This week's reading concerns the social category that composed the majority of ancient Egypt's population: the peasant farmers!
Please read the assigned chapter by Caminos in the Donadoni volume as well as Ray's chapter and the Heqanahkte letters on Blackboard.
This week I am happy for you to post any thoughts or questions about this reading but here are some ideas to get you started.
How does the content of the Heqanakhte letters reflect society at the end of the First Intermediate Period/beg of Middle Kingdom?
What can you glean about family life and structure in ancient Egypt from the Heqanakhte letters?
How do Heqanakhte and his family reflect (or not reflect) the portrait Caminos paints of the peasant's life?
What are your reactions to the Caminos and/or Ray chapters? Part of your training as college students is to learn to evaluate the scholarship of others. In this vein, I always encourage you to express your thoughts on the secondary reading. I will share my opinions on Tuesday but I want to hear yours first!
The Caminos chapter includes other primary sources so please comment on those if you wish and/or connect them to the main primary material for this week, the Heqanakhte letters.
Happy Reading!
According to Caminos, houses in which Egyptian peasants lived were poor in construction and incredibly small. The huts were mainly made out of mud and not only were there no separation of rooms inside the huts, there was also no furniture except for several straw mats for beds. In my mind, I imagine that only a few individuals of a family could live under such living conditions over a prolonged period of time. However, Heqanakhte's family seems to have consisted many family members. Not only did he have four sons, in his house also lived hims mother, another female family member, his new wife, and evidently a maid that had acted out against the new wife. It is surprising that one house would contain such a large group of members who varied greatly in age. Evident in his letter, there was certainly much tention between Heqanakhte's mother and Hotepet, several family members also did not accept the new wife Iutenheb due to her young age. However, I was most puzzled by the fact that Heqanakhte had a maid to begin with. According to Caminos, farmers could barely pay the taxation every year and most farmers lived in pauperism. This leads me to conclude that Heqanakhte was most likely better off than his contemporaries and that his familial situation may not have been the norm at the time.
ReplyDeleteAnother inconsistency between Caminos and the primary text that had caught my attention was the Heqanakhte's continual reference to farmlands as his own. One of the very first things Caminos points out is that farmers are forever tied to their lands - lands that never belonged to them but instead belonged to the crown, temples, or wealthy landlords. However, in his letter Heqanakhte repeatedly instructs his son to "take great care that the seed of MY grain be preserved and all MY property be preserved". Based on Ray's introduction, Heqanakhte acquired the job as a ka-servant for Ipi's tomb, which in my understanding is a part of the corvee institution (though I could be mistaken). From his tone, it did not seem like a glorious job, as he complained about consuming "old barley" while his family had "new barley." In my opinion, this certainly glorifies the farmlands, and that Heqanakhte would rather be back on his farm than attending to the tomb. Since the job does not seem to be lucrative, it does not make Heqanakhte superior to other farmers who never left their lands, and therefore he probably was not entitled to his own lands. Yet, he referred to everything as his own, raising the doubt of just how poor he and his family might have been even if they were farmers, especially if they truly owned land and a maid.
Like Jayasree and Linjia, I also found the Caminos reading to paint quite a bleak portrait of peasant life in Ancient Egypt. The poor living conditions, and the way that each peasant was effectively tied to the land on which they worked, seemed almost akin to serfdom in Russia, and Caminos did not suggest that there was any way to escape a life of peasantry (other than by running away). Moreover, the actions of tax collectors, in punishing not only those who owed taxes but also their families and neighbors, seemed particularly cruel.
ReplyDeleteThis wholly negative portrayal of peasant-life made me wonder whether Caminos’s work may have been a victim of the difficulty of securing primary sources created by the peasants themselves. Certainly, many aspects of peasant life may have been well-documented by visitors and members of other social classes. However, as can be seen from Caminos’s discussion of the source “Satire on the Trades”, a lot of the time the negatives of peasant-life were potentially exaggerated in order to make another lifestyle seem more appealing. I wonder to what extent these sources, even when combined with the archaeological record, can be truly representative of a life which surely must have had many more layers to it than just the scraps that we have been left with.
I also found it difficult to fully believe in the negative portrayal after reading the Heqanahkte letters, and Ray’s examination of them. They seem almost humorous, full of the comings and goings of family life and its own dramas. There does not seem to be a lack of food, and Ray even suggests that Heqanahkte is purposely exaggerating the bleakness of his own situation in order undermine any complaints that his family may have. Whether the disparity between the two portrayals of peasant-life is due to Heqanahkte is a particularly fortunate (and given that he seems to be literate he may be) peasant, or due to a changing peasant lifestyle throughout the dynastic period, I think that it would be interesting to know.
To me, the Caminos reading was not surprising at all. In any civilization, peasants are the weakest and most powerless class, and so it was not unexpected that their living conditions were poor. Their lives depended on the Nile flood, and they had to work nonstop while the soil was moist. They had to pay unfair amounts of tax to the landowner and the government, and were brutally punished by officials for no particular reason. Their houses were little huts for sleeping, and diseases were widely spread because of poor sanitation. I was a little surprised about the corvee and how some peasants ran away to avoid forced labor, because it feels like such a common thing especially in the 20th century where some countries forced their people to work in mine fields and factories.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most striking facts about the Egyptians that I read in these readings was how "the Egyptians were on a whole a very conservative people...the simplest rural elements, once developed, continued to be used with hardly any modification for centuries." (Caminos 3) I thought Egypt was a place of constant innovation and radical change, since it was such an advanced civilization compared to the rest of the world at their time.
Ray's chapter on Heqanakhte was personally very entertaining, because although his culture and environment are very different from ours, he still is a human being, a husband, and a father who works to earn money for his family. His remarks about his sons denouncing his new, very young wife and him complaining about how they don't appreciate him enough was very interesting to read.
Like Risa, I was not particularly shocked by the bleak conditions of daily peasant life as described by Caminos. With that said, I was surprised by how unchanging peasant life was throughout all periods. Officials and even members of the middle class definitely had a superiority complex towards the peasants (evidenced particularly in the Duaf’s speech in Caminos), but it was the peasants’ irrigation system that lasted all the way from the Protodynastic period until the 1960’s. Additionally, their plow lasted from the Old Kingdom throughout the Dynastic period and after. Another example of this is the shadoof, a peasant invented water-lifting tool invented around 1500 BC still used today. Further examples of tools like these are abundant in the Caminos reading, and I think the longevity of peasant-invented agriculture solutions can be attributed to their knowledge. This class may have been illiterate, but I ironically found them much more efficient than those above them. The upper classes threw single spears to hunt because they were ‘more graceful,’ while they mocked the peasants for using bird nets when they were in fact much more effective.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, the letters of Heqanakhte depict a peasant’s life rooted in tradition and quick thinking. All of the tasks described, from measuring barley and food rations to communicating with the household and family, describe a way of life that seems to be similar for Egyptian peasants regardless of what period they lived in. These letters were generally insightful in that way, but in some ways they also contradicted both readings. Ray claimed the tone from Heqanakhte’s period would be somber and bleak, and Caminos depicted the peasant lifestyle similarly. While daily tasks of this class were routine and mundane, I found Heqanakhte’s tone humorous and more urgent than bleak.
To conclude, I found that the peasant lifestyle was similar throughout all periods and I believe there is evidence that this class is smarter than their superiors thought. Their conditions were quite bleak and daily life was toiling, but overall these people coped by inventing effective farming tools and (in Heqanakhte’s case) making the most out of every task.
-Caroline Miller
As Risa and Caroline have already stated, to hear that the peasants of Ancient Egypt lived a harrowing life of poverty and abuse was not surprising. However, no matter how anticipated the descriptions of the Egyptian peasant’s destitute and struggle were, for me, they became more difficult to swallow after having read Heqanakhte’s letters.
ReplyDeleteIn The Egyptians (Donadoni), Ricardo A. Caminos paints a vivid and horrifying picture of what life was for the peasants of Ancient Egypt. Though they were “the backbone of the nation”, the peasants were “despised by all, pitied by none” (Donadoni). As a result of the peasant’s illiteracy, there are very few literary sources in existence that describe the daily struggles of peasantry. With the few quotable sources he had available, Caminos was still able to portray the peasant life as a fate one would not wish on their own worst enemy. The viciousness of diseases and tax collectors alike were unrelenting and the backbreaking work of farming and hunting never seemed to end. The Nile, a force of nature and all of its unpredictable habits had the peasants at its mercy. A bad flood year could easily result in famine. According to Caminos, the life of peasantry was so unendurable that members of the peasant class often abandoned their homes in an attempt to escape. Philo Judaues of Alexandria goes as far as describing a time when peasants committed suicide to seek refuge from the abuse they faced.
By means of his letters, Heqanakhte helps bring Caminos’ description of peasantry life in Ancient Egypt to life. Like Caminos, Heqanakhte cannot stress enough how important it is to keep up with the farming. In a letter to his son, Merisu, Heqanakhte urges, “Be very assiduous in cultivating! Take great care that the seed of my grain be preserved and all my property be preserved since I am holding you responsible for this. Take great care of all my property!” (68. P. Hekanakht No. 1) Heqanakhte, an experienced peasant, was aware of the value of property and the crops his family had to cultivate. Caminos is repetitive in stating that peasants had nothing and usually lived in dirty, one roomed huts without proper flooring. To have any property was something to be valued, as was the possession of crops to cultivate. Heqanakhte also illustrated the issue of poverty clearly in another one of his letters, as he states, “Now it is only real hunger that should be termed hunger since they have started eating people here” (69. P. Hekanakht No. 2).
While Caminos states the facts of miserable peasant life, Heqanakhte brings those facts to life. Heqanakhte goes further though, as he is able to exemplify how the hardships of peasantry can help band a family together. Throughout his letters Heqanakhte shows concern for his sons and his wife. He is aware that abuse and conflict are common and does not want for them to have to face them. That concern appears to be as much of a concern as the possible risk of famine. The foundation of peasant life, as Caminos implied, was not entirely work to keep an individual afloat. Rather, it was keeping the family unit in tact so they could survive and thrive together.
The Caminos text clearly highlights the negative aspects of the peasant life in Egypt, but the letters of Heqanakhte paint a slightly different picture. As stated by my classmates above - Caminos systematically went through each aspect of the farmers life, describing it as primitive, unfair, and extremely arduous. Personally, I found the Caminos text to be slightly uninteresting, as it outlines the serf life to be essentially the same as any other ground-up agrarian society. Like Risa, I also found the fact that Egyptians did not change their farming technology for centuries very surprising, as Egypt is considered one of the most advanced cultures of that time period. Perhaps it had to do with the time period when this was written, because Professor Morris explained that Egypt, just as all other civilizations, had short periods of great advancement.
ReplyDeleteAll of the hardships described by Caminos were surely true to a great extent, as life during that time often was for the lower members of society, but I found it refreshing to get a real glimpse into a family of Ancient Egypt. Although the conditions in which they lived were harsh, they seem to have more than survivability problems, which are outlined in the Heqanakhte letters in some detail.The Heqanakhte letters showed a male-dominated, agricultural (obviously) family structure, in which the head of the family had essentially absolute power over the rest, similar to Ancient Roman and Greek family structures. However, his power seemed to be eroding, as Heqanakhte is not present in his situation - hence the mention of punishment regarding the treatment of his new wife. I found his tone amusing because of his constant exaggeration and his use of guilt to motivate his sons to work. (Especially his indignant response regarding the quality of barley sent to him!)
I was shocked throughout the entire reading that life thousands of years ago is so similar as it is today. Caminos was constantly reminding the reader of how little peasantry in Egypt has evolved. The houses (so tiny that if someone stood up there would be a hole in the room) and the irrigation is still the same. Also, the complete distribution of wealth. The pharaohs spent exorbitant amounts of money on pyramids and burials and the peasants were lucky if they were thrown in a ditch. To me, this seemed to prove how little the human race really has evolved.
ReplyDeleteHeqanakhte's letters further show how little life has changed. His life, like all Egyptians, was based on the Nile. His life also contains many of the same characters of modern life, the new mother that the kids don't like and the demanding mother. I really enjoyed reading the letters because it really personified Egyptian life to me, and gave to a connection to the people.
Heqanakhte's letters stress the importance of a family dynamic. Three generations live together in the same house, plus servants that he clearly cares about, given that he in concerned about feeding them as well. He also trusts his son to look after the house hold. This ends up being a mistake as his sons abuse his wife and discard his letters. The concept of an entire family living together isn't antiquated and is common in rural and agricultural areas today. This further stresses how little life has changed.
I enjoyed both the Caminos and Ray readings. I found some of the previous readings dry, but these helped me relate to people. History is so easy to view as just facts, but it is so much more. From the other comments, I think a lot of the class has felt similar. Life in Egypt was clearly hard, stressful and demanding. Just reading about carrying water and plowing the fields and sowing the seeds made me exhausted. This was an interesting dynamic to study, as so much focus is put on the pharaohs and I didn't even think about the everyday people in Egypt.
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ReplyDeleteFor me, the Heqanakhte letters were hard to read. I felt like he was jumping all over the place, moving from one subject to the other. I didn’t fully understand where he was coming from until after lecture. He talked about his family at one point then talking about farming the next. I didn’t like his character either. He seemed like a person who was abusing his power. Although he was a Ka Priest and had a lot of land, he felt the need to boss his family members around, telling them what to do and how to do it in a rude manner, well in my opinion anyway. This fact really started to paint the picture of life at this time in ancient Egypt. It was great if you were a king, noble, or had any kind of status. But if you were a peasant farmer, serf, or worst of all, a slave, you had a harsh life. You could barely own land, and if you did, you were on your own with nothing to back you up if your crop failed. Life was filled with disease, tough working conditions, and a cramped way of living. Farmers even had to slave to the kings and nobles during the time of the flooding when they can’t do any farming. They would have to do tireless jobs like building tombs and pyramids, sort of like “busy work” implemented by the king.
ReplyDeleteAlong with the Heqanakhte, Caminos painted the picture of what life really was like in ancient Egypt at the viewpoint of a farmer. One thing that stood out to me was the horrific consequences of not paying taxes. Some would even run from tax collectors to avoid the punishments. If caught, the farmer would be brutally beaten. Then their wife and children would pay for what their husband/father had done. I’ve learned over the years of the farmer in ancient Egypt, but the readings this week really show the truth of their lives. Sure the Nile was fertile and full of life, but the life of the farmers who made the Nile fertile was quite the opposite.
Peasant life has certainly never been privileged in any ancient society, so it comes as no surprise that Egyptian peasants were subject to the same harsh way of life. As already stated several times over, Caminos emphasizes the long working hours in the fields, the arduous nature of the work, and the overall treatment of the peasantry in society.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find interesting is the fact that in Heqanakhte's letters he seems to have a higher sense of self esteem and self worth than one would think of the typical "farmer/peasant" from Camino's description. It appears as though having one additional profession, like Heqanakhte being a Ka-Priest, than simply being a farmer or peasant gives an individual something to "live" for. Heqanakhte's tone is one of importance and pride, and his letters do not solely focus on the hardships and laborious lifestyle. He seems to admire his job, though perhaps only slightly, and after discussing in lecture the way some would inscribe this on their tomb suggests that he is grateful for the position.
I am sure peasant life was never "easy" or "fulfilling", but it is not surprising that there were such clear class distinctions. Every society has class distinction and in every society the wealth is not evenly distributed.
One of the most interesting things about Heqanahkte’s letters is his relationship with his youngest son, Sneferu. I do not think it was (or is) atypical for a parent to have a favorite child, especially in large families, such as that of Heqanahkte. It would be interesting to see how this favoritism conflicts with the customs concerning land ownership. Because Heqanahkte was a Ka-Priest, it would seem that the system surrounding him passing on “his” land to Sneferu would be similar to the Prebend system. The question is: as a Ka-Priest, would Heqanahkte have been able to pass on his land to any of his children, let alone Sneferu, or would the child of his choosing need also to become a Ka-Priest for the same person? Following this, if there is some kind of dynastic succession option available for Heqanahkte, in which case his oldest son would assume control of his land? There is no use dealing in “what if’s” and imagining how life would have changed for this family, but I do think it is prudent to find out the particular customs concerned with land ownership so as to see what Sneferu’s fate turned out to be. Heqanahkte’s favoritism could have destroyed his family, or at least his relationship with his oldest son. Depending on what Sneferu ended up doing with his life and how his father played a role in that would be very important to uncover. --Melanie Zelikovksy
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, I have always had a fascination with ancient Egyptian culture. I suppose it's because I always thought of the Egyptians as "the enlightened elite" to those of their contemporaries, and now, it is as if you never hear much of Egypt and its advancements (we tend to associate modern-day Africa and the Middle East with uncivilized people's). Nonetheless, from comparative history, we are taught that the lower-class never led a life at all comparable to that of the nobles. They faced arduous work, disease, poverty and isolation more than any other class (as noted most extensively by Caminos), and yet, interestingly enough, it is as if my peers and I expected something more of the Egyptian peasant class and were disappointed when we read that the situation was not so different from that of any other working or enslaved class. I suppose I just wanted to believe otherwise, that the ancients were so elusive and mysterious, and although they really were in many ways, as my peers have pointed out with the peasant life, they experienced tribulations just as any other human experienced/s and lived by values just as any other human lived/s by certain values. These instances are highlighted in both Ray's writing and the letters. "'Look, this is not the year for a man to be slack for his master, his father, or his brother.' In the last case, one suspects that the three categories of people he lists are all descriptions of himself" (Ray 34). From this, we see that Hekanakht identified himself as a servant above anything else and devoted himself to family and work, values not uncommonly found in the human experience. Interestingly enough, however, although Hekanakht stresses the idea of family cohesion and prosperity in his letters, something that is seen today as utterly blasphemous and taboo as family murder occurred relatively rampantly so long ago. In another instance of suggesting the peasant lifestyle, Ray states, "What is going on here is a conflict of interest between Hekanakht's personal feelings for the Benjamin of his family, and the fact that, in any pre-industrial society, children are economic units" (36). Here, we see that Hekanakht is at odds with his personal life and societal interests, a conflict that is again, not unusual to identify with. Misogyny, too, as referenced in the second to last paragraph of the Ray readings, continues to exist in today's society.
ReplyDeleteOne side thing to note is how utopianism was generally not a feature of Egyptian society (Ray 31). I note this because, as mentioned earlier, I somehow always thought of ancient Egyptian society as having sought after perfection, after the ideal of their gods, always with the intent of pleasing them. Now, I can say that was not necessarily so.
What I found interesting about the Heqanakhte's letters was that this lowwer-class Egyptian household had similar family dynamics as a modern household. The tone of Heqanakhte toward Merisu is that of a stern father telling his son to take responsibility for his land. I find this comparable to a modern day father telling his son to stop being lazy and take responsibility for work that has to be done, like mowing the lawn or doing homework.
ReplyDeleteBeing a second child, I also find the comparison of the tones of the two sons, Merisu and Sihathor,laughable. While Heqanakhte clearly favors his second son, the idea of child favoritism is very debatable in multi-child contemporary homes. I doubt that parents of today pick favorites like Heqanakhte did, but still, the dreaded middle child syndrome does exist.
Lastly, Heqanakhte is grappling with the tension between his sons and his new wife, so much so that he must keep them separated. This idea of a step-mom joining a family and creating animosity is still very much present in modern times, specially considering the current soaring rates of divorce. Children of today may not attempt to abuse or rape their new mothers, but family division can often be a result of a split home.
Thus, whilst the Egyptian peasant may have faced cultural, political, and economic differences than people of the 21st century, many of the underlying family structures remain the same.
As many of my classmates already stated, the life of peasants in Egypt is of no surprise. Although peasants were considered the “backbone of the nation,” they were still considered the lowest members of society (Camino 1). And unfortunately, we don’t know much about this group because peasants were illiterate - we can only learn about them through epigraphs, archeological finds, and non-literary sources. However, as Caminos points out, “Literary sources relevant to our subject are scanty in the extreme, and, with the exception of a short tale told by a cashiered priest turned peasant, of which more later, all of them are biased to the last degree” (Camino 15). With that said, I ask the same questions that my classmate Catie Brown asks – to what extant are these sources accurate? How representative are they of peasant life if peasants weren’t even responsible for creating most of our records?
ReplyDeleteWhile I am aware of the harsh and unjust conditions of peasants, some of the facts that Caminos presented were shocking and pretty unbelievable. Caminos describes the situation in which children would pick up animal droppings, put them in a basket, and bring them home. These droppings were then mixed into a paste, laid out to dry ad given to the peasants as “fuel” (Camino 24). I also found it appalling that peasants were considered lucky to get a jar of beer on festival days (and even this was rare). The lives of peasants were undoubtedly filled with poverty, sickness, and uncertainty (Camino 17).
I also thought that the primary source excerpts that Caminos chose to include were extremely helpful in gaining a unique insight into the lives of peasants. These sources, coupled with facts and stories that Camino provided, made this reading rich and enjoyable. One excerpt from an old pedagogue states, “Be a scribe. It will save you from toil and protect you from every kind of work. It will spare you from bearing hoe and nattock, so that you will not have to carry a basket. It will keep you from plying the oar and spare you all manner of hardships” (Camino 16). It couldn’t be more clear that living a life as a peasant is the worst kind of life you could live in Egypt.
The Heqanakhte letters were very interesting to read for me. As I read them, I could see the First Intermediate Period valued agriculture and family. The letter starts with a story of robbery, and the farmer asks his family to “Take good care of all [his] property” (58). Also, he warns his family not to “settle on anybody’s land” (59). I think it shows the peasants considered agriculture very important and any act of stealing was not accepted. In addition, it seems that they valued family very much. The farmer says, “Take great care of Anup and Snefru,” “greet my mother … million times,” and do not “make sexual advance against [his] new wife” (60,62). The last part talks about daughter’s respectful attitude towards her mother as well. This was shown in Ray’s reading too: “references to his elderly mother are invariably respectful” (34). From these, I could feel the society valued agriculture, family, and respect a lot. Family relationship seems informal and friendly.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, as I read Ray’s reading, it was interesting to see how the author explores men and women. “Words for ‘men’ and ‘tears’ were similar” and “human equality” were fascinating to read because I only imagined male-dominated society when I think of ancient countries (31).
On the other hand, to my surprise, Caminos states that “The peasants were aware that they had to struggle and work strenuously to live, and suffer much. That was their lot. They knew no better. Beyond this destiny they had no prospects, and they sought none” (28). The letters seem to represent normal, peaceful daily lives of peasant, but then according to him, the real life of peasants was miserable. For me, letters contain more of personal viewpoints on serf’s life while Caminos focuses on witnessed information on serf’s life.
Compared to Ray's, I enjoyed Caminos's chapter much better. He was able to let you clearly visualize what peasants went through. At some points, one could almost forget these were actual human beings that were being written about.
ReplyDelete" A peasant's life was one of unremitting labor, poverty, sickness, and extreme uncertainty"(Caminos 17). They pretty much lived "from paycheck to paycheck," and that phrase might actually be too generous in some cases. Apparently, it was still just for the tax collectors to physically abuse them because obviously peasants still had enough money to dish out from their big, fat wallets described on page 19 of The Egyptians as "mere pittance [and]subsistence wages." Also, I was shocked when I realized I hadn't misread that corvee labor was in effect until A.D. 1889! As for Heqanahkte's letters, I'm going to have to agree with some of the others. Sure this egotistical ka-priest and his family definitely must have been under stressful conditions, but the letters gave off a somewhat humorous and light tone as well, especially since I read them right before picking up Donadoni's The Egyptians.
Overall, it was a very dismal read. The peasants never were able to get a break from the exhausting cycle that they unluckily were born into. The only time they could truly be at peace was at death. The one thing that kept screaming in my head was that without these people, Egypt would have been nothing, and yet that's exactly what they got. Nothing.
After examining both readings, I find myself surrendering to the common psychological principle that bad memories and ideas are more likely to remain with you than positive ones; lingering deeply in the corners of your mind. To me, the Caminos chapter is one that, without a doubt, overpowered the Heqanakhte letters and Ray’s chapter, as comical as they may be. Describing the death of a serf, one of the first passages in “Peasants” reads, “…passed away leaving no trace in this world; their dead bodies were abandoned on the fringe of the desert or, at best, dropped into shallow holes in the sand” (2). In his writing, Caminos describes the peasant life vividly, providing one with the constant image of a weary worker tied to his land with virtually no escape. Chasing off “marauding birds hovering over fields” (9) and facing the relentless cruelty of both masters and tax collectors, the peasants were a tortured bunch, according to Caminos. They were tied up and beaten, faced with the constant threat of endemic diseases; only to return home at the end of the day to a dirty mud hut without windows, floors, or furniture.
ReplyDeleteThe Heqanakhte letters and Ray’s chapter, on the other end of the spectrum, were far more positive in their representation of serf-life. But while having a discussing regarding ancient peasant life, on must never forget to mention the suffering that these humans surely endured, and the letters seem to represent that in a less obvious way. Though the main character’s treatment of his son, Merisu, is quite poor, it manages to show the importance of social order in ancient Egyptian society. I think that the main character’s constant sense of entitlement showcases the existence of a patriarchal culture, regardless of the class systems.
The content of the readings are indeed a reflection of Egyptian society at the end of the First Intermediate Period and beginning of the Middle Kingdom. In terms of farming, it is even stated in one of the readings that very little changed throughout this time period. Farming was the most stagnant of all Egyptian advances; treating people like animals and reaping benefits for only the very fortunate. I believe that this is a good summation of this era: a horrendous life for workers and more riches for the already rich (if the Nile flooded properly, that is).
-Cassandra Seidor