Howdy,
@Hawdian just ran a train on this thread and spoke nothing but facts.
However there's one important thing nobody mentioned: Frankincense.
Follow the money and you can follow the history.
Sool, Saanag and Bari produce 80% of the worlds frankincense. Although, Yemen and Oman produce these trees, the ancients seen no incentive in going across the gulf of Aden to get these trees. Many scholars believe Frereana seeds where taken to modern day Yemen so they can plant these trees for their economies. In ancient times frankincense was worth its weight in gold. This is why it was the land of the gods, because, liquid gold(Frankincense)would spew of the trees. Eritrea and Djibouti do not produce frankincense, and the only reason we would see Punt being here is because some anthropologists who makes 40k a year decided to say that.
Here are 3 reason why I'm so glad Somaliland didn't snatch the name "Puntland".
1. Branding:
Branding is important because it allows a country to distinguish its self from its neighbours. When everyone promotes the Arabian brand from clothing to behaviour, it limits your ability to distinguish your countries content. This is why countries like Chad are having an identity crisis because they speak french and promote an Arabian culture. This is dangerous when brand building, since tourist feel no need to come to your country, there is nothing that distinctly separates your brand from another's.
2. Arts
As a country modernizes and gains wealth, it's people earn for history and arts. Since most of Somalias ancient relics and monuments are being looted and destroyed this creates a dilemma when promoting the arts and distinction. Go to Qatar and you will see the Bedouin homes and palaces destroyed to be replaced with shopping malls and office towers. This is why tourist get confused and label the Gulf as a region looking to buy history. Somalis don't need to buy history, we are too busy denying it. If Puntland was separated and autonomous, we could easily buy back artifacts from the Egyptians. Or look for it in the ancient ship wrecks along the coast, however Arts come after prosperity.
3. Nationalism.
I'm not going to lie when I tell you Somalia will be broken apart and it's a good thing. It's our land and as long Somalis inherit these breakaway states I'm all for it. If you go to thetruesize.com, you can drag somalia (Somaliland is broken apart already) but if you drag the two regions and rotate them on top of Yemen, Oman and Emirates. You can see how breaking away makes fucking sense.
http://www.somalispot.com/attachments/img_1199-jpg.9613/?temp_hash=676d6cd8dae6250ffecad9712f54fe3a
As a Puntite, I'm all for looking into the future, 10, 20, 50 years ahead. Since Puntland claims the Puntite name, its 100% better than having Eritrea claim it. Nationalism is important when discussing the modern day Puntite.
From clothing, linguistics to trade; all evidence supports the Puntites coming from Northern Somalia. But remember this, the population of all Somalis was arguably less than 50k since Egypt had 4-5million inhabitants.
I'm a Puntite, whether a couple of you disagree on it or not. Having a brand, arts and nationalism is a great distinction to deviate us from tribe and Qabil. The only reason I love being a Puntite is that, no Tribe can claim Punt! But all Somalis were Puntites and I'm glad we can agree on that.
...lemme get back to this DimSum.
Rageedii,
Your Puntite