The Social and Cultural Order of Ancient Egypt : An Ethnographic and Regional Analysis

In The Social and Cultural Order of Ancient Egypt, Steen Bergendorff argues that ancient Egyptian culture can only be understood in relation to its reproductive condition and that ancient Egypt must be seen as part of a larger regional trade network including the Levant and Mesopotamia in the west and Nubia and Africa to the south.

The Social and Cultural Order of Ancient Egypt offers a completely new interpretation of Ancient Egypt. Based on insight from anthropology it complement and enhance the archeological material and gives some new interpretation on otherwise accepted truths about Ancient Egypt. It is argued that Ancient Egyptian culture can only be understood in relation to its reproductive condition and that Ancient Egypt must be seen as part of a larger regional trade network including the Levant and Mesopotamia in the west, Nubia, and Africa to the south. Egypt’s splendors would not have been possible without such trade opportunities that made it possible for a small section of society to export gold for foreign prestige goods. This laid the foundation for a steep social hierarchy and paved the way towards the Old Kingdom. This new perspective makes it possible to interpret e.g., that The Narmer Palette is not about unification, it is telling about Narmer’s position in a larger cosmos. Enclosures were not places for funerary preparations, but places for collecting tax. Pyramids are not graves but places for the ‘gods’ Re and Osiris to meet and rejuvenate the cosmos.