Hi. I'm sorry if my understanding is a bit convoluted, but from what I've been able to pick up, we know El (Isra-El, Beth-El, etc.) was the chief of the Canaanite pantheon. I have heard two different things about Yahweh, one is that he was a mountain or storm god of the Canaanites, another that he was a chief god of a nomadic people called the Shasu. But regardless, the deities merged, and, if I'm not mistaken, Hebrew monotheism didn't come about until the exile period in Babylon, to differentiate themselves from the people they were now uprooted and scattered among. Is that all correct?
Secondly, when, then, did the Canaanites become the evil "other" in the Hebrew mythos? It would be a bit weird if say, the Japanese or the Italians all converted to another religion, without a massive population change, all the same people genetically and culturally, but then writing about how the pre-(X religion) inhabitants were an evil people they wiped out. Is there evidence of a population change at all at the supposed time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan? If not, was the othering of the Canaanites a result of the exile period, where the exiled Jews ended up creating an ethnic dichotomy between themselves and their polytheistic Canaanite ancestors?
Hello,
It depends on what you mean. There is a difference between what the theology of the Hebrew Bible says and what archeology tells us.
Hebrew Bible version:
The first patriarch is Abraham and he is identified as being a Sumerian from a city called Ur. His grandson Jacob will eventually end up in Egypt with his twelve children, who become the fathers and founders of the twelve tribes of Israel.
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Hebrews, descendants of the children of Jacob, escaped slavery in Egypt and proceeded to invade Caanan and massacre the Caananites.
Archeology does not support a massive Hebrew Exodus from Egypt nor an invasion of Caanan on the scale the Hebrew Bible claims. No evidence of massive population movements, or massacres in Caanan exist during the time period the Bible claims this all happened.
Archeology tells us a different story. There is a distinct style of "Hebrew" four room houses that we begin to see in rural Judea/Caanan. These houses are often found with artifacts that mark them as being Jewish. Again, they are found in rural areas outside of cities.
Egyptian records note the existence of a group known as the "abriu" who are described as essentially outcasts made up of different people's from Caanan and Mesopotamia. The description of the abriu fits with the four room houses found in rural areas.
The evidence then tells us (imo) that proto-Israelities were not one ethnic group, but a motley crew of different ethnic groups who fled the cities together to build their previously mentioned four room homes out in the wilderness.
Further evidence that adds to the above hypothesis is the mention in Egyptian records of a group known as the Shasu. The Egyptians note that the Shasu, who may have been slaves in Egypt, worship a God that sounds an awful lot like Yahweh.
Edit: When I say sounds like Yahweh, I literally mean the pronunciation. It sounds like the Hebrew Yahweh written in hieroglyphs.
The working theory then is that the Shasu did have an Exodus type experience, and when they got to Caanan these escaped slaves joined up with the outcast proto-Israelities in the hills, bringing the story of Exodus and worship of Yahweh with them. It would also explain why Moses has an Egyptian sounding name.
If you believe the Hebrew Bible does contain kernels of accurate history, then the Bible actually supports archaeology.
The Book of Judges, from the Hebrew Bible, describes a decentralized government who banded together around one chieftain during times of crisis.
That fits well with what archeology tells us about the early lifestyle of Israelities. Villagers living in the hills who shared a worship of Yahweh but were not under the rule of a unified government
TLDR: The Israelities were likely a collection of outcasts from many different cultures who banded together around the worship of a previously minor God, Yahweh.
Sources: Who Were the Ancient Israelities by William Dever.