Elite Theban Women Of The Eighth Sixth Centuries Bce In Egypt

The roles and status of women in ancient Egyptian society remain imperfectly defined particularly in the Third Intermediate and Late Periods. Egyptology has generally examined women from the perspective of fertility and sexuality, thus defining the social roles of women as wives and mothers who derived their status from their male associations. This dissertation discusses women's roles by investigating the ways in which elite Theban women constructed and displayed their identities in their mortuary practices during the eighth-sixth centuries BCE (Dynasties 22/25-Dynasty 26). In Thebes, the archaeological remains of the eighth-sixth centuries demonstrate conspicuous identity displays by men, but where and how women fit into this period of "big personalities" has not been analyzed in detail. This dissertation argues that the eighth-sixth centuries BCE was not a time of decay, as it is traditionally characterized in Egyptology, but instead a dynamic era in which its cultural products, especially mortuary practices, exhibited a creative tension between tradition and innovation. Identity construction by the ancient Egyptians during a time of rapid socio-political change is manifested in this tension of tradition and innovation. Women featured prominently in the innovations of cultural practices such as kingship, religion, art and mortuary practices, which suggest that they fully participated in the societal-wide preoccupation of identity construction. Therefore, the eighth-sixth centuries BCE provides a rare opportunity to examine the nuances of elite female identity constructions. The material evidence for elite Theban women derives primarily from mortuary contexts. Therefore, this dissertation uses the mortuary practices of elite Theban women in the eighth-sixth as its evidentiary core. Relevant mortuary evidence was compiled into two databases: the Tombs and Contents corpus and the Funerary Objects corpus. The first contains information on the Theban tombs and their contents that attested to the presence of women or belonged to women. The Funerary Objects corpus contains information on unprovenanced mortuary objects belonging to women that are attributed stylistically to Thebes. The information in these databases was analyzed for patterns in the allocation of titles, the spatiality of tombs and distribution and type of funerary objects. Furthermore, this project used different theoretical lenses of memory, landscape, gender and identity to analyze elite female mortuary practices in Thebes. The application of these theoretical lenses to the mortuary data revealed the ways elite women created and displayed important elements of their status and identity in death. The results of the holistic analysis of elite female mortuary practices reveal that elite Theban women of the eighth-sixth centuries operated as active agents to more forcefully express their identities, especially status, albeit within the traditional societal modes and boundaries. Elite female strategies of identity construction were polysemic and complex. Elite female mortuary practices suggest, that, in contrast to traditional Egyptological understanding of women, elite Theban women of the eighth-sixth centuries did not derive their status and identity solely from their male relatives. Instead, their burial practices often reveal a concern with their own status independent of male associations. Elite Theban women's concern for the display of their identity independent of men has implications for a number of issues concerning the social status of women in ancient Egypt, including the issue of mandatory celibacy of women in the Amen clergy. Another implication of this work is that Egyptology needs to expand beyond traditional frameworks of gender when analyzing women. By analyzing groups of women in their individual historical and socio-cultural contexts, this dissertation expands discussions of ancient Egyptian women beyond the monolithic categories of mother and wife. The archaeological analysis of the burial practices of elite Theban women of the eighth-sixth centuries suggests that ancient Egyptian women were active participants and contributors in societal trends of identity constructions. Elite female strategies of identity construction demonstrate complexities of identity conceptions by women that extend beyond the traditional scholarly characterizations that developed women's identities solely by reference to men.

Women, Gender and Identity in Third Intermediate Period Egypt clarifies the role of women in Egyptian society during the first millennium BCE, allowing for more nuanced discussions of women in the Third Intermediate Period. It is an intensive study of a corpus that is both geographically and temporally localized around the city of Thebes, which was the cultural and religious centre of Egypt during this period and home to a major national necropolis. Unlike past studies which have relied heavily on literary evidence, Li presents a refreshing material culture-based analysis of identity construction in elite female burial practices. This close examination of the archaeology of women’s burial presents an opportunity to investigate the social, professional and individual identities of women beyond the normative portrayals of the subordinate wife, mother and daughter. Taking a methodological and material culture-based approach which adds new dimensions to scholarly and popular understandings of ancient Egyptian women, this fascinating and important study will aid scholars of Egyptian history and archaeology, and anyone with an interest in women and gender in the ancient world.

Cutting-edge research by twenty-four international scholars on female power, agency, health, and literacy in ancient Egypt There has been considerable scholarship in the last fifty years on the role of ancient Egyptian women in society. With their ability to work outside the home, inherit and dispense of property, initiate divorce, testify in court, and serve in local government, Egyptian women exercised more legal rights and economic independence than their counterparts throughout antiquity. Yet, their agency and autonomy are often downplayed, undermined, or outright ignored. In Women in Ancient Egypt twenty-four international scholars offer a corrective to this view by presenting the latest cutting-edge research on women and gender in ancient Egypt. Covering the entirety of Egyptian history, from earliest times to Late Antiquity, this volume commences with a thorough study of the earliest written evidence of Egyptian women, both royal and non-royal, before moving on to chapters that deal with various aspects of Egyptian queens, followed by studies on the legal status and economic roles of non-royal women and, finally, on women’s health and body adornment. Within this sweeping chronological range, each study is intensely focused on the evidence recovered from a particular site or a specific time-period. Rather than following a strictly chronological arrangement, the thematic organization of chapters enables readers to discern diachronic patterns of continuity and change within each group of women. · Clémentine Audouit, Paul Valery University, Montpellier, France · Anne Austin, University of Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, USA · Mariam F. Ayad, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt · Romane Betbeze, Université de Genève, Switzerland, and Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL, France · Anke Ilona Blöbaum, Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany · Eva-Maria Engel, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany · Renate Fellinger, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK · Kathrin Gabler, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland · Rahel Glanzmann, independent scholar, Basel, Switzerland. · Izold Guegan, Swansea University, UK, and Sorbonne University, Paris, France · Fayza Haikal, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt · Janet H. Johnson, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Il, USA · Katarzyna Kapiec, Institute of the Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland · Susan Anne Kelly, Macquarie University Sydney, Sydney, Australia · AnneMarie Luijendijk, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA · Suzanne Onstine, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, USA · José Ramón Pérez-Accino Picatoste, Facultad de Geografía e Historia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain · Tara Sewell-Lasater, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA · Yasmin El Shazly, American Research Center in Egypt, Cairo, Egypt · Reinert Skumsnes, Centre for Gender Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway · Isabel Stünkel, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA · Inmaculada Vivas Sainz, National Distance Education University), Madrid, Spain · Hana Vymazalová, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czeck Republic · Jacquelyn Williamson, George Mason University, Fairfax, Viriginia, USA · Annik Wüthrich, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna, Austria

This riveting narrative explores the lives of six remarkable female pharaohs, from Hatshepsut to Cleopatra--women who ruled with real power--and shines a piercing light on our own perceptions of women in power today. Female rulers are a rare phenomenon--but thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, women reigned supreme. Regularly, repeatedly, and with impunity, queens like Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Cleopatra controlled the totalitarian state as power-brokers and rulers. But throughout human history, women in positions of power were more often used as political pawns in a male-dominated society. What was so special about ancient Egypt that provided women this kind of access to the highest political office? What was it about these women that allowed them to transcend patriarchal obstacles? What did Egypt gain from its liberal reliance on female leadership, and could today's world learn from its example? Celebrated Egyptologist Kara Cooney delivers a fascinating tale of female power, exploring the reasons why it has seldom been allowed through the ages, and why we should care.

Readable and scholarly, this up-to-date book covers every aspect of the life of women in ancient Egypt. This book focuses on the life of women in ancient Egypt, while also putting forth a vast array of information about ancient Egyptians in general. Readers begin with a short but thorough introduction to the three great periods of Pharaonic civilization: the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. Main chapters include the newest evidence scholars have uncovered at important archeological sites in ancient Egypt. The scope of this book is wide and all inclusive, even though it is focused on the life of ancient Egyptian women. The topics in the book cover a vast amount of the knowledge we have about the ancient Egyptians, including material on architecture, art, law, education, medicine, food, religion, music, and spiritual beliefs. It is important to point out that royal women are only discussed in one chapter, so that more "ordinary" ancient Egyptians are the focus of the book. This book is also designed to be readable for people without any background knowledge of the time period. Any reader interested in ancient Egypt will discover a great deal of material.

Third edition of readable survey of women in Ancient Egypt. Chapters include: Divine Women/Royal Women; The Average Woman; Public Life/Private Life; Women in the Cults; Sex, Marriage and Family Life.

This beautifully produced new paperback edition of Silent Images explores a puzzling contradiction: Despite the multitude of artifacts and texts that have come to us from ancient Egypt, much still remains obscure regarding the lives of women. Women were, from the historical perspective, silent-but how should this silence be interpreted? What was the reality of women's lives behind the standardized images? We know that their chief role in society as mothers and anchors of the family was honored and respected, although it meant a degree of segregation and, in most periods, excluded them from public office. Nevertheless, in law they were the equals of men and they could, and did, own property, which they administered and disposed of themselves. Zahi Hawass's book searches for a more realistic picture of women's lives in ancient Egypt. As well as reconsidering the evidence from tomb and temple, the author draws on unpublished material from his excavations at the workers' cemetery at Giza, which sheds light on the womenfolk of the workmen who built and maintained the pyramids. The text is complemented by lavish illustrations of places and objects, many made especially for this book.

As the first major encyclopedia of its kind, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies (OEBGS) is the go-to source for scholars and students undertaking original research in the field. Extending the work of nineteenth and twentieth century feminist scholarship and more recent queer studies, the Encyclopedia seeks to advance the scholarly conversation by systematically exploring the ways in which gender is constructed in the diverse texts, cultures, and readers that constitute "the world of the Bible." With contributions from leading scholars in gender and biblical studies as well as contemporary gender theorists, classicists, archaeologists, and ancient historians, this comprehensive reference work reflects the diverse and interdisciplinary nature of the field and traces both historical and modern conceptions of gender and sexuality in the Bible. The two-volume Encyclopedia contains more than 160 entries ranging in length from 1,000 to 10,000 words. Each entry includes bibliographic references and suggestions for further reading, as well as a topical outline and index to aid in research. The OEBGS builds upon the pioneering work of biblically focused gender theorists to help guide and encourage further gendered discussions of the Bible.

perspective on one of world history's most exotic and familiar cultures.