EGYT 2510 syllabus

7/30/2019 EGYT 2510 syllabus

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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)



EGYT 2510 syllabus

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