ABSTRACT
In the early 20th-century Egypt played a central role in lively debates within prehistory and anthropology far outside the confines of the specialized discipline of Egyptology. The two main proponents were a pair of remarkable scholars, G. Elliot Smith and W. J. Perry. Arriving in Cambridge in 1896, Elliot Smith thus found himself in an intellectual environment where anatomy and neurology were being studied in a context that also embraced physical and social anthropology and archaeology, and where there were good role models for enterprising scientists to cross the boundaries of the emerging disciplines. Elliot Smith relied heavily on Perry's research to complete his study of the eastward spread of mummification. Thereafter, Elliot Smith and Perry worked closely together. Perry, on the other hand, had come into the project from an interest in diffusion in Indonesia, and the nature of the people and processes involved in the spread of culture was a key theme to his work. Ancient Egypt, G. Elliot Smith, W. J. Perry, social anthropology, intellectual environment, mummification, archaeology.
