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Motherhood and Early Childhood in Ancient Egypt
Culture, Religion, and Medicine
Foreword by Salima Ikram
Translated by Colin Clement
232 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in, 71 b&w illus.
- Hardback
- 9781649030900
- October 2024
- Region: Worldwide
LE1200.00
$70.00
£60.00
- EPUB
- 9781649030917
- October 2024
- Region: Worldwide
$69.99
- 9781649030924
- October 2024
- Region: Worldwide
$69.99
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A richly nuanced analysis of how ancient Egyptian society regarded and dealt with pregnancy, mothers, birth, and children
In ancient Egypt, a woman’s primary role was that of mother, and as such she ensured her place within both her household and her community. And so, gods, doctor-magicians, as well as ghosts were all called upon to help the woman become pregnant.
Pregnancy was not without risks, and the many tests, prescriptions, and spells that have survived to this day help us to understand obstetrics as it was practiced in those distant times. Once the woman had eluded the ill will of Seth—who was held responsible for miscarriages—and had reached her term, she was faced with the much awaited and yet also feared moment of birth. The successful delivery of a child into the world was seen as a gift of the gods, but it did not mean that the parent’s worries were over. Indeed, it has been estimated that a third of all children did not reach the age of five years despite the combined efforts of parents and doctor-magicians to protect them.
Amandine Marshall draws upon a wealth of sources, including texts, images, iconography, artefacts, and children’s bodies themselves, as well as medicine, anthropology, and ethnography, to examine these issues and more, and in doing so sheds unprecedented light on the experience of maternity and early childhood in ancient Egypt.
List of Illustrations
Foreword by Salima Ikram
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chronology
Textual Sources by Type and Era
Introduction
1. The Desire for Motherhood
2. The Gestation Period
3. The Birth
4. The Future and the Protection of the Infant
5. The Caring for the Infant
Conclusion
Glossary
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Amandine Marshall (Author) obtained her PhD in Egyptology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHSS), Toulouse. She is a research associate with the French Archaeological Mission of Thebes West, a scientific advisor for French television, and the director of two bilingual Egyptological channels, ToutankaTube (for adults) and NefertiTube (for children and teachers). She is the author of thirty books.
Salima Ikram (Foreword by) is distinguished professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. She has directed the Animal Mummy Project and the North Kharga Darb Ain Amur Survey, among other projects and excavations, throughout Egypt and in Turkey, Sudan, and Greece. She has worked in museums around the world, including the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. She has published extensively, for both scholarly and general audiences.
Colin Clement (Translated by) is a writer and translator who lives in Alexandria.
"Amandine Marshall is one of the few Egyptologists who has succeeded in combining the requirements of academic scientific research with the ability to communicate with the general public. Motherhood and Early Childhood in Ancient Egypt is a rich study of two of the most important components of the family, mother and child, an abiding concern for Egyptians from ancient times to the present day. Marshall skillfully explores perceptions of motherhood and childhood, the means of child education, and the spiritual and physical protection afforded to newborns and young children in ancient Egypt."—El-Sayed Mahfouz, Kuwait University
"This work by Amandine Marshall is an extremely welcome addition to the Egyptological literature, as it fills a significant lacuna in our understanding of the crucial moment of coming into existence of an ancient Egyptian. . . . Marshall masterfully uses every available strand of evidence, encompassing texts, images, iconography, artifacts, children’s bodies themselves, medicine, anthropology, and ethnography to weave together a tapestry illustrating the birth and childhood of an ancient Egyptian.”—Salima Ikram, from the foreword
PRAISE FOR CHILDHOOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT:
"She wields sources ably."—Kara Cooney, author of When Women Ruled the World
"Meticulous research, and at the same time highly readable text."—Miroslav Bárta, author of Analyzing Collapse
"A major contribution."—Veronique Dasen author of Children, Memory, and Family Identity In Roman Culture
"A masterpiece of archaeological scholarship"—Midwest Book Review
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