Poverty, Stigma, and Inequality: Evidence from Middle Kingdom Egyptian Visual and Textual Culture

Maitland, Margaret

Poverty, Stigma, and Inequality: Evidence from Middle Kingdom Egyptian Visual and Textual Culture

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Abstract

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Maitland, Margaret

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Abstract

Representations from ancient Egyptian visual and textual culture offer insights into social attitudes, suggesting that inequality and poverty were normalized in elite culture as part of the 'natural order' of the world. Visual representations of labourers were typically either standardized to show their conformity under elite authority or negatively stereotyped to demonstrate their social difference and potential deviance, which served to justify elite control. Th justification of power for some and poverty for others underpinned the structural basis of inequality in ancient Egypt. Characteristics associated with poverty, such as nakedness and infirmity, were stigmatized, while others associated with labourers in general, such as dirtiness and lack of self-control were used to indicate their social inferiority. The dehumanizing and 'othering' of labourers would have restricted the choices and opportunities available to them. Informed by sociological theory and poverty studies, this paper will focus on a case study from the late Eleventh Dynasty tomb chapel of Baqet III at Beni Hassan, in particular its scenes of the rendering of accounts and punishment of tax defaulters. Using this and other examples from Middle Kingdom elite visual and textual culture, this paper will consider how social attitudes towards poverty were cultivated to stigmatize, shame, and disempower the lower classes. While these attitudes could sometimes be resisted or subverted, they ultimately served to maintain the social status quo.