Notes on Transgressing Gender Boundaries in Ancient Egypt

Depauw, Mark

doi:10.1524/zaes.2003.130.1.49

Cited by 7 publications

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“…A text in the temple at Edfu (Rouge, 1880) says that in Sebennytus one must not have sex with a Hmti or a male, which defines the hm as a man who is not male. Depauw (2003) studied the representation of a person of the 25th or 26th Dynasty from Abydos who is shown in a long garment and who is described on his stela as "HAwty-s-Hm.t Isetemdinakht" . He believes that the epithet HAwty-s-Hm.t is to be interpreted as "man-woman" because of the writing of the phallus sign (D52) and due to the garment which he describes as "typically feminine."…”

Section: To How Many Genders Did Ancient Egyptians Classify Humans?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, eunuchs in Egypt were explicitly mentioned by Greek and Latin historians, who established that they occupied key jobs in the Ptolemaic court during the last two centuries before the common era. Still, there is no evidence that this institution dates to prior times in Egypt (Depauw, 2003).…”

Section: To How Many Genders Did Ancient Egyptians Classify Humans?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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عدم المساواة بین الجنسین فى مصر القدیمة

محمود¹

2021

مجلة کلیة السیاحة والفنادق - جامعة مدینة السادات

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This article was concerned with displaying the inequality practised in the ancient Egyptian society according to the gender of its members. Though Egyptian culture was way ahead of its time when it came to female rights , it still made a clear differentiation based on birth gender favouring in many cases males over females and marginalising people of intermediate gender. For example there was a bigger percentage of educated males than females. Although females held a limited number of medical and scribal positions, the whole administration of the country was male dominated. On the other hand women practised equal legal rights when it comes to marriage, divorce and representing themselves in courts. Roles of third gender were not emphasised in funerary sources probably due to the ancient Egyptian beliefs about cosmology.

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Section: To How Many Genders Did Ancient Egyptians Classify Humans?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: To How Many Genders Did Ancient Egyptians Classify Humans?mentioning

confidence: 99%

عدم المساواة بین الجنسین فى مصر القدیمة

محمود¹

2021

مجلة کلیة السیاحة والفنادق - جامعة مدینة السادات

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“…31 In other inscriptions from Esna and Dendera, Neith and Hathor were described as two-thirds male and one-third female. 32 The goddess Mut also had a hermaphroditic image in the Book of the Dead, Chapter 164, where she was represented with an erect penis. 33 And the goddess Anat is described in Papyrus Chester Beatty VII (v. 1.9-v. 2.1) as 'a mighty goddess, a woman acting as a man/a warrior, clad as men girt like women'.…”

Section: Hermaphroditic Creator Deitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hatshepsut: Transcending Gender in Ancient Egypt

Diamond¹

2020

Gender & History

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The Eighteenth Dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh, Hatshepsut (c. 1473-1458, has attracted a great deal of attention for doing gender wrong, at least according to modern scholarship ( Figure 1). She began her career as the regent for her step-son/nephew, Thutmose III, and then at some point within the first seven years, she ascended the throne as co-regent. 1 Hatshepsut's public gender identity fails to conform to our norms of cultural intelligibility, but the fact that this gender transformation occurred over the course of two decades indicates that it was a persistent and intentional gender 'identity' for Hatshepsut. 2 Hatshepsut was not making claims about who she was as a private person, but instead she was subscribing to the gendered expectations of rulership. This public identity has appeared to modern Egyptologists as gender incongruity, but I will argue that Hatshepsut's public representations were intelligible to ancient Egyptians and even a deliberate attempt to appeal to their sensibilities and provide them with solace in her rule.A study of Hatshepsut promises to contribute to our current understanding of gender in that it reframes our typical assumptions of ancient/traditional gender constructions and provides a model we can use to move forward with our own modern discourse about gender fluidity. For Egyptologists, this study elucidates the societal and historical factors that were complicit in keeping Hatshepsut in power. The existence of hermaphroditic creator deities, the composite nature of kingship, post-mortem gender fluidity and the rules of compositional decorum all intertwined to naturalise Hatshepsut's female masculinity and her ascension to the throne of Egypt.Hatshepsut was not the anomaly that we think she was. There were several other leaders in the New Kingdom who displayed non-binary gender identities, such as Queen Tiye, Akhenaten, Nefertiti and Tawosret. 3 Hatshepsut was only one example in an era of transgressors, who willingly played with composite imagery. The earliest elements added to her person were a masculine crown and the traditional title of male Egyptian king. Subsequently, she depicted herself in increasingly masculine poses, holding symbols reserved for male kings, in male dress and with male physiognomy. It was her unique position as King's Daughter, King's Wife and later Pharaoh that made her female masculinity more ubiquitous and therefore more discernible. Hatshepsut exemplified the virile woman who broke the bond between masculinity and the male body. In ancient Egypt, masculinity embodied the qualities that were culturally ascribed

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Gender and Sexuality

Robins¹

2014

A Companion to Ancient Egyptian Art

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Notes on Transgressing Gender Boundaries in Ancient Egypt

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

عدم المساواة بین الجنسین فى مصر القدیمة

عدم المساواة بین الجنسین فى مصر القدیمة

Hatshepsut: Transcending Gender in Ancient Egypt

Gender and Sexuality

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