Social, Cultural, and Political Hierarchies in “The Tale of Sinuhe”

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Social, Cultural, and Political Hierarchies in “The Tale of Sinuhe” Social, Cultural, and Political Hierarchies in “The Tale of Sinuhe” Mattias Karlsson Social, Cultural, and Political Hierarchies in “The Tale of Sinuhe” ii Abstract Karlsson, Mattias. 2016. Social, Cultural, and Political Hierarchies in “The Tale of Sinuhe”. vi+53 pp. Länna: utgivare Karlsson, Mattias. ISBN: 978-91-637-8243-5. This study focuses on “The Tale of Sinuhe”. Its overarching aim was to discuss different kinds of hierarchies in the tale, while the precise aim was to describe how (power) relationships between the officials, the deities, the king, the people, “the foreign lands” (high and low), and women (high and low, and of all ethnicities) are portrayed in the tale and in other, related primary sources. The analysis was made through a philological investigation and with the aid of certain keyconcepts (such as status, function, and theme) and theories (such as gender- and postcolonial theory). As for the power relationships where the official is the active part, Sinuhe displays blind loyalty towards the king and submission towards the deities. In his relation to the foreign lands, Sinuhe develops from being helpless to governing. In the power relationships where the king is the active part, the king displays a duty to provide towards Sinuhe, he is both pictured as an equal and as a human being (although a very special one) in relation to the deities, and he appears as both a universal and regional ruler in relation to the foreign lands. In the power relationships where the deities are the active part, the deities are described as paternalistic and thus superior to the king. The deities decide Sinuhe’s destiny, but they are the actual rulers of the foreign lands only here and there, testifying more of a regional than universal claim of power. Regarding the power relationships where the foreign lands are the active part, the picture is similar and divided into two parts in relation to Sinuhe and the king. On the one hand the foreign lands are imagined as hopelessly degenerated and culturally inferior, while on the other hand the foreign lands are described as inferior but not beyond salvation, provided that there was an Egyptian influence. The almost non- existent contact from the foreign lands to the deities tells of cultural subordination and relativism. As for the Egyptian people, they are expected to be obedient and loyal towards the officials and the king, while they in their turn are the beneficiaries of “vertical solidarity”. Concerning the power relationships of women, women appear as subordinate to men. Goddesses and court women make up special cases, but even they can be seen as subordinate in comparisons with their male equivalents. Moving from sex to gender, the masculine dominates the feminine. By contrast, the latter symbolizes anonymity, passivity, physical weakness, and (passive) reproduction. Keywords: Sinuhe, literature, ideology, propaganda Mattias Karlsson, Master of Arts in Egyptology at Uppsala University © Mattias Karlsson 2016 ISBN: 978-91-637-8243-5 iii Table of Contents Preface v List of illustrations vi 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Sinuhe and his times 1 1.2 Aims of the study 2 1.3 Earlier research 2 1.4 Material 4 1.4.1 Résumé of The Tale of Sinuhe 4 1.4.2 The Tale of Sinuhe, literature, and ideology 6 1.4.3 Other primary sources 7 1.5 Method and theory 8 2. Social, cultural, and political hierarchies in The Tale of Sinuhe 11 2.1 Sinuhe/the Egyptian officials in relation to the others 11 2.1.1 The being and doing of Sinuhe/the officials in relation to the king 11 2.1.2 The being and doing of Sinuhe/the officials in relation to the deities 13 2.1.3 The being and doing of Sinuhe/the officials in relation to the foreign lands 14 2.1.4 Summary 16 2.2 The Egyptian king in relation to the others 16 2.2.1 The being and doing of the king in relation to Sinuhe/the officials 16 2.2.2 The being and doing of the king in relation to the deities 18 2.2.3 The being and doing of the king in relation to the foreign lands 20 2.2.4 Summary 22 2.3 The Egyptian deities in relation to the others 22 2.3.1 The being and doing of the deities in relation to Sinuhe/the officials 22 2.3.2 The being and doing of the deities in relation to the king 24 2.3.3 The being and doing of the deities in relation to the foreign lands 25 2.3.4 Summary 27 2.4 The foreign lands in relation to the others 27 2.4.1 The being and doing of the foreign lands in relation to Sinuhe/the officials 27 2.4.2 The being and doing of the foreign lands in relation to the king 29 2.4.3 The being and doing of the foreign lands in relation to the deities 30 2.4.4 Summary 31 2.5 The Egyptian people and women in relation to the others 31 2.5.1 The being and doing of the people in relation to Sinuhe/the officials 31 2.5.2 The being and doing of the people in relation to the king and the deities 33 2.5.3 Hierarchy and sex 34 2.5.4 Hierarchy and gender 35 2.5.5 Summary 37 3. General summary 38 4. List of references 41 5. Index and appendix 47 5.1 Discussed lines of The Tale of Sinuhe 47 5.2 Additions to the “Sinuhe-bibliography” 51 6. Illustrations 52 iv Preface This work is a revised edition of the book (with the same title) that was published in 2015. The revisions in question are of three different types. One type is that of corrections, mostly of language. A second type is that of clarifications, in the sense of changing uncertain parts of the text in order to clarify a point. A third type is that of polishing. I have made some stylistic changes, e.g. in the arrangement of the table of contents, the removing of underlined headings, and the reformatting of the list of references. In the same pursuit of polishing the first edition, I have also added some illustrations, and I have (quite logically) translated my Swedish abstract into English. v List of illustrations Figure 1: An excerpt from Papyrus Berlin 3022 Figure 2: A picture of Senwosret I Figure 3: The pyramid of Amenemhat I Figure 4: A picture of Amenemhat I with the gods Figure 5: A map of Sinuhe’s movements vi 1. Introduction This book centres on the famous literary piece The Tale of Sinuhe and the different kinds of power relations (social, cultural, political) expressed in it. The first chapter of this thesis begins with some notes on the literary hero Sinuhe, it goes on with stating the aims of the study, and continues with an overview of earlier research. Therefter, some sections deal with the material of the study, while giving a résumé of the tale, discussing the literary status and nature of the tale, and presenting other related primary sources. The chapter ends with a section on method and theory. 1.1 Sinuhe and his times The Tale of Sinuhe is generally considered a masterpiece of Egyptian literature (Simpson 1984, Lichtheim 2006: 222, Parkinson 2009: 2). It belongs to those texts from ancient Egypt which are known also by a wider public, albeit in an indirect, adapted form. The award-winning novel “Sinuhe, The Egyptian” by Mika Waltari (1990) is based on the character of Sinuhe, although being placed in a later period in Egyptian history. His book was later the basis of the high-budget Hollywood movie “The Egyptian” from 1954.1 Although the two Sinuhe (the one in the ancient sources and the one in Waltari’s adaptation) differ quite a lot, the character of Sinuhe remains legendary. Also the Egyptian Noble prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz (2002) has found inspiration from the ancient tale, and written a piece on the basis of it. Some biblical scholars compare Sinuhe with the patriarchs of the Old Testament (e.g. Bárta 2003). Sinuhe is “a resourceful man of his times, a prototype of the proper official at a time of rising prosperity in Egypt and its relations abroad” (Simpson 2003: 54). In the ancient tale, Sinuhe describes in first person himself as a courtier working for king Amenemhat I and the princess Nefru.2 After overhearing a message regarding the death of the king not meant for his ears, he flees from Egypt, and makes a name for himself in the Levant, experiencing foreign customs. In his mature age, he longs for his homeland, and his urgings are fulfilled when receiving a royal amnesty from the new king Senwosret I which makes it possible for him to return to Egypt as a respected person. As noted by Parkinson (2009: 21-26), the tale and Sinuhe’s actions are full of tensions between the ideal and the actual, it changes freely from one literary genre to another, and it even contains inner monologues. The tale is in other words a much complex and multi-faceted work well worthy of yet another study.3 The Tale of Sinuhe is dated to the early Middle Kingdom (2010-1875)4, to a time when Egypt underwent major socio-cultural changes, reflected not the least in the preserved literature, and telling of an emerging “middle class” in life and of a “democratization of the afterlife” in death (Parkinson 1996).5 Historic-politically, it was a time of change too, with the 12th dynasty-kings reestablishing royal authority throughout Egypt after the politically decentralized First Intermediate period (2125- 2010) (Quirke 1991b).
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