"Family contracts in New Kingdom Egypt"

Reinert Skumsnes (STK) has recently published the article "Family contracts in New Kingdom Egypt" in the edited volume Women in Ancient Egypt: Revisiting Power, Agency, and Autonomy (ed. Mariam Ayad, 2022). 

Book cover

Abstract

The existence of family contracts and female rights(?) to property is probably a reason why few women are found interacting together with and alongside both men and women. Family, in New Kingdom Egypt, was not only about biology or being next of kin, but, more importantly, was about who actually acted as family. Through family contracts, individuals negotiated their position in society through their relations and encounters with others, living and dead, human and nonhuman. We are left with the impression that to be an heir was not a matter of fact; it was not a given, but rather was something you had to earn through support on a regular basis, and specifically in cases of acute situations, such as sickness, old age, and death. Inheritance thus seems to have been used as a security mechanism, a kind of leverage that was subject to constant negotiation. In fact, patterns in phrasing (irt n.i nfr) suggest that these examples were more than exceptions, and that women had a role to play in these negotiations. Family contracts based on reciprocal bonds of mutual support had significant ramifications for the relationship between generations, but also for the relationship between men and women more generally. They functioned as a kind of welfare system, and the level of ranking achieved— indeed, where power and authority came from—can be argued as directly related to the circulation and guardianship of the family’s joint property.

Read more about the book here [The American University in Cairo Press]

Published Dec. 7, 2022 3:05 PM - Last modified Sep. 27, 2023 10:41 AM