My first foray into both of my fields of study at the same time: Public Health in Ancient Egypt
Here’s the abstract:
Most studies of health and illness in ancient Egypt concentrate on disease and other maladies affecting individuals and the medical treatments administered to individuals. However, the concept of public health has received comparatively little attention, largely because the practice of public health has been seen as a fairly modern phenomenon tied to purely scientific notions of the sources and causes of illness and disease and their prevention. Nevertheless, even in the absence of a true germ theory of disease, the ancient Egyptians did possess an understanding of the social context in which many disease conditions occurred and took steps to prevent and alleviate certain conditions at a group level. From fairly basic public health practices, such as the removal of trash to peripheral locations, to reasonably sophisticated theories on the origin of disease and the widespread promulgation of preventive practices, ancient Egypt shows that even in pre-scientific complex societies an awareness of the social context of health and disease existed. Egypt and other ancient societies developed strategies to deal with health and wellness on a community and national level and thus are amenable to study using modern public health theory.
So, whaddayathink?
Do it! We need more work like this. Almost all of the stuff written to date about Ancient Egypt is about every imaginable aspect of dynastic and upper class life. I think we’ve flogged that topic to death (or into another mummified state). A shift in focus to discuss how the common people lived is a long-neglected aspect of Ancient Egyptian life, thought and culture.
Comment by Bill — October 4, 2012 @ 12:01 pm