Rune Nyord

The origins of Egyptology as an academic discipline in the late 19 th century were rooted in anthropology. During the mid-to late-20th century, however, an increasingly isolated Egyptology emerged from the growing professionalization of these two fields and the specialization of Egyptologists into progressively narrower sub-disciplines. While there were some notable attempts by a few Egyptologists during this time to increase the engagement between Egyptology and anthropology, they remained resolutely separate, with Egyptology generally privileging cultural-historical approaches over the broader theoretical discussions that occupied researchers in anthropology. However, in a current academic climate that stresses the value of interdisciplinarity, there has been an increasing trend among Egyptologists to adopt a more outward-looking stance and reconnect their work to conversations in related disciplines by making use of anthropological frameworks. While attitudes to this development and the potential rewards it may bring are still divided within the field of Egyptology, such approaches have the potential to improve our understandings both of Egyptian material and of the discipline of Egyptology itself. This symposium will explore some of the recent developments in the use of anthropological theory in Egyptology, critically examining the advances such methods can offer to the understanding of a variety of Egyptian material, what potential problems the encounter between traditionally separate academic traditions may bring, and what contribution Egyptology may offer debate in the broader social sciences. We encourage scholars from a variety of sub-disciplines (including those that traditionally have had little interaction with anthropology or Egyptology) to share their research, to facilitate a broad-based conversation about the place of anthropological theory in Egyptology and its future direction.