10 - The abominations of the Egyptians

Summary

The civilisation of ancient Egypt developed in the fertile valley of the Nile where a natural form of irrigation was provided by the annual flooding of the river. The land was highly productive, yielding an agricultural surplus which permitted the growth of temples, palaces and an abundance of crafts, including that of the scribe. But the area of cultivation was limited in extent, the division between the desert and the sown being very sharp and allowing little room for the expansion of agricultural activities, and not much for hunting, gathering and pastoralism, except of a very extensive kind.

This society was marked by some features that bear directly upon our discussion. Differentiation was great and based largely but not exclusively on the control of land, a highly scarce resource. Yet as in Sri Lanka, land was inherited not only by men but by women, associated with a similar ‘bilateral’ system of kinship, an absence of important unilineal descent groups such as clans and lineages. At the same time the position of women was in many respects very favourable. But one striking feature of domestic life was that marriage was permitted, even encouraged, between brother and sister, whose union has often been considered prohibited by a universal taboo on ‘incest’, that is, on sexual relations within the elementary family of father, mother, daughter and son.

Incest and Egypt

It is unnecessary to go into the types of theory on incest.