Chapter 10 What Was a Za?

In: Rethinking Ancient Egypt
Author:
Mark Lehner
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Chapter
Pages:
169–195
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004708402_011

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Abstract

Stemming from Ann Roth’s Egyptian Phyles in the Old Kingdom: The Evolution of a System of Social Organization, I offer the hypothesis that the early Egyptian sodality designated by the term za, which Egyptologists translate as “phyle,” originated in age-set systems such as were endemic in East Africa in more recent centuries. I show similarities between features of age-set systems in East and southern Africa and features Ann Roth outlined for za-initiation and membership. I review how African states transformed age-set systems into regiments for military and labor purposes, focusing on Shaka Zulu’s expansion in the nineteenth century C.E. as a possible comparison for how the early Egyptian state may have transformed the za-system during the Naqada system expansion, with reference to recent research that shows early Egypt’s emergence more from East Africa rather than the Near East.

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Rethinking Ancient Egypt

Studies in Honor of Ann Macy Roth

Series:  Harvard Egyptological Studies, Volume: 22
Cover Rethinking Ancient Egypt
E-Book ISBN:
9789004708402
Publisher:
Brill
Print Publication Date:
24 Sep 2024
Front Matter
Part 1 New Interpretations
Part 2 Rethinking Methodologies
Part 3 New Evidence
Back Matter

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