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.
EGYT 2100 Social Life in Ancient Egypt
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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
EGYT 2100 Social Life in Ancient Egypt
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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
EGYT 2100 Social Life in Ancient Egypt
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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)
Week 12: Student Presentations (presenters will assign reading)
Week 13: Student Presentations (presenters will assign reading)