Judicial Practices, Kinship and State in The Contendings of Horus and Seth

CAMPAGNO, MARCELO

Zeitschrift fur Agyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde

Agyptologisches Institut der Leipzig Universitat

Lugar: Leipzig, Alemania; Año: 2006 vol. 133 p. 20 - 33

0044-216X

Ancient Egyptian society -like other societies in the Ancient World- was organized by two different but coexisting logics, related, respectively, to kinship and the State. The presence of these two logics is not only visible in the context of social practices but also in the gods’ world accounts, since the characteristics of the divine sphere used to be modelled on earthly world practices. In this sense, an analysis of the judicial practices described in The Contendings of Horus and Seth (pChester Beatty I) -a tale in which both gods litigate for the right to receive the Egyptian kingship before a divine court-, might provide us with some ideas about the Ancient Egyptian judicial dynamics. However, the judicial scenario of The Contendings seems to be quite different from the New Kingdom State judicial courts. We will suggest that this divergence is due to the fact that judicial practices in the tale are not only organized by the State logic but mainly by the kinship logic, which provides another way of solving conflicts.