The Social and Cultural Order of Ancient Egypt: An Ethnographic and Regional Analysis

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The Social and Cultural Order of Ancient Egypt offers a completely new interpretation of Ancient Egypt. Based on insight from anthropology it complement and enhance the archeological material and gives some new interpretation on otherwise accepted truths about Ancient Egypt. It is argued that Ancient Egyptian culture can only be understood in relation to its reproductive condition and that Ancient Egypt must be seen as part of a larger regional trade network including the Levant and Mesopotamia in the west, Nubia, and Africa to the south. Egypts splendors would not have been possible without such trade opportunities that made it possible for a small section of society to export gold for foreign prestige goods. This laid the foundation for a steep social hierarchy and paved the way towards the Old Kingdom. This new perspective makes it possible to interpret e.g., that The Narmer Palette is not about unification, it is telling about Narmers position in a larger cosmos. Enclosures were not places for funerary preparations, but places for collecting tax. Pyramids are not graves but places for the gods Re and Osiris to meet and rejuvenate the cosmos.

Reviews

"All that glitters is not gold!" Not in the perspective of Steen Bergendorff. In The Social and Cultural Order of Ancient Egypt, Bergendorff starts from gold control to explain the hegemony of the ruling class and the formation of the social and cultural mindset of ancient Egyptians. Bergendorff successfully evokes a different Egypt, an Egypt seen through the eyes of an anthropologist, an Egypt untangled from its local perspective and presented from a more global view.--Gianluca Miniaci, University of Pisa
Why did the pharaonic society flourish in one of the harshest environments in the world In this stimulating book, inspired by a solid anthropological background, Steen Bergendorff provides an original and vibrant narrative in which gold appears as a crucial move in the emergence of the Egyptian civilization.--Juan Carlos Moreno Garca, Sorbonne Universit

Author Bio

Steen Bergendorff is associate professor emeritus in the Department of Social Science and Business at Roskilde University.