Title: Remembering Egypt: Historical Perspectives on the Social Construction of the Image of Egypt (original) (raw)

The complex development of the study of ancient Egypt by the West has been variedand not altogether synchronous with the contemporary Arabic investigations downthrough the ages. The modern discipline of Egyptology draws upon a wide range ofexpertise and sources: living traditions, archaeological excavations, museology, andreligious, Classical and Biblical texts. The Hellenistic and Coptic texts led to the rise of Antiquarianism and Hermeticism inparticular. Hermeticism is prevalent in the Arabic texts surviving from MedievalEgypt, and it also resulted in an investigative approach that influenced the firstEuropean scientific scholars of ancient Egypt. Inherent flaws, such as the almostexclusory focus upon king lists and religious texts to the neglect of cultural andlandscape theory and practice, exist within Egyptology. Although addressed to adegree from the 1980s onwards, these flaws are fixed within the public perception ofthe discipline. This has kept open the avenues for alternat...