Description
Book SynopsisProfessor Smith uses Nubia as a case study to explore the nature of ethnic identity. Recent research suggests that ethnic boundaries are permeable, and that ethnic identities are overlapping. This is particularly true when cultures come into direct contact, as with the Egyptian conquest of Nubia in the second millennium BC.
By using the tools of anthropology, Smith examines the Ancient Egyptian construction of ethnic identities with its stark contrast between civilized Egyptians and barbaric foreigners - those who made up the 'Wretched Kush' of the title.
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Boundries and Ethnicity, Chapter 2 Ethnicity in Antiquity: Ethnicity: Essential or Situational?, Bourdieu's Habitus and Ethnic Identity, Otherness and Ethnicity in Ancient Egypt, Chapter 3 Ethnicity and Archaeology: Finding Ethnicity in the Archaeological Record, Foodways and Ethnic Identity, Death and Ethnic Identity, Askut and Tombos, Chapter 4 Egypt and Nubia: Imperial Strategies and Native Agency, Bronze Age Center-Periphery Dynamics, Nubia in the Second Millenium B.C, Chapter 5 Life in Askut: Architecture, Material Culture, Ritual Contexts, Chapter 6 Death at Tombos: Architecture, Grave Goods, Ritual Practice, Chapter 7 Ideology and the Pharaohs: History or Propaganda?, Ethnic Stereotypes and Legitimization, Wretched Kush: Transmission of Ethnic Stereotypes, Chapter 8 Ethnicity, Agency and Empire: Women & Foodways at Askut, Monumentality and Display at Tombos, Was Kush 'Wretched'?
