In Foreigners in Egypt : Archaeological Evidence and Cultural Context, the author attempts to discuss some of the issues surrounding archaeological and broader anthropological research into ancient Egypt as it pertains to the issue of ethnicity and culture. I found this article particularly interesting as the concept of Egyptianization, especially in terms of the Kushites, in class but haven’t gone particularly in depth into this process of acculturation (at least not yet). I also found it interesting that the author provided a brief timeline of the historical understanding of the concept of “foreigners” as it was held by the Egyptians. We have talked about this idea of foreigners and outsiders in class throughout the lectures, however to have a comprehensive timeline supported by what archaeological evidence we have really enforced this idea for me.

Aside from the author’s summation of the current understandings we have about the evolution of the concept of foreigner and other in ancient Egypt, I found myself thinking beyond the reading and back to discussions and lectures from my introductory anthropology courses. Particularly, I recall discussing the remarkably racist ways in which the concepts of ethnicity, culture, gender, and race were both understood and manipulated by some of the founding thinkers and researchers, who were predominantly (if not entirely) white males, and, in many ways, performed as a means to reinforce both the sexist and racist views held by mainstream society at the time. For the most part this line of thought was brought on by the sentence in the opening bit of summary, “Modern connotations have frequently been projected and superimposed on the ancient evidence (Schneider 2006 ).” (Schneider, 143).  Although I do believe that researchers and the field as a whole has moved towards a more objective/scientific approach, I wonder how heavily and how much of our conjecture and perhaps more well-supported understanding on the ideology and beliefs, especially as it pertains to race, foreignness, and otherness, of ancient Egyptians as a society is influenced by the modern views of recent and current researchers in the field. I think that it is crucial to strengthening the field of ancient Egyptian archaeology, and the field of archaeology and anthropology as a whole, to consider these questions as they pertain to our often unconscious bias and work to assure and form an inclusive and objective-as-possible understanding and working theory of ancient Egyptian society, ideology, and cultural beliefs, especially as it pertains to ethnicity, race, and other forms of cultural identification.