Las mujeres de la elite en el Reino Antiguo, ¿un grupo social incapaz de actuar?

Abstract

During the Old Kingdom, we can observe numerous instances of female tomb owners, who constituted the center of the iconographic and textual program of tombs and individual chapels. Thus, these women from the elite may have had some social power related to their status, as well as an autonomous capacity of ostentation, both elements that were linked to male qualities. Although various scenes were directly integrated, without any change, in those tombs where the major figure was a feminine one, some adaptations were sometimes needed, proving that gender specificities influenced the type of activity depicted. Indeed, the aim of this paper will be to analyze these gender qualities on the basis of the iconography, and especially through the “marsh scenes”, as well as to question the dichotomy between action/masculine and inaction/feminine.