Modules+1-14


 * NOTE: All of these modules were done on time but I had posted them all on their own pages. Today I decided to put them all on one page to make it easier to find. It slipped my mind that deleting the previous pages would remove the original date posted. If you check the changes made section though you will see that they were actually there. Unfortunately the date will show that this page was made today. However, under the discussions tab you will find that I posted each module before this date and on the correct due date. Thank you***


 * Module 1**

Choose topic for Wiki Gender in Egypt


 * Module 2**

Interest paragraph: There are many things I find interesting about archaeology as well as civilization and the past. Archaeology is a great way for present day humans to gain knowledge of the past. We are able to see how things worked years before us and even discover how those things tie into our world today. I am specifically interested in the social aspects of the past. Researching gender in ancient civilizations can give us insight into men and women and their roles in society now.


 * Module 3**

My name is Brittanni Wyatt and I am a junior at the University of Central Florida majoring in Anthropology. I am very interested in gender among different societies from the past to the present. I chose Egypt as my area of study for this wiki because it has been such a successful area for thousands of years. I hope to find an abundant amount of information relating to gender in this area.

__[]__
 * Module 4**

Above is a link to a webpage that discusses gender in ancient Egypt specifically and it does not touch on gender roles in Egypt today.


 * Module 5**

__[]__

Menkaure and His Queen

(Image)

[|__http://witcombe.sbc.edu/menkaure/menkaurebibliography.html__]

[|__http://witcombe.sbc.edu/menkaure/menkauredescription.html__]

(Source)

Caption:

This is a sculpture of Menkaure and his Queen. At the time of their rule, although women were not equal, they had many rights similar to those of men. In this piece of artwork the king is standing in front of his Queen just slightly. I believe this shows he is in charge and that his power is above all. The way that the queen has her arms around him shows me that they are a unit; that she is standing next to him not only in this sculpture but throughout their time together. As my wiki topic is gender in Egypt I came across and wiki on wikipedia titled "Feminism in Egypt." Here is a link to the history of edits on that page :
 * Module 6**

[|__http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Feminism_in_Egypt&action=history__]

Not many edits are made in periods close together and this makes me ask two questions. Are there not many edits made because all of the information on feminism in Egypt is already on the wiki? Or, is there a lot more information about feminism in Egypt out there but no one knows or cares to post it in a wiki? I have always been skeptical of wikipedia because of that fact that anyone can edit it. I would like to believe that only people knowledgable of the information post about it but I'm sure that is not always the case.

I have created a new page on my wiki titled "links to other wikis" and this is also found on that new page.


 * Module 7**

Brainstorm:
 * roles of males/females
 * past - present
 * how have roles changed?
 * gender laws
 * kings & queens
 * gender in social status
 * gender in Egypt vs. other early civilizations
 * appearance
 * politics
 * hetero/homosexuality

For my wikispace this semester I am exploring the topic of gender in Egypt. Before choosing this area of study I knew little to nothing in depth about gender in ancient Egypt. I hope to delve into information pertaining to the different gender roles and how those roles have changed over time. I would also like to research how the males and females were ranked in society. In some of what I already know about Egypt, Queens had more power than other women of high ranking found in outside civilizations. I would like to know why that is and what powers they were given.


 * Module 8**

Below is the first sentence from the article "Kerma: The Rise of an African Civilization"

The floodplains along the Nile constitute an important but as yet little utilized series of laboratories for the comparative study of the origins and interaction of ancient civilizations.

“Kerma: The Rise of an African Civilization,” Bruce G. Trigger, __The International Journal of African Historical Studies__, Vol. 9, No. 1. (1976), pp. 1-21.


 * Module 9**

Here is a link to the article titled "Symbolic Gender Politics, Religious Group Identity, and the Decline in Female Genital Cutting in Minya, Egypt."

It can be found at this link:

[|__http://www.jstor.org/stable/3598366__]

citation:

Symbolic Gender Politics, Religious Group Identity, and the Decline in Female Genital Cutting in Minya, Egypt Kathryn M. Yount Social Forces Vol. 82, No. 3 (Mar., 2004), pp. 1063-1090


 * Module 10**

In an article titled “Female Genital and Sexual Mutilation: Egypt; Council of State of Egypt Bans Excision” the importance of banning FGM (female genital mutilation) is a major theme throughout. FGM is extremely popular not just in Egypt but throughout Africa. Although a statute ruling out FGM by a nurse at birth was put in place many years ago, it was still occurring in small physician offices and clinics while telling the public that the act of FGM was “prohibited.” It is discussed that an extremely high number of females are sexually mutilated in Egypt at 97%. This number was extremely shocking. With the ban put in place in on December 28, 1998 there is great hope that the practice of FGM will cease completely and hopefully influence other countries to follow suit. Citation: Egypt: Council of State of Egypt bans excision. Women's International Network News [serial online]. Spring98 1998;24(2):45. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA.


 * Module 11**

Female genital mutilation is extremely popular not just in Egypt but throughout Africa. FGM is a practice that goes far back in history. In “Curing Cut or Ritual Mutilation?: Some Remarks on the Practice of Female and Male Circumcision in Graeco-Roman Egypt” Mary Knight explains that the practice of Female Genital Mutilation may not have been done for the same reasons as it is now. In modern time FGM is known to be practiced as a way to stop a woman from feeling any sexual desire and thus it is believed that mutilating the female genitals will therefore stop any over excessive sexual activity. In ancient Egypt male circumcision was occurring at the same time as female circumcision. It is brought into question the idea that perhaps ancient Egyptians believed circumcising men would also eliminate sexual desire and excessive sexual activity. So with circumcising one sex, the other was also circumcised. Mary Knight explains that the practice of circumcision in females was actually started in order to mirror the act of circumcising males.

Knight compiles many ancient accounts of FGM and compares them to find out why this procedure started in the first place. She cites from an encyclopedia written by a Greek physician, Aetios, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, around 500 C.E. In his writings, Aetios describes the FGM procedure. He explained that girls with “large clitorides were viewed both as a deformity and as a source of sexual stimulus that would predispose ‘victims’ to venery” (Knight 327). As the organ would grow larger with age, Aetios stated that the surgery for removal was performed on the girls before marriage. Also, when giving a detailed account of how the procedures played out, it is noted that only men are recorded as to ones to do the mutilating/circumcising. This reigns true today as well. Although the procedure is now illegal in Egypt, it still goes on and it is still performed by men, not midwives. This proves that it was being done and is still being done without any medical need to do so. Mary Knight states, “The male gender of the operator may be significant in that it suggests that the procedure- at least in Graeco-Roman Egypt- was surgical,and not obstetrical” (Knight 329). It had been believed that FGM began during the Graeco-Roman time period but evidence of it occurring earlier has been discovered. Also, this evidence to prove the procedure arose before the Graeco-Roman time period may also rule out the idea of FGM strictly being a medical procedure. There is evidence to support the fact that it began as a ritualistic act. Knight explains that this means “two types of operations may have coexisted, one traditional (ritual form) and the other informed by Graeco-Roman scientific theory and practice” (Knight 329). On the sarcophagus of Sit-hedj-hotep, who lived sometime during the 12th dynasty of the middle kingdom (1991-1786 B.C.E.), there is a ritualistic procedure written down which describes (un)circumcision being involved in some sort of magical act (Knight 330).

Those involved in Egyptology have examined many male and female mummies in search of evidence of circumcision. While they did find that many male mummies showed signs of circumcision, the complete opposite was found in regards to the female mummies. However, Knight explains that if the procedure of circumcision was done because of ritual reasoning, then the evidence of the mummies shows that more men participated than women.

Mary Knight mentions two art forms depicting circumcisions in Ancient Egypt. The fact that the procedure of male circumcision was turned into art to be purposely made public shows that it was something to celebrate as it is today. A female circumcision is completely opposite. It was and still is today a very private matter, and it has been even before the procedure was made illegal (Knight 333). This is extremely baffling and has many wondering why the process of FGM began at all. If it was never a celebrated passage in life for women, why was it necessary? The answer to this question is not direct and many variations of an answer exist. If you were to ask any modern Egyptian why they practice FGM they would tell you many different things but it all comes down to the fact that so many reasons have been given over time that they all eventually meshed-ritualistic, medical, clinical. Throughout time the reasons were passed down and it became a cultural procedure. That being said, FGM has been around for so long that it just seems right to people who practice it. To us outsiders, however, it is viewed as a cruel and vile mutilation.

In an article titled “Female Genital and Sexual Mutilation: Egypt; Council of State of Egypt Bans Excision” the importance of banning FGM (female genital mutilation) is a major theme throughout. Although a statute ruling out FGM by a nurse at birth was put in place many years ago, it was still occurring in small physician offices and clinics while telling the public that the act of FGM was “prohibited.” It is discussed that an extremely high number of females are sexually mutilated in Egypt at 97%. This number was extremely shocking. With the ban put in place in on December 28, 1998 there is great hope that the practice of FGM will cease completely and hopefully influence other countries to follow suit.

Citation: Curing Cut or Ritual Mutilation?: Some Remarks on the Practice of Female and Male Circumcision in Graeco-Roman Egypt. Mary Knight. Isis, Vol. 92, No. 2 (Jun., 2001), pp. 317-338 Egypt: Council of State of Egypt bans excision. Women's International Network News [serial online]. Spring98 1998;24(2):45. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA.


 * Module 12**



This is my screenshot of ancient Egyptian archaeological sites. There are many excavated areas in the majority of the image and to the right you can see the pyramids. I wanted to use this image I took because it shows how much the ancient civilization of Egypt really created.


 * Module 13**

Marriage between those of the royal family was far different from any marriage of a lower class. In order to keep the royalty in the family, brother and sister marriages were not out of the ordinary. In fact, it was quite a common occurrence of royal families in Ancient Egypt. The idea was to keep the bloodline strong. In Ancient Egypt both the male and female in the marriage shared legal ownership of land/property. Marrying someone in their family assured them that their land and ownership would also stay in the family. Marrying someone not of the royal bloodline put the original ruler at risk of losing half of their property (Parker).

Source: Parker, Seymour. Full Brother-Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt: Another Look.


 * Module 14**

One pharaoh who ruled in anciet Egypt during the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom was Tutankhamun or more commonly known today as King Tut. In an article titled "Warrior Tut" by W. Raymond Johnson, King Tut's rule is described as "one of the greatest periods of restoration in the history of Egypt" (Johnson). This is especially remarkable because at the beginning of his rule, Tutankhamun was only nine or ten years old. He took over duties as Pharoah after his father "abandoned the traditional Egyptian pantheon(...) and died young after an insignificant reign" (Johnson). Excavations of King Tut's tomb revealed that he lived a life of extravagance. These findings made it clear that royal families in ancient Egypt had everything at their disposal. Among the artifacts found in his tomb were "spears, bow and arrows, and charriots" (Johnson). All of them were inscribed with his name and showed signs of usage. Apparently King Tut was not just active in athletics as it was recently discovered that he was an active leader in battle as well. Johnson explains that Tut may have even been in charge of "military campaigns against the Syrians and Nubians before he died" (Johnson).

Source: Johnson, W. Raymond. "Warrior Tut." Archaeology; Mar/Apr2010, Vol. 63 Issue 2, p26-28, 3p Article