Ethnicity and Changing Relationships Between Egyptians and South Levantines During the Early Dynastic Period

CAMPAGNO, MARCELO

Toulouse, Francia

Congreso; Second International Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt; 2005

Archéo-NIL AEMP

Interethnic relations in State contexts imply a remarkably complex matter, since criteria about the inside and the outside introduced by the State – which coincide with the territory subjected to its political control – can influence in diverse ways the pre-existing criteria of ethnicity. Within this frame, this analysis intends to consider one of the several interethnic relations in which the Egyptians were involved in early times: the relationship with Canaanites during the Early Dynastic Period. In the course of this period, and in parallel with the State elaboration of a defined model of ethnicity, the relations with Canaan will know an initial phase of intense interaction, followed by another phase of Egyptian withdrawal and drastic reduction of contacts. Is there any link between that clear variation in the Egypt-Canaan relations and the tightening of Egypt’s State and ethnic limits?