Communications in Humanities Research
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Communications in Humanities Research
Vol. 32, 26 April 2024
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The Impact of Religion on the Status of Women in Ancient Egypt
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Abstract
The study of ancient Egyptian religion and femininity in today's academic world has become increasingly sophisticated and comprehensive, but there are still some gaps. This paper explores the impact of religion on women's status in ancient Egypt. Through case studies and literature review, the author analyses the positive impact of religion on women's status in ancient Egypt and the limitations that still exist from the perspectives of cognitive archaeology and femininity. As discussed and analysed, it can be seen that women in ancient Egypt did not have access to higher power and status due to the lack of educational opportunities and the domestic duties they had to undertake, but on the bright side, the existence of the religion in ancient Egypt and its widespread worship guaranteed women's religious participation and allowed them to gain power and status in the religious sphere, which in turn gradually extended their well-being in the practical sphere.
Keywords
Religion, Status of Women, Ancient Egypt, Priestess
References
1. Harrison, J. E. (1913). Ancient Art and Ritual. Oxford University Press.
2. The British Museum. Isis. Available at https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG54025.
3. The British Museum. Nephthys. Available at https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG54825.
4. Gillam, R. A. (1995). Priestesses of Hathor: Their Function, Decline and Disappearance. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 32, 211-237.
5. The British Museum. Papyrus. Available at https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA10554-63.
6. The British Museum. Nestanebetisheru. Available at https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG54873.
7. Frankfort, H. (1949). Ancient Egyptian Religion: An Interpretation. Dover Publications. ISBN-10: 0486411389. ISBN-13: 978-0486411385.
8. Onstine, S. (2010). Gender and the Religion of Ancient Egypt. Religion Compass, 4, 1-11.
9. Edwards, A. B. and O’Neill, P. (2005). The Social and Political Position of Woman in Ancient Egypt. PMLA, 120(3), 843–857.
10. Koen, E. (2008). Women in Ancient Egypt : the religious experiences of the non-royal woman.
Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Literature, Language, and Culture Development
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-399-9
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-400-2
- Published Date
- 26 April 2024
- Series
- Communications in Humanities Research
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-7064
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-7072
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-7064/32/20240041
- Copyright
- 26 April 2024
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited