Ancient Egyptian Society: Challenging Assumptions, Exploring Approaches

REVIEW BY CAMPBELL PRICE One of the major issues in Egyptology is how prone we are to repeat assertions that were made – often provisionally – more than a century ago. Thus the lazy explanation of ancient Egyptian society as being like a pyramid, along with various other colonial clichés, persist in the literature. This collection of essays attempts (as the subtitle states) to challenge assumptions and explore new approaches. It is not a textbook about what society was ‘really like’. Although the editors admit the arbitrariness of the groupings, the 27 articles are gathered under the headings ‘Power’, ‘People’, and ‘Place’. Initially arising out of a series of grad