ANTHROPOLOGY, ARCHAEOLOGY AND EGYPTOLOGYIn the preface of Egyptology and the Social Sciences, Kent Weeks (1979: v) wrote: we consider extremely encouraging the fact that Egyptologists are now, after half a century of reluctance, beginning to approach such fields as anthropology for ideas, while anthropologists are also beginning to realize that, beneath Egyptology's staid and sometimes formidable exterior, there lies a wealth of data of great value for their studies.In the almost forty years since that publication, the dialogue he hinted at has not been as lively as he anticipated. Many authors have successfully incorporated theoretical models from the social sciences into Egyptology (Baines 2011: 576-8), but very few of those proposals have been followed by engaged discussions in the literature. 1 Whether this is due to discomfort with rapidly changing disciplines (Weeks 1979: 21) or to mistrust of studies that go beyond a narrowly evidential basis (Baines 2011: 575), many Egyptologists remain reluctant to integrate theoretical approaches into their work. In contrast, in this book I advocate that a productive dialogue between Egyptology, anthropology and archaeology is not only possible but necessary. The rich dataset provided by Egyptology could be invaluable for anthropologists and archaeologists, while the methods and theoretical approaches of the latter disciplines may offer fresh insights into Egyptian material.

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