Geography and Ethnography by Talbert Richard J. A. Raaflaub Kurt A. & Richard J. A. Talbert

Author:Talbert, Richard J. A.,Raaflaub, Kurt A. & Richard J. A. Talbert
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781118589847
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published: 2012-12-12T16:00:00+00:00

Geography

Within the frame of the Egyptian view of the world laid out in the previous section, all Egyptian geographies of foreign regions contained in royal inscriptions or the literary discourse play a conceptually very biased role in sustaining an altogether bipartite view of the world. In a book about the function of space in European writing of the nineteenth century, the Italian literary critic Franco Moretti (1999: 100) distinguishes the “geography” of the modern novel from what he metaphorically calls the “topography” of traditional narratives. Applying this distinction, we recognize that the geography displayed in the Egyptian written or pictorial sources in most cases corresponds to Moretti’s “topography”; that is, it reflects a secondary conceptual and rhetorical manipulation of primary empirical knowledge of foreign places. The predominant feature of this “topography” is that it is structured as a polar opposition between two worlds: one, central, is of course Egypt, while the other is more or less an unspecific “elsewhere” located outside, separated from Egypt by conceptually clear borders which geographically are frontiers. According to Cosgrove’s “distance decay function”, this conceptually shaped “elsewhere” normally features in the Egyptian sources in two ways. Entirely in line with tendencies also known from other ancient cultures, in Egypt too the “Other” is conceived either as fascinating or as threatening and dangerous, while both attitudes of course have their roots in the idea of the supremacy of Egypt over the rest of the world.

The most prominent icon of this idea is a scene known as “Pharaoh smiting the enemy.” This scene can be found throughout Egyptian history in thousands of examples on all kinds of Egyptian artifacts, from small scarabs to monumental temples (Moers 2004: 88–130). It displays Pharaoh striding along and beating with his mace the subjugated and kneeling representatives of foreign peoples who are begging for mercy with upraised arms. Figure 11.1, engraved at the entrance gate of the mortuary temple of Ramses III (1186–1154) at Medinet Habu in Thebes, offers a good example. Although images like this always depict actual Pharaohs, the historicity of such scenes is a matter of considerable debate. In most cases they might be interpreted as pictorial and symbolic rather than as any actual reenactment of the Egyptian worldview. Accordingly, in such images foreign geography – including landscape and natural resources – figures in exactly the two contrasting ways mentioned above: as fascinating and as a threat to be contained. Phrases like “chiefs of foreign countries will come to you loaded with their dues, their children and all beautiful and good things of their foreign countries” (Edgerton and Wilson 1936: 111), which normally accompany the monumental scenes, refer to the Egyptian desire for all the fascinating aspects of foreign material culture. This desire was regularly satisfied by bringing back all sorts of precious goods obtained in periodic raids of neighboring countries. Such raids were conceptualized as establishing order in areas that posed a threat. The depiction of foreign countries in these images corresponds to this concept. More precisely, their representations combine conceptual and empirical parts.

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