1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910785490303321

Autore

Graves-Brown Carolyn

Titolo

Dancing for Hathor : women in ancient Egypt / / Carolyn Graves-Brown

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London, [England] ; ; New York, New York : , : Continuum, , 2010

©2010

ISBN

1-4411-6122-8

1-282-87083-1

9786612870835

1-4411-0167-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (264 p.)

Disciplina

932.0082

Soggetti

Women - Egypt - Social conditions

Egypt History To 332 B.C

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Illustrations; Preface; Chronology; Introduction; 1 Rich women, poor women; 2 Changing worlds; The Golden Age; The Great Mother Goddess; The status and role of Predynastic women; Inequality and the rise of the state; Women's status and the growth of agriculture; Women's status from the Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom; Queens of the Old Kingdom; Administrative titles; Priestesses of Hathor; Women textile workers; Women in trade; Did women's status decline from the Old to the Middle Kingdoms?; Later periods; 3 Reversing the ordinary practices of mankind

The dangerous temptress and the passive wifeWomen, weapons and warfare; Domestic violence; Women, the law and property; Adultery and divorce; Crime and punishment; Housewife; Was ancient Egypt a matrilineal society?; Were women considered to be sex objects?; 4 Birth, life and death; Education, literacy and scribes; Age and sexuality; Menarche and menstruation; Coming of age and marriage; Polygamy; Contraceptives and abortion; Phallic votives and fertility figurines; Pregnancy and childbirth; Motherhood; Widows and old age; 5 Women's work; Women serving women; Conscripted labour; Agriculture

Textile productionWomen and trade; The 'wise women'; Prostitution;



Doctors and midwives; Nurses and tutors; Hairdressers and perfumers; Treasurers; Vizier; Women and the court; Women deputizing for their husbands; Women and the temple; Servants of the God; Henut; God's Wife of Amun and Divine Adoratrice; Priestess singers and Meret; The Chantress; Singers in the 'interior'; Khener and dancing; Women and funerals; The role of music and dance; Impersonating Hathor; 6 Sexuality, art and religion; Sexuality and the erotic; Sexual identity; The creative power of the male; Homosexuality; Androgyny

Were the Egyptians prudes?Ostraca and the Turin Papyrus; High art and coded messages; Tattoos, sex and dancing girls; Day beds and public celebration of sexuality; The erotic body; Love poetry; Women and rebirth; The power of the erotic; 7 Queens and harems; Queenship; Symbols of queenship; The queen as Hathor; Divine birth; Incest and the heiress theory; Royal polygamy; The 'harem' of Mentuhotep II; Institutions of women in the New Kingdom: ipet-nesw and per-khener; Medinet-Gurob (Mi-wer); Royal children; Diplomatic marriages; 'Harem plots'; The harem plot of Rameses III; Female kings

Ahmes Nefertari (Ahmes/Ahmose Nefertari) (c.1570-1506 BC)Hatshepsut (c.1470-1458 BC); Nefertiti (c.1390-1340 BC); Cleopatra VII (c.69-31 BC); Egyptian attitudes to women in power; 8 Goddesses; Nut; Neith; Isis and Nephthys; Hathor; Drunkenness; The Return of the Distant One; Conclusion; Glossary; A; B; C; D; E; F; H; I; K; L; M; N; O; P; R; S; T; U; V; W; Notes; Bibliography; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; Y; Z

Sommario/riassunto

The fragmentary evidence allows us only tantalising glimpses of the sophisticated and complex society of the ancient Egyptians, but the Greek historian Herodotus believed that the Egyptians had 'reversed the ordinary practices of mankind' in treating their women better than any of the other civilizations of the ancient world . Carolyn Graves-Brown draws on funerary remains, tomb paintings, architecture and textual evidence to explore all aspects of women in Egypt from goddesses and queens to women as the 'vessels of creation'. Perhaps surprisingly the most common career for women, after housew