Ancient Egyptian Culture Essays -- History, Ancient Egyptian Society

Ancient Egypt was a fascinating and complex place. Luckily for historians, Egyptians had made great strides in record keeping which have made studying their culture and society easier than some previous historical eras. Ancient Egyptians were a people who were intensely religious, deeply divided by gender roles and a strong hierarchy, and quite advanced for their period in terms of their technological and economic innovations. Egyptians were deeply religious, and religion played a role in nearly all aspects of their daily lives. When the ancient Egyptians experienced periods of peace and prosperity, they attributed credit for the success to their deities (Slaughter, 5). The Egyptians experienced centuries of remarkable stability and considered this state to be the ma’at, which was Egyptian for the â€Å"natural order† (Slaughter, 5). Even though they considered good order and balance in their society to be natural, it had to be protected by the pharaoh, who was considered to have been born mortal but imbued with godhood upon receipt of the throne, and was expected to be an earthly presence of the divine (Slaughter, 5). His religious standing gave the pharaoh a unique legal and authoritative position in ancient Egyptian culture. The pharaoh was expected to defend the nation, take responsibility for all administrative duties, declare all of the laws, and own all of the land (Slaughter, 5). For practical reasons, much of the pharaoh’s responsibilities were delegated to a bureaucracy (Slaughter, 5). Within this bureaucracy, staffed mostly by men, success was measured by the degree to which a person promoted order and prosperity within their stewardship (Slaughter, 5-6). Ancient Egypt had a strong social hierarchy, where a small group of... ...rmenting barley and wheat in a similar fashion to modern methods (Discussion, Tad Gale.) Their engineering feats were also impressive, and ranged from the technical prowess that showed itself in their massive pyramids, to the mastery of physics involved in developing advanced chariots that ran faster, quieter, and more stable than their counterparts created by their enemies (Discussion, Blair Vanderlugt). The nature of ancient Egyptian society was quite unique for its time period. Egyptian culture was distinct from neighboring nations, and Egyptians had many advantages that gave them an edge politically and commercially. They were committed to their religion, which touched their lives in nearly every way, they had strong gender and class differences that made them a very divided society, and they had a high degree of expertise in engineering and similar fields.