Table of Contents
List of figures
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Overview of the chapters
2. Ethnicity, gender and class in Greco-Roman Egypt
1. Women’s social status in Greco-Roman Egypt
1.1 The status of girls
1.2 Coming of age
1.3 Adult women
1.4 Old women
1.5 Women’s legal status in Greco-Roman Egypt
1.6 Preliminary conclusions
2. The role of midwives in Dynastic and Greco-Roman Egypt
2.1 Midwives in the Dynastic period
2.2 Change and continuity in the Greco-Roman Period
2.3 Preliminary conclusions
3. Childbirth and domestic cults in Greco-Roman Egypt
3.1 Protection of the birthing room and the domestic space
3.2 Votive images of women
3.3 Bes and his companions
3.4 Preliminary conclusions
4. The liminal status of the unborn and the newborn child in Greco-Roman Egypt
4.1 The unborn in Dynastic Egypt
4.2 The medical and philosophical debates: is the unborn a human being? When does the ensoulment happen?
4.3 The unborn and the newborn among ordinary people: the uses of magic
4.4 Social recognition of children observed through the burial practices
4.5 The legal recognition of unborn and newborn children
4.6 Preliminary conclusions
5. Pollution and purification in women’s reproduction
5.1 Pollution and purity
5.2 Pollution of menstruation
5.3 Pollution from childbirth and postpartum
5.4 Preliminary conclusions
6. Childbirth, menstruation and domestic space in Greco-Roman Egypt
6.1 Housing in Greco-Roman Egypt: the sources
6.2 A discussion on a possible gendered division of the house in Greco-Roman Egypt
6.3 Menstruation and childbirth in domestic contexts 6.4 Preliminary conclusions
7. Conclusions
7.1 Reproductive processes and a synthesis of cultures in Greco-Roman Egypt
7.2 Changes in the social status of women and children from the Dynastic to the Greco-Roman Period
7.3 Scope for future research
Index
