that serve any function. The alphabet Europeans uses is Roman and the numbering characters used are Western Arabic. It consists of nine characters and the zero which were invented in India. Babylonians and Mayans also invented the zero, but the numbering system Europeans use is Indian. Europeans use Pope Gregory’s (XIII) calendar and the French invented the metric system of measurement (now called the International System of Units). Around 127 AD Hipparchus of Niceae working in Alexander Egypt proposed the 24 hour system. Christianity and the New Testament came from Egypt and the Near East and a seven day week is in the Book of Genesis. Each country in Europe has its own philosophy, but all countries in Europe embrace Greek Philosophy. The same principles used in uniting Europe are also the same principles used in the process of creating Western Civilization.
Each country in Europe has its own culture separate from European Civilization. Some ethnic groups created their own writing systems, but when Roman characters became a standard; most writing systems in Europe became “ritual relics”. The same process has been at stake in the Western World. In some places whole cultures became “ritual relics”. Ritual relics suffer from rigor mortis; because they do not serve a living function anymore and museums help prevent the relics from returning to dust. © Claude Lockhart Clark August 27, 2012
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