Wretched Kush: Ethnic Identities and Boundries in Egypt's Nubian Empire

by Stuart Tyson Smith

Overview

Professor 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415369855
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/07/2003
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Stuart Tyson Smith is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He excavates in the Egyptian colonial cemetery in Tombos, Sudanese Nubia, and has acted as a consultant on several Hollywood movies featuring ancient Egypt.

Table of Contents

Chapter 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'?