Description: Lecture, three hours; discussions, one hour. Exploration of how racial hierarchies are created and maintained within context of ancient Egyptian culture. Race of ancient Egyptians is still at stake and tied to larger issues of racial and ethnic inequalities, prejudices, and oppression. Examination of modern issues invites comparison with conception of race in ancient world, which was not necessarily equivalent to our own. By consulting diverse group perspectives, including those of early scholars, contemporary anthropologists, Afrocentrist scholars and artists, Hebrew Bible, ancient Egyptian evidence, and ancient Nubian evidence, conception of race is revealed to be complex, fluid, and contradictory. These conceptions were and are used to construct variety of equally contradictory hierarchies, often based on same evidence. P/NP or letter grading.

Units: 4.0