Brown University



EGYT 2510 Social Life in Ancient Egypt

Professor Laurel Bestock

Thursdays, 4:00-6:20 pm

Wilbour Dept. of Egyptology & Ancient Western Asian Studies, 3rd floor

The Egyptians had a complex ideology pertaining to the self, perceiving themselves as multi-faceted individuals whose embodiment transcended death. They were concerned with questions which have returned in later European philosophy - questions about being and non-being, about the meaning of death, the constitution of the body, about the nature of the cosmos and humanity, and about the basis of human society. Studying such ideas and their relavence both to individuals and to broader groups within society requires a careful examination of often difficult and fragmentary evidence.

This course will draw upon recent theoretical developments in anthropology and sociology that seek to explore fluid hierarchies of difference - age, sex, class, ethnicity - providing an opportunity to link theory and data in an innovative manner. Taking the lifecycle as its structure, the course covers Egyptian life from conception to death and burial, drawing a range of data sources such as material culture, iconography, textual data and human remains.

Assessment:

1. Class presentation/participation (50%)

2. Research paper to be handed in at the end of the term on a topic agreed to after consultation with the professor (50%).

Texts:

Kemp, B. J. 2006. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, second edition.

Meskell, L. M. 1999: Archaeologies of Social Life: Age, Sex, Class etc. in Ancient Egypt.

Janssen. J. and R. M. Janssen. 1990: Growing up in Ancient Egypt.

Janssen, R. and J. J. Janssen. 1996: Getting Old in Ancient Egypt.

(these are available in one volume now)

Shafer, B. (ed) 1991: Religion in Ancient Egypt

Hornung, E. 1982. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many.

Robins, G. 1993: Women in Ancient Egypt.

Manniche, L. 1987: Sexual Life in Ancient Egypt.

Additional readings as assigned.

Schedule:

|Week 1: Introduction to the study of social life and Egyptian Chronology. |

|Only general reading required. |

|  |

| |

|Week 2: Existence and Individuals in Society |

|Meskell, L. M. 2000: “Cycles of life: narrative homology and archaeological realities.” World Archaeology: Lifecycles |

|31(3): 423 - 441. |

|Hornung, E. (1982). Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many. Cornell, Ithaca. 170-185 |

|Baines, J. (1991). “Society, Morality and Religious Practice”, B. Shafer, Religion in Ancient Egypt. Cornell, Ithaca: |

|123-200. |

|Kemp, B. J. 2006. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, Routledge, London and New York. Ch. 1 and 3. |

|The Eloquent Peasant |

|The Satire of the Trades |

|Book of the Dead: Negative Confession |

|  |

|Week 3: Conception and Birth |

|Janssen. J. and R. M. Janssen. 1990: Growing up in Ancient Egypt. London, Rubicon Press. |

|Ch. 1-3 |

|Roth, A. M. (2000). Father earth, mother sky: ancient Egyptian beliefs about conception and fertility. Reading the Body: |

|Representations and Remains in the Archaeological Record. A. Rautman. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press: 187 |

|– 201. |

|Meskell, L. M. 1994: Dying Young: the experience of death at Deir el Medina, Archaeological Review from Cambridge 13(2): |

|35-45. |

|Robins, G. 1994-5: Women and children in peril: pregnancy, birth and infant mortality in ancient Egypt, KMT 5(4): 24-35. |

|Roth, A. M. (1993). “Fingers, stars, and the 'Opening of the Mouth': the nature and function of the ntrwj-blades.” Journal|

|of Egyptian Archaeology 79: 57-79.  |

|Pinch, G. 1994: Magic in Ancient Egypt. London, British Museum Press, esp. Ch. 9.  |

|  |

|Week 4: Childhood and Adolescence |

|Feucht, E. 1995: Das Kind im alten Ägypten. Frankfurt/New York, Campus Verlag. |

|Janssen, J. J. and R. M. Janssen. 1990: Growing up in Ancient Egypt. London, Rubicon Press. Ch. 4-6, 8-11. |

|Meskell, L. M. 1999: Archaeologies of Social Life: Age, Sex, Class etc. in Ancient Egypt. Oxford, Blackwell. |

|Wilfong, T. 1999: Menstrual synchrony and the "Place of Women" in ancient Egypt. (Oriental Institute Museum Hieratic |

|Ostracon 13512). In God of Praise: Studies in Honour of Professor Edward F. Wente, E. Teeter and J. A. Larson (Ed.). |

|Chicago, University of Chicago Press.   |

|  |

|Week 5: Partnership |

|Janssen, J. J. 1988: Marriage problems and public reactions (P. BM 10416). In Pyramid Studies and Other Essays Presented |

|to I. E. S. Edwards, J. Baines, T. G. H. James, A. Leahy and A. F. Shore (Ed.). London, Egypt Exploration Society, pp. |

|134-137. |

|Robins, G. 1993: Women in Ancient Egypt. London, British Museum. |

|Toivari, J. 1997: Man versus woman: interpersonal disputes in the workmen's community of Deir el Medina, Journal of the |

|Economic and Social History of the Orient 39(4): 1 - 21. |

|Toivari, J. 1998: Marriage at Deir el Medina. In Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists, C. J.|

|Eyre (Ed.). Leuven, Uitgeverij Peeters, pp. 1157 - 1163.   |

|Hekanakht letters |

|  |

|Week 6: Inequalities |

|Cruz-Uribe, E. 1982. “Slavery in Egypt during the Saite and Persian Periods” in Revue Internationale des Droits de |

|l’Antiquité, Brussels. |

|Bakir, A. el-M. 1952. Slavery in Pharaonic Egypt. Cairo. |

|Lorton, D. Treatment of Criminals in Ancient Egypt |

|O’Connor, D and D. Silverman. 1995: Ancient Egyptian Kingship. Leiden, New York and Cologne, E. J. Brill. |

|Brumfiel, E. M. 1992: Distinguished Week in archaeology: breaking and entering the ecosystem — gender, class, and faction |

|steal the show, American Anthropologist 94: 551 - 567. |

|Meskell, L. M. 1999: Archaeologies of Social Life: Age, Sex, Class etc. in Ancient Egypt. Oxford, Blackwell. |

|Wilfong, T. G., Ed. 1997: Women and Gender in Ancient Egypt: From Prehistory to Late Antiquity, Ann Arbor, MI, Kelsey |

|Museum of Archaeology.  |

|  |

|Week 7: Women |

|Bryan, B. M. 1996: In woman good and bad fortune are on earth: status and roles of women in Egyptian culture. In Mistress |

|of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt, A. K. Capel and G. E. Markoe (Ed.). New York, Hudson Hills |

|Press, pp. 25-46. |

|Roehrig, C. 1996: Women’s work: Some ocupations of nonroyal women as depicted in ancient Egyptian art. In Mistress of the |

|House. |

|Lesko, B. S. 1994-5: Researching the role of women in ancient Egypt, KMT 5(4): 14-23. |

|Robins, G. 1993: Women in Ancient Egypt. London, British Museum.  |

|  |

|Week 8: Organizing principles: Religion and Law in Society |

|Baines, J. 1991: Society, morality, and religious practice. In Religion in Ancient Egypt, B. E. Shafer (Ed.). London, |

|Routledge, pp. 123 - 200. |

|Eloquent Peasant |

|Johnson, J. 1996: The legal status of women in Ancient Egypt. In Mistress of the House. |

|Lorton, D. Legal and Social Institutions of Pharaonic Egypt, in Sasson (ed.) Civilizations of the Ancient Near East vol. |

|1. |

|Jasnow, R. 2003. several chapters from Westbrook, R. (ed). A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law |

|Sadek: Popular Religion in Egypt during the New Kingdom |

|Schaefer: Temples Priests and Rituals in Temples of Ancient Egypt |

|  |

|Week 9: Attitudes to Death |

|Cerny, J. 1945: The will of Naunakhte and related documents, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 31: 29-53. |

|D'Auria, S., P. Lacovara and C. H. Roehrig, Eds. 1988: Mummies and Magic: The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt, Boston and |

|Dallas, Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Dallas Museum of Art. |

|Janssen, R. and J. J. Janssen. 1996: Getting Old in Ancient Egypt. London, Rubicon Press. |

|Lloyd, A. B. 1989: Psychology and society in the ancient Egyptian cult of the dead. In Religion and Philosophy in Ancient |

|Egypt, W. K. Simpson (Ed.). New Haven, Yale Egyptological Studies, pp. 117 – 133.  |

|  |

|Week 10: Facing the Afterworld |

|Assmann, J. 1989b: Death and initiation in the funerary religion of ancient Egypt. In Religion and Philosophy in Ancient |

|Egypt, W. K. Simpson (Ed.). New Haven, Yale Egyptology Series 3, pp. 135 - 159. |

|Hornung, E. 1982. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul. |

|Hornung, E. 1989. Idea Into Image:  Essays on Ancient Egypt. New York, Timken Publishers, Inc. |

|Hornung, E. 1999. The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Ithaca, Cornell University Press. |

|  |

|Week 11: Student Presentations (presenters will assign reading) |

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|Week 12: Student Presentations (presenters will assign reading) |

|  |

|Week 13: Student Presentations (presenters will assign reading) |

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