Women Gender And Identity In Third Intermediate Period Egypt

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.

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.

This book explores the contributions of Eastern female pioneers in science, politics and arts from Ancient Egypt to modern times, and discusses the possible psychological and social impact of this knowledge on today’s gender role in Eastern and Western Societies. Based on psychological studies on social learning, the book argues that profound knowledge of the historical contributions of Eastern female pioneers in science, politics and arts can improve today’s gender roles in Middle Eastern countries and inspire young women living in Western Societies with Eastern migration background. Spanning disciplines such as Natural sciences, Neuroscience, Psychology, Sociology, Islamic Theology, History and Arts, and including contributions from diverse geographical regions across the world, this book provides an elaborate review of the gender role of women in Ancient Egypt and the Middle East, outlining their prominence and influence and discusses the possible psychological and social impact of this knowledge on today’s gender roles.

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

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.

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

The book collects more than 400 dossiers of the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period non-royal women. This work is complementary to D. Franke Personendaten aus dem Mittleren Reich (Wiesbaden 1984), and to W. Grajetzki and D. Stefanović, Dossiers of Ancient Egyptians -the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period addition to Franke's 'Personendaten' (London 2012) establishing sets of data for women known from more than one source.

Violence and Gender in Ancient Egypt shifts the focus of gender studies in Egyptology to social phenomena rarely addressed through the lens of gender – war and violence, exploring the complex intersections of violence and gender in ancient Egypt. Building on current discussions in philosophy, anthropology, and sociology, and on analysis of relevant historic texts, iconography, and archaeological remains by looking at possible gender patterns behind evidence of trauma, the book bridges the gap between modern understandings of gendered violence and its functioning in ancient Egypt. Areas explored include the following: differences in gendered aggression and violent acts between people and deities; sexual violence; the taking of men, women, and children as prisoners of war; and feminization of enemies. By examining ancient Egyptian texts and images with evidence for violence from different periods and contexts – private tombs, divine temples, royal stelae, papyri, and ostraca, ranging over 3,000 years of cultural history – Violence and Gender in Ancient Egypt highlights the complex intersection between gender and violence in ancient Egyptian culture. The book will appeal to scholars and students working in Egyptology, archaeology, history, anthropology, sociology, and gender studies.

Collecting 22 selected papers from the twenty-third Current Research in Egyptology conference, topics include language and literature, archaeology and material culture, society and religion, archival research, intercultural relations, reports on archaeological excavations and methodological issues, regarding all periods of Ancient Egypt.