Six - The Birth of a Kin Group

Summary

Chapter 6 uses ANOC 12 as a case study for a kin group in the initial stages of its developmental cycle, showing that such groups seek to be represented with high-ranking ones in order to accrue status and improve their social position. Stelae can be used both to promote kin groups and to encourage networking with other groups, but they do so through modes of display that need to be decoded if they are to be used as a source of social analysis. One of those modes of display was the use of filiation formulae, which should not be seen as a reflection of genealogical relatedness, but rather as a tool for self-presentation.

Mechanisms of group formation are not clear for ancient Egypt, but sources indicate that groups were probably cognatic and recognition of relatives was bilateral, despite a clear patrilineal bias. Group formation, as in many other cognatic societies, was probably not limited to relatedness by descent, but it could have been based on operational criteria mediated by practice. In this manner, different and complementary groups could have existed throughout a person’s lifetime. In fact, there seems to be a combination of ego-centred and ancestor-centred groups in monumental sources.