Girl power made in Egypt

"Daughters of Isis" is a book about everything you ever wanted to know about ancient Egyptian women, but were too prudish to ask!

Joyce Tyldesley has written an excellent overview of the subject. Her book is directed at a general audience and hence relatively easy to read, but could be used by serious students as well. It's packed with information about the daily life of women in ancient Egypt, but also contain more general information about ancient Egyptian society. No detail is too insignificant: we learn about Egyptian eating habits, women's clothes and jewellery, wigs and the art of brewing Nubian beer. Unfortunately, the author can neither confirm nor deny the curious claim by Herodotus that female Egyptians urinated in standing position, while male Egyptians did it sitting down! Of course, the book also deals with more important (?) matters, such as the careers of the few women who managed to become pharaohs.

What strikes the modern reader most is the sexually liberated atmosphere of Pharaonic Egypt, sometimes bordering the decadent. Premarital sexual relations were not prohibited for either sex, Egyptian women could marry foreigners, both incest and polygamy were practiced, foreign slaves were sometimes married to daughters of their masters, and public nudity or half-nudity (even for women) were acceptable in certain contexts. Naturally, prostitution was rampant. Even the gods of the Egyptian religion were seen as sexual creatures. Homosexuality seems to have been one of the few sexual practices that were frowned upon.

Interestingly, however, adultery was severely punished. This strikes the modern observer as somewhat inconsistent, especially given that divorce was relatively easy to obtain and premarital sex wasn't prohibited. But then, what civilization isn't contradictory?

Another striking trait of ancient Egypt is the relatively large freedom enjoyed by the women. They could divorce their husbands, own and inherit property, didn't need a male guardian, and had the right to take legal action. Much of the local trade and barter was carried out by women, and Tyldesley also suggests that divorced women got custody of their children. If the house was owned by the wife, the husband had to move out in case of divorce! While Egypt was overall a patriarchal society, the women nevertheless enjoyed a degree of freedom unknown in Rome, Greece or the Near East. Incidentally, "Daughters of Isis" mentions the Greek and Roman periods in Egyptian history mostly in passing, so there is nothing about Cleopatra in this book.

Of course, one should bear in mind that the freedom and influence of women would have been relative to their rank. Peasants of both sexes were subject to heavy taxation and forced labour, and it's safe to assume that the position of female slaves or prostitutes was even worse. Upper class women could become supervisors, priestesses and (if exceptionally lucky) queens, and therefore had more absolute freedom than those lower down on the social scale. (In Greece, even upper class women were oppressed.)

The obvious question is: why did Egyptian women enjoy an amount of freedom unknown elsewhere during Antiquity? The author cannot really answer this, since she rejects the existence of an ancient matriarchy. Nor does she believe that matrilinearity implies female power. Tyldesley is therefore forced to see the relative freedom of ancient Egyptian women as an "innovation" or "concession", and rather unconvincingly connects it to the abundant agricultural resources and the rigid caste system. A more reasonable explanation would be that Egyptian society was indeed a survival of more matrilinear models which did imply female power. Other African societies seem to have combined hierarchic class structures with a large influence for women. Perhaps the African roots of ancient Egypt can explain its curious gender roles?

Despite this obvious shortcoming, I nevertheless recommend this book to everyone interested in ancient Egypt. As already mentioned, it's relatively easy to read, deals with pretty much everything, and describes a society more women-friendly than "the glory that was Greece" or "the grandeur that was Rome". Not to mention the Book of Leviticus...