ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines how violence is gendered in ancient Egypt – in domestic residences, juridical spheres, battlefields, the realms of goddesses and gods. It assesses the work of prior Egyptologists for tacit or obvious biases about gender, sexuality, and violence. The book recognizes caregiving as communal; the multiple, complementary roles involved in subsistence activities and craft productions; sexual couplings as procreative, pleasurable, commercialized, or violent; the gender variance that defines some lives or briefly situates others. It materializes how past peoples coupled, birthed, became, labored, murdered, assaulted, oppressed, or mourned in any given cultural-historic context. The book offers information about how ancient Egyptians documented, reported, responded to, and sanctioned gendered violence. It looks at iconography and texts inscribed on stelae, temple walls and reliefs, papyri, and private tombs.
