Technology and Culture in Pharaonic Egypt
Actor Network Theory and the Archaeology of Things and People

Defining technology as the science of entanglement of things and people, this Element explores the conditions of Pharaonic culture.

Martin Fitzenreiter (Author)

9781009074353, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 April 2023

75 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 0.5 cm, 0.15 kg

The inherent paradox of Egyptology is that the objective of its study – people living in Egypt in Pharaonic times – are never the direct object of its studies. Egyptology, as well as archaeology in general, approach ancient lives through material (and sometimes immaterial) remains. This Element explores how, through the interplay of things and people – of non-human actants and human actors – Pharaonic material culture is shaped. In turn, it asks how, through this interplay, Pharaonic culture as an epistemic entity is created: an epistemic entity which conserves and transmits even the lives and deaths of ancient people. Drawing upon aspects of Actor Network Theory, this Element introduces an approach to see technique as the interaction of people and things, and technology as the reflection of these networks of entanglement.

1. Introduction: A Conceptual Framework
2. Technology and Archaeological Practice: Medicine
3. Technology and Material Culture: Nutrition
4. Technology and Conceptualisation: Craft
5. Technology, Environment and Religion
6. Technology and Society: Script
7. Conclusion
References.

Subject Areas: Egyptian archaeology / Egyptology [HDDG]