posted
It is extremely difficult to provide an accurate assessment and understanding of Ancient Egypt to contemporary audiences who live under the sway of contemporary patriarchal and European ideological dominance:
Some absurdities
a) The Queen Mother and their progeny, the Queens, who were the determiners of the heirs to the throne, are reduced in contemporary patriarchal social ideology, to becoming mere 'wives', oftentimes 'promoted' from commoners to become 'royal' - a complete and totally subjective fiction!
b) Emphasis is always placed on the Kings of Ancient Egypt, who could, we are led to believe, willy nilly pick and choose his Chief wife; you know like the English Kings did...
c) Research on the familial relations of Tutankhamen also reflect this subjective bias; was Tutankhamen the son of Ikhnaten?, whereas in Ancient Egyptian society, the question would be was Tutankhamen the son of the Queen and therefore, the Queen Mother?
...Another example of the legitimacy of the throne
The restoration of legitimacy from its seat of origin (eKush, Ethosh, Ta Nahas), was a constant throughout the long history of Kemet and was never about 'conquest' but restoration.
The most chronicled instance of this was the 18th dynastic restoration following the defeat of the 'Hyksos' (hek khasu) which was led, again from its southern seat of origin, by the Tau clan (Queen Tetisheri and her husband Skenenre Tau) and formally established by the Yoh clan; Yoh - the Queen Mother and her son Yohmes (son of the Moon) becoming the first king of the 18th dynasty...
Unless and until we have regurgitated all of the European garbage that we have been force-fed, the true history of Ancient Egypt shall remain suspended in the Twilight Zone...
Notes: Tau - 'bread cake' Yoh - 'moon' Piankhi - 'the living one' (the beatified, the anointed,...) Pinahasi - 'the Sudani' (foreign Black, the 'legitimate' one; ie, 'founder of the excellent order') Hek Khasu - 'foreign rulers'
(Pinahasi, popular Mtau Ntr name, became Phineas in Hebrew; it means 'Oracle' in Hebrew)
Posts: 3344 | From: Berkeley | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
^ Not that I disagree, but in defense of Western scholars I will say that the reason why they called royal women 'wives' and not 'queens' is because that was what the Kemetians themselves called them. As I understand, there was no actual word in mdu-neter equivalent to 'queen' since the ruler was usually male. Egyptian royal women were given a number of titles including 'Great Ladies' or 'Wives of Pharoah' if they were his wives. The highest ranked ladies were 'Chief Wife' or primary wife of pharaoh and 'Mother of Pharaoh'. The Chief Wife symbolized Hethur (Hathor) while the Mother of Pharaoh symbolized Aset (Isis). Again, not to disagree about ascent to the throne through marriage of a royal lady, but what other evidence that the Kemetians were overall matrilineal? I mean why do you suggest family or clan founders were women and not men, since there is still debate about this in Egyptology? What of the Uakha clan of the 12th dynasty? Or there any examples of other ruling clans?
Just to tie this with the recent issue of King Tut. We know that his wife, the royal lady he wed, was the daughter of his father Akhenaton and that of Nefertiti and thus his sister, but we don't know if it was his half-sister or full-blooded sister since it is not yet certain if Nefertiti was also his mother.
By the way in your definition of Pinahasi, how can one be legitimate if one is 'foreign'?
Posts: 26260 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:The localized matrilineage tracing descent from a known common female ancestor for a period of 10 to 12 generations is the basic unit for political, legal, and ritual purposes. Succession and inheritance rules stress sex, generation, and age, with men having precedence over women, "brothers" over "sisters' sons," and senior over junior. Consistent with the emphasis on matrilineal descent is the fact that the system of kinship terminology is of the Crow type.
Contrary to the views of some earlier writers, the Ashanti do not have a true double descent system. While there are groupings in which membership is transmitted patrilineally, these are neither exogamous nor corporate groups, nor are jural or political rights or duties derived from paternal descent. What is involved is the concept of ntoro, the male transmitted ntoro (spirit) which forms a unique spiritual bond between father and son. Following this principle, every person belongs to one of a limited number of named quasi-ritual categories, the ntoro divisions. Members of the same ntoro division are required to observe certain taboos, perform certain rituals, and are believed to have some common personality characteristics.
Marriage restrictions include matrilineal sib exogamy and a prohibition on marriage between the descendants of a man in the male line up to the fourth generation. The ideal marriage is with either cross-cousin, although there is a preference, for men, for marriage with a mother's brother's daughter (wofa ba). Again, marriage with a member of one's own village or chiefdom is preferred to marriage with an "outsider." Polygyny is permitted, but in modern times at least, some 80 percent of all married man have only one wife at a time. Chiefs may have a large number of wives, but commoners rarely have more than three...
posted
^ Interesting, though the Egyptians were not Akan. I will agree that ascent to the throne was definitely matrilineal. A good example would be the 19th dynasty known popularly in Egyptology as the Ramassides. It is always brought up how little is known of the family origins except that they arose from the military and were likely of Delta origin; however, this was specifically among the paternal line. If one looked at the maternal line, it is obvious that the matriarch of the 19th dynasty was non other than Ankhesenamun II, likely sister of Tut's wife Ankhesenamun I.
Posts: 26260 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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