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The Ancient Egypt civilization left an immense cultural legacy for humanity in the invention of the calendar, measurement tools, and development of applied mathematics. Furthermore, the remnants of the greatness of Ancient Egypt’s ruler were preserved in the great pyramids, still present in the modern world. While it is undeniable that civilization in Ancient Egypt made significant progress for the time, one could not question what resources allowed such progress. Thus, the greatness of the Ancient Egypt civilization may be insignificant if it was sourced from exploitative roots. This essay will explore how slavery supported Ancient Egypt civilization’s development progress, examine the presence of gender factors and define the role of exploitation in civilization’s nature.
Firstly, in order to understand the impact exploitation had on the progress of Ancient Egyptian civilization, one should explore the available facts about slave labor in Egypt’s daily life. The aspect of language used to operate the term ‘slave’ also provides valuable information about slavery in Ancient Egypt, as the term ‘slave’ referred to servants and people forced into labor. According to Zdziebłowski, slaves often worked in private homes as servants or in royal staff as hairdressers or gardeners. Initially, slaves were presented by foreigners and war captives, but with the development of the slave trade, free citizens could also be captured and sold into slavery. Even local residents who suffered adverse outcomes of an unstable economy and found themselves in debt were forced into slave labor to cover their debts. Slaves had the right to own private property, and evidence suggests that some were married to Egyptian women (Zdziebłowski). Thus, compared to other more inhumane cases of slavery involving racial discrimination, slavery in Egypt focused more on maintaining the workforce to enable the development of society and support the economy.
Next, the slavery system in Egypt consisted of many different layers and types of coerced labor, where some people were born into slavery others sold themselves for bonded labor. Considering the role of gender in this complicated system, women in Ancient Egypt generally had almost equal rights to men, but in slavery, they were presented as property. Therefore, the owner of woman slave working in the household could father her children and arrange her marriage, but also provided her with protection and paid her dowry (Karev and Richardson). Thus, while slavery in Ancient Egypt limited women’s opportunities, they had almost equal rights and occupation with men, contrary to other cases of slavery where women were valued for their reproductive labor.
Lastly, considering the role of labor exploitation in civilization’s nature, the exploitation of slave labor is sourced in the increased need to provide products and services for a growing population. Once the group of people unites to provide safety for their settlement and divides the labor, the population starts to grow and its labor needs grow proportionately. The exploitation of foreign military prisoners’ labor resulted from a combination of regular fights between neighboring groups for resources and a growing need for labor. Furthermore, slave labor allowed the faster accumulation of wealth and more effective development of civilization. Thus, while exploitation of labor is not necessarily captured in the nature of civilization, it allows faster progress for society’s development.
Therefore, in defining whether Ancient Egypt should be remembered as a great or exploitative civilization, this paper analyzed the available facts and determined that coerced labor provided services and goods for society. The economy of Egypt was not fully founded on the exploitation of labor and there were different levels and types of slavery. Furthermore, slavery was focused more on attracting and maintaining a workforce, which implies a limitation of rights but not their complete absence. Thus, remembering Ancient Egypt as a great civilization does not mean that it was not exploitative or that slavery in Ancient Egypt was less violent. However, the exploitation of labor in Egypt targeted the elimination of risks of starvation, homelessness, and other negative outcomes of an unstable economy.
Works Cited
Karev, Ella, and Seth Richardson. “Rethinking Slavery in the Ancient Near East.”The Ancient Near East Today, vol. 9, no. 10, 2021.
Zdziebłowski, Szymon. “Egyptologist: The Life of Slaves in Egypt Was Not as Hard as We Think.” Science in Poland, 2018. Web.
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