Revisiting Ancient Societies of the Harappan and Egyptian Civilizations: Anthropological Perspectives

Abstract

The history of ancient Harappan and Egyptian civilizations was and still an area of interest attracting researchers and scholars all over the world, to investigate the constituents and the hidden secrets of such great civilizations. Undoubtedly, archaeology is standing as the main science concerned with studying the cultural products of ancient societies, especially the material culture represented by all physical remains whether organic or inorganic ones. However, there are certain drawbacks associated with the extensive use of archaeological methods only. Consequently, this project seeks to use additional tools, methods, and approaches that would open new dimensions of investigation and analysis. This could be attained by adopting the anthropological perspective as the main entrance for revisiting the ancient Harappan and Egyptian civilizations differently. This does not mean that anthropology is an alternative to archaeology, but both are complementary to each other. Owing to various approaches used under the umbrella of anthropology like; ethno-archaeology, bio-archaeology, bio-culture, ethnography approaches etc. Anthropological perspectives have the ability to study cultural, social and biological dimensions of different societies like Harappan and Egyptian, whether recent or ancient. Consequently, the present study objective is to utilize the anthropological methods to help filling these gaps, which are persisted in the knowledge of ancient Harappan and Egyptian civilizations. Especially those issues related to; kingship, administration, kinship, political and socio-cultural life, environment, religion, dress, gender, human body in funerary and medical treatments, funerary populations, grave gods, fertility, birth, child-care, health, hygiene, studies on human skeletons, and everyday life. That is to mean that all human- mediated processes and events would be included within the scope of this project regarding anthropology.