Labor-Time: Ecological Bodies and Agricultural Labor in 19th- And Early 20th-Century Egypt

Abstract

Beginning in the second decade of the 19th century, Egyptian agriculture began a process of transformation from basin to perennial irrigation. This shift facilitated the practice of year-round agriculture and the cultivation of summer crops including cotton whose temporalities did not match that of the annual Nile flood. One facet of the perennially irrigated landscape was an increase in the prevalence of the parasitic diseases bilharzia (schistosomiasis) and hookworm, the symptoms of which came to constitute normative experiences of the body among those engaged in perennially irrigated agriculture. Male agricultural laborers, who most often performed the work of irrigation, were at the greatest risk of infection. This article considers the significance of agricultural labor in the continuous making and maintenance of perennially irrigated agriculture and the role of parasitic disease in producing temporal experiences of this labor.

The history of public health in the modern Middle East: The environmental–medical turn

“…For example, On Barak has demonstrated that 19th-century Egyptian conceptions of time and temporality were flexible and variant, and contributed to friction between Europeans and Egyptians, especially as the new efendiyya class began to emerge with its European orientation (Barak, 2013). Jennifer Derr has also described how Egyptian agricultural laborers conceived of time as primarily organized around growing seasons (Derr, 2018). Although not patient-centered in the manner described by Porter, the performative aspects of medicine and health (especially relating to motherhood) have formed the basis for a number of studies describing how newly emergent middle classes were encouraged to adopt "modern" practices to differentiate themselves socially from the lower classes, who continued to utilize "traditional" practices (Baron, 2005;Chehabi, 2019;Efrati, 2012;Göçek, 1996;Jacob, 2011;Kashani-Sabet, 2011;Khater, 2001;Maksudyan, 2019;Pollard, 2005;Radai, 2016;Russell, 2004;Ryzova, 2014).…”