Description
Book SynopsisFrom the Narmer palette to funerary preparations to pyramids, Steen Bergendorff draws on anthropological insights to provide new interpretations of accepted truths about Ancient Egypt. Bergendorff traces societal reproductive patterns in Ancient Egypt and the regional trade network that stretched from the Levant and Mesopotamia in the west and Nubia and Africa to the south in order to illustrate Ancient Egyptian culture anew. This book is recommended for students and scholars of archaeology, anthropology, Egyptology, and history.
Trade ReviewWhy 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 García, Sorbonne Université
“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
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Chapter 1: A regional perspective on Ancient Egypt
Chapter 2: Gold and social organization
Chapter 3: Ancient Egyptian cosmology
Chapter 4: Ancient Egyptian concept of personhood – Living in two lands
Chapter 5: Ancient practices
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
