Overview

This book explores the role of material culture in the formation of corporeal aesthetics and beauty ideals in different past societies and thus contributes to the cultural relativisation of bodily aesthetics and related gender norms. The volume does not explore beauty for the sake of beauty, but extensively explores how it serves to form and keep gender norms in place. The concept of beauty has been a topic of interest for some time, yet it is only in recent times that archaeologists have begun to approach beauty as a culturally contingent and socially constructed phenomenon. Although archaeologists and ancient historians extensively dealt with gender, they dealt less with it in relation to beauty. The contributions in this volume deal with different intersections of gender and corporeal aesthetics by turning to rich archaeological, textual and iconographic data from ancient Sumer, Aegean Bronze Age, ancient Egypt, ancient Athens, Roman provinces, the Viking world and the Qajar Iran. Beauty thus moves away from a curiosity and surface of the body to an analytic concept for a better understanding of past and present societies. AUTHOR: Uroš Matic is a research associate of the Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, specialising in Egyptian archaeology, especially the topics of foreign relations, settlement archaeology, violence and gender. He holds a PhD from the Institute for Egyptology and Coptic Studies of the University of Muenster (Germany) since 2017. His most recent monographs include Body and Frames of War in New Kingdom Egypt. Violent Treatment of Enemies and Prisoners (2019), Ethnic Identities in the Land of the Pharaohs. Past and Present Approaches in Egyptology (2020) and Violence and Gender in Ancient Egypt (2021).

Full Product Details

Author:   Uroš Matić
Publisher:   Oxbow Books
Imprint:   Oxbow Books
ISBN:  

9781789257717

ISBN 10:   1789257719
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   15 January 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Contributors Preface   1. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: an introduction to gender and corporeal aesthetics in the past Uroš Matić 2. The Queen’s beauty: leadership as an aesthetic and embodied practice in ancient Mesopotamia Helga Vogel 3. Beauty treatments and gender in Pharaonic Egypt: masculinities and femininities in public and private spaces Uroš Matić 4. An unknown ancient Egyptian tool (for wig maintenance?) Kira Zumkley 5. Fresco, fresco on the wall... changes in ideals of beauty in the Late Bronze Age Aegean Filip Franković 6. Gender, perfume and society in ancient Athens Isabelle Algrain 7. Mirrors in the funerary contexts of Moesia Superior: Roman hegemony, beauty and gender Vladimir D. Mihajlović 8. Looking for trouble: beautiful bodies in Viking Age Scandinavia, c. 750 to 1050 AD Bo Jensen 9. From moon-faced amrads to farangi-looking women: beauty transformations from the 19th to early 20th century in Iran   Mariam Dezamkhooy 10. Afterword: a deep time perspective on bodily beauty   Katharina Rebay-Salisbury

Reviews

[T]he volume is well-illustrated and images are both high quality and relevant to the discussions. Archaeological data, for example the list of tools studied by Zumkley, is presented clearly and thoroughly. * Archaeological Review from Cambridge *

The volume is well-illustrated and images are both high quality and relevant to the discussions. Archaeological data, for example the list of tools studied by Zumkley, is presented clearly and thoroughly. * Archaeological Review from Cambridge *

Author Information

Uroš Matić is a research associate of the Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, specializing in Egyptian archaeology, especially the topics of foreign relations, settlement archaeology, violence and gender. He holds a PhD from the Institute for Egyptology and Coptic Studies of the University of Muenster (Germany) since 2017. His most recent monographs include Body and Frames of War in New Kingdom Egypt. Violent Treatment of Enemies and Prisoners (2019), Ethnic Identities in the Land of the Pharaohs. Past and Present Approaches in Egyptology (2020) and Violence and Gender in Ancient Egypt (2021).

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