Participants are asked to explore how four specific concepts – historical bodies (Robb & Harris), relations (Strathern), comparisons (Candea) and negotiations (Sørensen) – can be useful tools (if at all) for thinking through patterns (similarity), change and variation (difference) in the ancient Egyptian cultural output.
Contributions are encouraged to evolve around the following questions:
- How did the ancient Egyptians perceive of/conceptualize the body?
- How did the ancient Egyptians perceive of/conceptualize bodily difference?
- What were/are the key affective environments to past and present perceptions/conceptions of the body/bodily difference in ancient Egypt?
- Are the records in unison, or are there contradictions?
- To what extent are relations, comparisons and negotiations useful as analytical categories for the study of bodies, historically situated in ancient Egypt?
Participants are asked to orient their papers towards the larger dialogue with other disciplines including, but not limited to, theoretical archaeology, sociocultural anthropology, critical theory, new materialist theories, and feminist approaches. Our aim is to foster interdisciplinary dialogue by focusing on method- and/or theory- related issues of interest to scholars beyond Egyptology. We welcome syntheses that critically assess and integrate research on the body, as well as examinations of the history and interdisciplinary potential of this specific area of research.