Anxieties about Race in Egyptology and Egyptomania, 1890–1960

Date: 

Thursday, April 6, 2017, 6:00pm

Location: 

Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Race, Representation and Museums Lecture Series

Donald Reid, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Georgia State University; Affiliate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, University of Washington

Despite ideals of scientific and scholarly objectivity, both Egyptologists and non-specialists have often projected their own racial anxieties onto ancient Egypt. Recurrent attempts to prove that the ancient Egyptians were white or black, for example, reveal more about modern societies than about ancient Egypt. Donald Reid will discuss the history of how such debates have played out among Western and modern Egyptian scholars, artists, and writers, and how interpretations of ancient Egypt are intertwined with personal values.

Free and open to the public

Presented in collaboration with the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture and the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.

 

See also: Public Lectures