Kinship and Family in Ancient Egypt

Abstract

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.

Erinnerungsstrategien im alten Ägypten zur Zeit des Königs Tutanchamun

“…Wie ich in diesem Beitrag anhand einiger Beispiele zeigen möchte, war die Erinnerungskultur der Ägypter*innen im Neuen Reich allerdings viel weniger selbstbezogen, als Assmanns Begriff vermuten lassen könnte. Großfamilien, Verwandtschaftsgruppen sowie Patron-Klienten-Beziehungen waren die Grundlage der altägyptischen Gesellschaft (siehe zuletzt Olabarria 2020). Im Folgenden soll gezeigt werden, wie sich diese Sozialformen auch in der altägyptischen Erinnerungspraxis widerspiegelten.…”

The Power of Convention: Reinterpreting Social Groups through a Middle Kingdom Statuette

“…An emphasis on collaterality would also fit with the conventions of production of the time when this statuette was fashioned, as collaterals were often depicted and celebrated in commemorative monuments. 76 In the late Middle Kingdom it was common to have stelae dedicated by members of the extended family, but also by other colleagues or dependants that were often captioned as snw. In the process, many types of relationships were constructed and reconstructed creatively in stone.…”

“…77 Concepts of family are indeed culturally constructed and need to be understood in emic terms. In Egypt, to be represented together in a monument was one way of enacting relatedness: 78 the stela of Sainheret and Inheretnakht commemorates two groups that do not appear at first glance to be related genealogically, but their sharing of this monument conveys a sense of relatedness. The statuette could be participating in a similar representational convention that highlights lineality and/or collaterality as key aspects of relatedness.…”

“…In Middle Egyptian there exist more than 12 different terms that have been translated as 'family', but all of them present nuances. 103 The generalised rendering 'family' deceptively unifies a variety of ancient emic concepts into something that fits into an etic framework based on Western expectations, which is why I tend to use the term 'relatedness' instead. Since it is difficult to determine what a family is, it is preferable to term objects of this type 'group statuettes' in order to avoid imposing preconceptions of what a family should look like.…”

Social Exclusion in Ancient Egypt: A Sociological Approach

“…Besides, two historical periods have attracted interest to apply different sociological concepts, when social logics such as kinship and solidarity are more evident: the formation of the Egyptian state and the Middle Kingdom (e.g. Campagno 2006;Olabarria 2020). However, Egyptology continues to show reluctance to implement them and, in practice, clings to its traditional articulation (Bloxam & Shaw 2020, 23).…”