TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender and Oracular Practice in Deir el-Medina
AU - Sweeney, Deborah
N1 - Funding Information:
1 This research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant no. 815/05), as part of a research project on Gender and Religious Practice in the Village of Deir el-Medîna. It is loosely based on a paper given at the workshop ‘From Sumer to the Genizah: Diplomatics and Legal Documents in the Ancient World’ at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 11 – 13 March, 2007. Many thanks to Professor Anthony Spalinger and Dr. Arlette David for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article, and to Orit Mendelson for the drawing in fig. 1.
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Both men and women consulted the oracle of Amenhotep I in Deir el-Medîna, but women seldom appear in texts and images generated by oracular consultations. Most texts mentioning women refer to property matters; the same is true for men, but issues relating to the men's professional lives, such as wages and appointments, are not mentioned in connection with women. O Berlin P 10629, where a woman consults the oracle in a property dispute with her family, is a particularly intriguing text. If the goods the plaintiffs mother took away from her are family property, the petitioner is asking the oracle to confirm her future inheritance rights and establish the value of the objects. However, the family quarrel may be about whether the mother is making a false claim to the daughter's personal property, in which case the oracle is asked to establish the truth.
AB - Both men and women consulted the oracle of Amenhotep I in Deir el-Medîna, but women seldom appear in texts and images generated by oracular consultations. Most texts mentioning women refer to property matters; the same is true for men, but issues relating to the men's professional lives, such as wages and appointments, are not mentioned in connection with women. O Berlin P 10629, where a woman consults the oracle in a property dispute with her family, is a particularly intriguing text. If the goods the plaintiffs mother took away from her are family property, the petitioner is asking the oracle to confirm her future inheritance rights and establish the value of the objects. However, the family quarrel may be about whether the mother is making a false claim to the daughter's personal property, in which case the oracle is asked to establish the truth.
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SN - 0044-216X
VL - 135
SP - 154
EP - 164
JO - Zeitschrift fur Agyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde
JF - Zeitschrift fur Agyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde
IS - 2
ER -