Motherhood and Early Childhood in Ancient Egypt: Culture, Religion, and Medicine

Amandine Marshall's book offers a comprehensive analysis of ancient Egyptian society's views on pregnancy, mothers, birth, and children, drawing on various sources and shedding light on the experience of maternity and early childhood in ancient Egypt.

Format: Hardback
Length: 232 pages
Publication date: 22 October 2024
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press

A masterpiece of seminal, meticulous, and groundbreaking scholarship, "Pregnancy, Mothers, Birth, and Children in Ancient Egypt" by Amandine Marshall is a richly nuanced analysis of how ancient Egyptian society regarded and dealt with pregnancy, mothers, birth, and children. In ancient Egypt, a woman's primary role was that of mother, and as such, she ensured her place within both her household and her community. Gods, doctor-magicians, and ghosts were all called upon to help the woman become pregnant, and pregnancy was not without risks. The many tests, prescriptions, and spells that have survived to this day help us to understand obstetrics as it was practiced in those distant times. Once the woman had eluded the ill will of Seth, who was held responsible for miscarriages, and had reached her term, she was faced with the much-awaited and yet also feared moment of birth. The successful delivery of a child into the world was seen as a gift of the gods, but it did not mean that the parents' worries were over. Indeed, it has been estimated that a third of all children did not reach the age of five years despite the combined efforts of parents and doctor-magicians to protect them. Amandine Marshall draws upon a wealth of sources, including texts, images, iconography, artifacts, and children's bodies themselves, as well as medicine, anthropology, and ethnography, to examine these issues and more, and in doing so sheds unprecedented light on the experience of maternity and early childhood in ancient Egypt.

Weight: 504g
Dimension: 237 x 161 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781649030900