Motherhood and Early Childhood in Ancient Egypt: Culture, Religion, and Medicine

Description:

"A masterpiece of seminal, meticulous, and groundbreaking scholarship."--Midwest Book Review

A richly nuanced analysis of how ancient Egyptian society regarded and dealt with pregnancy, mothers, birth, and children

In ancient Egypt, a woman's primary role was that of mother, and as such she ensured her place within both her household and her community. And so, gods, doctor-magicians, as well as ghosts were all called upon to help the woman become pregnant.

Pregnancy was not without risks, and the many tests, prescriptions, and spells that have survived to this day help us to understand obstetrics as it was practiced in those distant times. Once the woman had eluded the ill will of Seth--who was held responsible for miscarriages--and had reached her term, she was faced with the much awaited and yet also feared moment of birth. The successful delivery of a child into the world was seen as a gift of the gods, but it did not mean that the parent's worries were over. Indeed, it has been estimated that a third of all children did not reach the age of five years despite the combined efforts of parents and doctor-magicians to protect them.

Amandine Marshall draws upon a wealth of sources, including texts, images, iconography, artefacts, and children's bodies themselves, as well as medicine, anthropology, and ethnography, to examine these issues and more, and in doing so sheds unprecedented light on the experience of maternity and early childhood in ancient Egypt.

Brief description: Salima Ikram is distinguished professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. She has directed the Animal Mummy Project and the North Kharga Darb Ain Amur Survey, among other truly exciting projects and excavations, throughout Egypt and in Turkey, Sudan, and Greece. She has worked in museums around the world, including the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. She has published extensively, for both scholarly and general audiences.

Review Quotes:

"Marshall's book is masterfully written. It draws upon a wide range of sources and highlights the author's facility with said materials. Marshall's clear prose and even-handed assessment of the sources will appeal to many readers. As such, it will become a staple on the bookshelves of those who study ancient Egyptian families, mothers, and children." --Kristine Henriksen Garroway, Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia

"Marshall has contributed an impressive and thorough discussion that demonstrates her skill in combining multiple strands of evidence into a holistic analysis. Her detailed investigation reveals a great deal about the lives and concerns of a segment of the population far too frequently absent from other discussions of Egyptian society. This work will no doubt serve as a valuable source for future discussions and will hopefully inspire further work on this important subject."--Caroline Arbuckle MacLeod, American Journal of Archaeology

"A masterpiece of seminal, meticulous, and groundbreaking scholarship."--Midwest Book Review

"Amandine Marshall is one of the few Egyptologists who has succeeded in combining the requirements of academic scientific research with the ability to communicate with the general public. Motherhood and Early Childhood in Ancient Egypt is a rich study of two of the most important components of the family, mother and child, an abiding concern for Egyptians from ancient times to the present day. Marshall skillfully explores perceptions of motherhood and childhood, the means of child education, and the spiritual and physical protection afforded to newborns and young children in ancient Egypt."--El-Sayed Mahfouz, Kuwait University

"This work by Amandine Marshall is an extremely welcome addition to the Egyptological literature, as it fills a significant lacuna in our understanding of the crucial moment of coming into existence of an ancient Egyptian. . . . Marshall masterfully uses every available strand of evidence, encompassing texts, images, iconography, artifacts, children's bodies themselves, medicine, anthropology, and ethnography to weave together a tapestry illustrating the birth and childhood of an ancient Egyptian."--Salima Ikram, from the foreword

"By comparing how the Egyptians viewed the moment of coming into existence with the manner of their leaving it, this book seeks to redress the imbalance in Egyptological literature on the subject."--Hilary Wilson, Ancient Egypt