Race Before 'Whiteness
Studying Identity in Ptolemaic Egypt
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2299798 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Denise Eileen Mccoskey (0000-0003-2914-5425, Miami University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 13-39 |
| Publication date | 2002-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0896-9205 • E-ISSN: 1569-1632 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/08969205020280010401 |
| OpenAlex | W2157366808 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 25 |
This paper examines the models classical historians and papyrologists use to study Greek and Egyptian identity during the period of Greek occupation of Egypt (332-30 B.C.E.). Employing the concept of ethnicity, some scholars have recently emphasized the fl uidity with which identity seems to operate in colonial documents from the Ptolemaic period. In particular, scholars argue that these documents attest to the increasing ability of certain “native Egyptians” to act as “Greek” in various administrative and legal contexts. While fi nding this recent use of ethnicity productive in grappling with the complexity of identity as a form of social practice in Ptolemaic Egypt, I nonetheless caution against over-emphasizing the role of context and individual agency within this colonial framework. In contrast, I argue that the concept of race should be added to current models to allow historians of this period to situate certain performances within a larger colonial structure that continued to treat the categories of “Greek” and “Egyptian” as conceptually distinct and indeed representative of inverse positions of social power
Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Ethnic group · Explanatory power · Identity (music · Period (music · Power (physics · Race (biology · Social science · Sociology · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Anthropology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Classical Antiquity Studies · Gender Studies · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Philosophy
Life in Egypt under Roman rule
Before color prejudice
Blacks in antiquity
Writing, Teachers and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt
Aufstieg Und Niedergang Der Romischen Welt
Egyptian Scribes writing Greek
Egypt after the Pharaohs, 332 B. C.-A. D. 642
Egypt after the Pharaohs. 332 BC-AD 642, from Alexander to the Arab Conquest
Images of Gods and Men in a Changing Society
The Ptolemaic King as a Religious Figure
Race Relations in the Early Roman Empire
Introduction
Racial Prejudice in Imperial Rome
Greeks in Ptolemaic Egypt
Theocritus. Select Poems
Ptolemaios and the ‘Lighthouse’
Becoming Roman, staying Greek
Papyrology and Ptolemaic History
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,82 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2025 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |