Terms and Definitions Flashcards
Egyptian boundary stelae, characteristics
Rock cut monument
A flat surface cut into the living rock that includes text and images
Type of object created for religious contexts
Asserts the King’s control, asserts military and physical control of the land
Sometimes Stelae are inside border temples
Egyptian boundary temples, characteristics
Physical assertions into the landscape of images of the pharoah (and in turn, Egypt) and their control over the area
Scale and imagery meant to allow anyone to understand, not just the elites who could read the Stelae
Abu Simbel Temples
Very famous Egyptian temple located on the southern edge of the modern state of Egypt
Positioned on the Nile to make sure anyone sailing by on the Nile would see the physical assertion of Ramses
Borders signs in modern world: elements and concepts, comparison with ancient markings
Warnings
Welcomes
More formal, intensive crossings
Border signs in the middle of an open field
Showing what they want you to know
Symbols, composition, colors
Language, name of ruler/leader, religious symbols, rules/expectations for behavior or entry, Symbols of community: flag or state flow, motto
Landscape marking in ancient Egypt: elements and concepts
- Territory as body
- Nine bows were essentialized bodies that represented physical places but were represented through stereotyped bodies
- The landscape marking system was a way of asserting their ideology on the landscape
- Built manifestations were a way to assert control and assert the landscape
No separating the religious from the political - Edge of Ma’at, edge of political control
- Water and life (Ma’at) vs Desert and death (Isfet)
The landscape was interpreted through a religious lens
Boundary Stele of Senusret III
- Text asserting royal control and prerogative
- Symbols of divine authority, for example, the wings of Nekhbet, Vulture Goddess of Upper Egypt
Characteristics of Non-Egyptians in Egyptian art in OK, MK, NK
Foreigners were hierarchically organized and ideologically useful to the establishment of authority and its justification
Foreigners began to be gradually more stereotyped over time
Older depictions (OK-MK) are less differentiated from Egyptians
Increasing details of skin color, dress, hairstyles introduced later, especially in NK
These are EGYPTIAN constructs; imposed stereotypes
Foreigners better known in New Kingdom but become more stereotyped and formulaic in the service of Egyptian imperialism (ironically)
Egyptian regional stereotypes: Asiatic, Kushite, Nubian, etc.
Asiatic - Yellow skin, goatee,
Libyan - Braids, penis sheath
Nubian - Dark Skin, jewelry,
Sahure Relief
Categorization made for more impact and more complex set of foreigners and ‘us’ and ‘them’
Taxonomic categorization
Differences
Facial hair
Hair style and hair texture
Clothes (broad collars, etc.)
Skin Tone
Facial Features
Investment in careful presentation of ethnic stereotypes
Ivory door inlays from Medinet Habu
Come from a door frame in a temple
New Kindgom images have more a stereotyped physical appearance compared to Old and Middle Kingdom
New Kingdom roughly from 1300 or 1200BC to 1000 BC
Greek attitudes towards foreigners and Greek self-identity
Writers had tradition of ethnographic writing as a way of looking back on themselves
Often did it by conflating religious ideas
Just like Egyptians
Greeks are a little less concerned about how people look (not 100% true all the time) but are concerned about “nomoi” (nomos): culture, habits, customs, religion, society, government
Though of as a defining aspect of individuals
Greeks were really interested in languages of other spoke
“Barbarian” comes from greek onomontepia
They relied on an environmental theory of difference (explicit) people and there physical appearance and nomoi was directly correlated to their environment and climate
“Gauls were pale because of the cold climate they lived in; Scythains were fierce and warlike because of the harsh winters of the Eurasian Steppes”
Greek myth-making and concepts of ‘otherness’ also change over time
In context of the Persian wars
Idea of an Athenian identity gets worked out in art and writing after the Persian wars
The result of conflict and beliefs is that a set of racial and ethnic stereotypes are deplyoed to explore the notions of Greekness and ‘barbarian alteritry’ or foreign-ness
Commodities as symbol of foreigners, ex. copper ingot
Copper had a limited set of sources, none of them in Eypt
Needed copper to make bronze, which was used for weaponry
Had to trade for copper, interest in dominating for copper
Lots of Copper from Cyprus
Commodities as representations of foreign places and bodies of people
These are abstractions
Human imagery are abstractions too
Empire as commodities instead of people or territory
Shaped like an ox-hide, ox-hide were basic units of stable exchange across antiquity, shape mimics this “currency”
Foreigners bringing gifts associated with the place they came from
Conflation of stuff and people
Symposium in ancient Athens
Drinking party attended by elite male citizens
Political and social institution in Greek cities
Women only attend as entertainment. Slaves also depicted
Vessels created to be used and viewed in the Symposium context
Images that were meaningful to elite males
Greek red and black figure pottery
Themes and depictions on Greek pottery of ‘others’
Not the only themes in the Symposium
The distant, picturesque and exotic; the foreign both in terms of place but also the exotic body, which is caricatured
Mythic ethnography - way to offer a reflection on distant lands and their exotic nature; invention of the exotic
Parodies of heroic heroes
Alterity in servitude: women, Africans-slaves, servants, subordinates to the masculines, elite male world of the symposium; foil for the free Greek male in his civic identity
Mythical uses of the “other”
Non-Greeks play key roles in certain religious context
Greek myth-making and concepts of ‘otherness’ also change over time
In context of the Persian wars
Idea of an Athenian identity gets worked out in art and writing after the Persian wars
The result of conflict and beliefs is that a set of racial and ethnic stereotypes are deplyoed to explore the notions of Greekness and ‘barbarian alteritry’ or foreign-ness
Hoplite warrior
The hoplite (elite male citizen warrior) and his foils
Scythians, Amazons, Persians, Aethiopians, Pygmies
Another variation is the drunk Scythian, who drinks his wine unmixed
The hoplite (elite male citizen warrior) and his foils
Especially Persian warriors, who are almost always dominated
A Pygmy fighting a crane
Pygmy invention of greek mythology
Depictions of pygmies are caricatures posed to remind the reader of the heroic labors of Hercules
Amazons, Maenads, Thracians, Scythians
Characters and settings providing settings for Greek heroes and myths: Odysseus, Heracles
Often murderous and chaotic
Climatic theory of ethnic identity
They relied on an environmental theory of difference (explicit) people and there physical appearance and nomoi was directly correlated to their environment and climate
“Gauls were pale because of the cold climate they lived in; Scythains were fierce and warlike because of the harsh winters of the Eurasian Steppes”
