Egyptology, feminist theory and alternative worlds: Body/sex/gender in New Kingdom Egypt, and their affective environments

EgFem looked at the potential for interdisciplinary cross-fertilization between Egyptology and feminist theory: The objective was to explore the potential for dialogue between present theories about the body and sex/gender, and past concepts, experiences and practices. Furthermore, the objective has been to achieve a better understanding of the manifold expressions of body, sex and gender in New Kingdom Egypt, and to engage in dialogue beyond disciplinary boundaries. The project has not focused on social constructions (culture) as opposed to a biological baseline (nature), what came first, and what is the more appropriate of the concepts body, sex and gender. Rather, the concern was to question what we think we know, how we know it, what makes knowledge possible, and what interests it may serve. The different outputs from the project includes both critique and positive formulations of alternatives that further our knowledge about the past, and force us to reflect critically on current assumptions and categorizations. The output of the project includes a conference, three co-edited volumes and seven articles: The conference “Egyptology in dialogue: historical bodies in relations of comparisons and negotiations” explored how four specific concepts – body worlds, relations, comparisons and negotiations – could be useful tools (if at all) for thinking through patterns, change and variation in the ancient Egyptian cultural output. Selected papers were published in a special issue of the journal Interdisciplinary Egyptology (2024). EgFem’s contributions to this issue, among others, include “Alternative body worlds in ancient Egyptian healing texts”. This article uses the concept body worlds as a lens, in an attempt to not only direct the focus but also mediate between different positions, perspectives and records, to explore and complicate how bodies were conceptualised and demarcated by the ancient Egyptians. The volume “Hierarchy and equality – representations of sex/gender in the ancient world” (Papers and Monographs from the Norwegian Institute at Athens, 2024) includes contributions from different disciplines, from scholars concerned with ancient societies around the Mediterranean basin, drawing on respective materials to investigate the diversity of ancient conceptions of sex/gender. EgFem’s primary contribution to this volume is “Sex/gender as relational, historical and hybrid phenomena”. This article conceptualizes sex/gender as relational, arguing that the process of becoming male, female or other cannot be understood from single bodies alone, but through what is described as assemblages of mutually determining relations; as historical, highlighting the significance of spatiotemporal positions and perspectives, as well as the fact that the records themselves are highly fragmented and ambiguous; and as hybrid, spanning three dimensions of social ordering: the political, the cultural-discursive and the socio-economic. The volume “From women to gender research in Egyptology: in search for patterns, change and variation” (Liverpool University Press, 2025) augments that a shift from women to gender research is not simply a question of including different identity categories or about applying ready-made theoretical models, but recognising bodies as historically and relationally contingent. By engaging critically with theoretical discussions beyond Egyptology, the authors of this book argue that gender is the outcome of on-going boundary struggles, fluid across time, and ultimately a question of how we produce knowledge, a matter of method. EgFem’s contributions to this volume, among others, include “New Kingdom non-royal female titles: patterns, change and variation”, which accentuate the multivalent complexity of the records; and “Women’s work? Production and circulation in the New Kingdom textile industry”, which draw in perspectives that frustrate those traditional scholarly boundaries, making new connections both within and beyond them. The article A case study of the Turin Satirical-Erotic Papyrus: Historical bodies, mundane resistance and alternative worlds (Gendering the Nordic Past: Dialogues Between Perspectives, Brepols, 2024) draws attention to the inextricably interwoven relationships between the papyrus and its original context (foreground relations), reconstructions (copies and copies of copies) of the papyrus, later beholders, and their multiple contexts and perspectives (background relations). It is argued that the different interpretations are not just possibilities, they are active players in the process towards understanding how this papyrus, and its possible contexts in the past, emerge and multiply in the present. Other articles include “Family contracts in New Kingdom Egypt” (Women in ancient Egypt: revisiting power, agency, and autonomy, American University in Cairo Press, 2022), and “Familie og kjønn i det gamle Egypt, under Det nye riket” (Arr - Idehistorisk tidsskrift, 2022).

This project has further developed my academic position, experience and competence, my international profile and contact network. This has been achieved through practice, collaboration with and feedback from mentors, partners and other colleagues. The international mobility grant has made it possible for me to immerse myself in another academic system and culture, to work closely, over time, with academic and administrative staff as well as some of the graduate students at the partner institution. I have had weekly meetings with mentor and others, discussing my own as well as others work. Drafts have been presented in several forums for feedback, including internal workshops, local seminars and international conferences, both at and beyond host and partner institutions. This project has allowed me to developed platforms for collective knowledge production. I among others organized an international conference at the partner institution, bringing together an international team of scholars, to engage in dialogue beyond disciplinary boundaries. Many of the conversations started at this conference were developed further for publication. These are partners and colleagues that I will continue to work with, that no doubt will be important for my future career. The grant has enabled me to do fieldwork in various museums, and at various sites in Egypt, which has been of key importance to this project. The grant has also made it possible to develop existing as well as new networks at the host institution, among others acting as member of the advisory group for the UiO:Nordic project Gendering the Nordic Past, actively contributing to workshops, conference and publication. Most publications from this project are forthcoming in 2024 and 2025. The novelty of this project is the explicit dialogue between Egyptology and feminist theory, the dialogue between present theories about the body and sex/gender, and past concepts, experiences and practices. Its contribution is important, not only because new discoveries force us to re-evaluate what we thought we knew about the past, but also because the records and topics addressed in this project have received limited attention in the past, and never been put together in a study like this. This project adds new knowledge about body, sex and gender in New Kingdom Egypt, and their affective environments, not least through its explicit concern with past and present relational encounters, with spatially and temporally fractal positions, perspectives and records, exploring and complicating how bodies were conceptualised and demarcated by the ancient Egyptians. The different outputs from the project includes both critique and positive formulations of alternatives that further our knowledge about the past, and force us to reflect critically on current assumptions and categorizations. The project has already enabled ideas for future projects.

EgFem examines the interdisciplinary potential between Egyptology and feminist theory: The primary objective is to explore the potential of the dialogue between present theories of sex/gender and past practice as manifested by the ancient Egyptian material. And develop what is called the body/sex/gender divide as a theoretical and methodological framework for cultural-historical research. The secondary objective is to achieve a better understanding of the manifold expressions (difference and sameness) of body/sex/gender in New Kingdom Egypt. The project will be carried out through five articles: The first develops the theoretical and methodological framework of the project. The second address the larger corpus of empirical material. And three case studies are concerned specifically with the gender of labour in textile production; the (sexed) body in medical texts; and the possibility of alternative worlds beyond traditional male/female and human/non-human binaries. The research design is intended to highlight the heterogeneity and messiness of the records, and the processes by which differences are developed and potentially contested, both within the past and in relation to the present. EgFem addresses the complex web of reciprocal, many scaled relations involved, exploring assemblages of affective environments, change and variation. Instead of being concerned with social constructions (culture) as opposed to a biological baseline (nature), what came first, and what is the more appropriate of the concepts body, sex and gender, the concern of EgFem is to question what we think we know, how we know it, what makes it possible, and what interests it may serve. It includes both critique and positive formulations of alternatives: alternatives that in the end will further our knowledge about the past, by forcing us to reflect critically on current assumptions and categorizations.