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Being Alone in Ancient Egypt
After an extensive exploration of the multifaceted forms and networks of sociability, cultural historians have turned their attention to the study of those who, voluntarily or not, have been located at the margins of society or outside them: in other words, those who have been alone. Relative to anc...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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AUC Knowledge Fountain
2025
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| Summary: | After an extensive exploration of the multifaceted forms and networks of sociability, cultural historians have turned their attention to the study of those who, voluntarily or not, have been located at the margins of society or outside them: in other words, those who have been alone. Relative to ancient Egypt, this thesis hopes to offer preliminary thoughts toward an understanding of when and how aloneness was experienced and, more so, expressed by the Egyptians. The topic is challenging since aloneness lacks definitional standardization both within and across social science disciplines. It additionally implies to explore cultural representations that may be unfamiliar to the modern ‘us’. Despite being an anthropological constant, the expression of aloneness is, indeed, culturally anchored. This thesis, mainly based on literary primary sources, follows three avenues of research. Chapter 1 introduces the thesis topic while providing a historiography and background research. Chapter 2 offers an analysis of how aloneness was expressed in the ancient Egyptian language and explores the various nuances that the words and expressions may convey: ‘positive’ aloneness (solitude), ‘neutral’ aloneness, and ‘negative aloneness’ (loneliness). Chapter 3 focuses on the topographies and temporalities of aloneness: the condition, it seems, has favorite places and times to emerge, which are, for the ancient Egyptian culture, the island (or any place separated by a body of water), the desert, and the night. Chapter 4 investigates aloneness through the prism of community and social solidarity, the latter of which is defined in the ancient Egyptian culture by the concept maat. In addition to summarizing the key points of this thesis, the conclusion introduces, as an area for future research, the idea of death as the ultimate form of isolation. |
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