Hair and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Egypt JARCE 36-1999-Pp. 55-69

Hair and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Egypt, c. 1480-1350 B.C. Author(s): Gay Robins Source: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 36 (1999), pp. 55-69 Published by: American Research Center in Egypt Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40000202 Accessed: 12/06/2010 12:19 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=arce. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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Hair and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Egypt, c. 1480-1350 B.C.1 Gay Robins

Introduction Beginning at birth, the identity of individuals, an amalgam of age, gender, social status and role, has to be constructed in accordance with the norms of the social systemthey inhabit. This identity changes over time not only in the transitions from one life stage to the next, but also with the various roles a person may play at any given life stage. A number of means may be employed to construct identity and mark the shifts between life stages or between different roles. These can be verbal, as in modes of address;behavioral, as in the way individuals interact; or displayedon the body, as in circumcision, scarification or dress. In many societies human hair too has been and still is highly charged with meaning. Not only can it carry erotic, religious and magical significance, but the way in which it is worn often encodes information about gender, age, and social status.2Since in many societies, although by no means all, the body is usually covered by clothes, it is normally the head hair and the beard that have been and are subject to most attention, although body hair may be considered

undesirable and carefully removed. Head hair can be allowed to grow unrestricted;it can be shaved off; it can be cut to any length or lengths between these two extremes. It can also be arranged in more or less elaborate styles. Because head hair is so visible, what is done with it can be used to display information about the wearers, but the forms these various messages take will vary from one society to another, because they are culturally specific. People will readily read the meaning of different hairstyleswithin their own cultures, but will often be at a loss to interpret correctlythe hairstylesworn by people of other cultures. It follows, then, that anyone studying an unfamiliar society will have to set out consciouslyto discoverthe significanceof the different hairstylesemployed in that society. Myaim in this paper is to examine the waysin which head hair was worn in ancient Egypt, and to consider how it might have helped construct social identity. Because ancient Egyptiansociety, despite its more than 3000 yearsof culturalcontinuity,was not unchanging, I shall restrictmy enquiry to a period of approximatelyone hundred and thirtyyearsfrom c. 1480-1350 B.C.,in order to obtain a relativelycoherent body of material.3

1 A version of this articlewas P. Hershman, "Hair,Sex and Dirt,"Man 9 (1974), 274-98; given as a paper at the 1996 ARCEannual meeting in St. Louis. I would like to thank Edmund Leach, "MagicalHair,"Journalof theRoyalAnthroMichelle Marcusfor reading an earlier draft and for useful pologicalInstitute88 (1958), 147-64; GananathObeyesekere, commentsand suggestions. Medusa's Head. An Essay on Personal Symbolsand Religious Ex1 For hair in general, see Charles Berg, The Unconscious perience(Chicago: Chicago UniversityPress, 1981); Marcia Pointon, "The Case of the Dirty Beau: Symmetry,Disorder Significance ofHair(London:Allen and Unwin, 1951);J. D. M. and the Politicsof Masculinity," in: KathleenAdlerand MarDerrett, "ReligiousHair,"Man 8 (1973), 100-103; Raymond Firth, "Hairas PrivateAsset and Public Symbol,"in: Symbols cia Pointon (eds.), TheBodyImaged(Cambridge:Cambridge PublicandPrivate(Ithaca,NewYork:CornellUniversityPress, UniversityPress,1993), 175-89. 3 For 1975), 262-98; ChristopherHallpike, "SocialHair,"Man 4 aspects of hair in ancient Egypt, see Philippe Der(1969), 256-64; idem, "Hair,"in: Mircea Eliade (ed.), The chain, "Laperruque et le cristal,"Studienzur altdgyptischen Kultur2(1975), 55-74; Joann Fletcher,"ATaleof Hair,Wigs Encyclopedia ofReligion(NewYork:Macmillan,1987), 154-57;

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The structure of ancient Egyptiansociety was organized by status, gender and, almost certainly, age. Broadlyspeaking the social hierarchy dividedinto the king, the elite, and the non-elite who formed the greatest part of the population. The elite group consisted of the literate, male officials who formed the administration, together with their families. The non-elite comprised the semi-literate and non-literate professionals, who provided goods and services for the elite; and the farmers, tenant farmers, and laborers who worked the fields and harvested the abundance of the marshes. Organizationby gender dictateddifferentroles for men and women within society. Among the elite, only men could hold government office, whereas women ran the household, bore and reared children, made music to accompanytemple ritual,and sometimesheld positionsat court.4 Non-elite men and women were both employed by the elite as household servantsand musicians, but women ideally played a far smaller role in outdoor labor.5 Organization by age divided the population into different age groups through which individuals would pass as they moved from one life stage to the next. The most obviousof such stages in any society are birth, puberty,adulthood, marriage, parenthood and death. Unfortunately,except for the passage through death to the next life, there is little evidence of how the ancient Egyptiansmarkedthe transferencefrom one life and Lice,"EgyptianArchaeology 5 (1994), 31-33; Joyce Haynes, "The Development of Women'sHairstylesin DynastyEigh8 teen,"Journalof theSociety for theStudyofEgyptianAntiquities LexikonderAgyptologie 2 (1977), 18-24; C. Miiller, "Friseur," (Wiesbaden:Otto Harrassowitz,1977), 331-32; idem, "Haar," LexikonderAgyptologie Lexikon 2, 924; idem, "Kahlkopfigkeit," derAgyptologie 3 (1980), 291-92; idem, "Periicke," Lexikonder A(1982), 988-90; Saphinaz-AmalNaguib,"Hairin Agyptologie Ancient Egypt,"Acta Orientalia51 (1990), 7-26; Georges Posener, "La legende de la tresse d'Hathor,"in: Leonard Lesko (ed.), Egyptological Studiesin Honorof RichardA. Parker (1986), 111-17; Elizabeth Riefstahl, "AnAncient Egyptian MuseumBulletin13 (1952), 7-16, "Two Hairdresser," Brooklyn Hairdressersof the Eleventh Dynasty," Journalof NearEastern Studies15 (1956), 10-17; Elisabeth Staehelin, "Bart," LexikonderAgyptologie 1 (1975), 627-28. For a wig workshop, see EwaLaskowska-Kusztal, "Unatelierder perruquiera Deir el-Bahari,"Etudeset Travaux10 (1978), 83-120. 4 Gay Robins, Womenin AncientEgypt(Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress,1993). 5 Ibid., 120-24.

stage to the next. Textual and representational evidence suggeststhat circumcisionmayhave signified the transitionfrom childhood for at least some boys.6 Evidence for an equivalent operation performed on girls, such as clitoridectomy, is lacking in texts and, if it had been performed, unlike circumcision,it would not be apparentin the art.7For both sexes, the biological effects of puberty in themselves denote the passage from childhood. Physicalevidence of hair, both natural and in the form of wigs made of human hair, survives from ancient Egypt. It shows that elite women could weareither their own long hair, sometimes supplemented by additional tresses,8 or a wig placed over their long hair,9whereas men kept their hair short or shaven,10 so that complex male hairstyleshad to be achievedthroughwigs.11 Nevertheless, such materialfails to show the full range of hairstylesfound in art; relates only to the elite group;and does not help us understand the wayhairstyleswere correlated with different social roles. Fortunately,far more information is provided by representational evidence, which shows interactions among figures of different age, gender, and social status. Our main visual 6 Constant de Wit, "La circoncision chez les anciens Egyptiens,"Zeitschrift fur dgyptischeSpracheund Altertumskunde99 (1972), 41-48; WolfhartWestendorf, "Beschneidung," LA 1 (1975), 727-29 with bibliography; Rosalind and Jac. Janssen, Growingup in AncientEgypt(London: The Rubicon Press, 1990), 90-97. 1 For the possibilityof such an operation in Ptolemaic Egypt, see John Baines, "Society,Morality,and Religious Practice,"in: ByronE. Shafer (ed.), Religionin AncientEgypt, Gods,Myths,and personalPractice(Ithaca and London: Cornell UniversityPress), 144 n. 59. 8 at E.g., H. E. Winlock, The Tombof QueenMeryet-Amun Thebes(NewYork:MetropolitanMuseumof Art, 1932), 9-10, pls. 13, 33; G. Elliot Smith, TheRoyalMummies(Cairo:Institut Francaisd'ArcheologieOrientale, 1912), nos. 60153-54, 61061, 61088, 61095;IwataroMorimoto,TheHumanMummies at Qurna,Egypt,Studiesin Egyptian fromthe1983 Excavations CultureNo. 2 (Tokyo:WasedaUniversity,1985), headsB, D-F. 9 Female mummies with wigs: e.g., Smith, RoyalMummies,nos. 61062, 61087,61090. 10Shaven heads: e.g., Smith, RoyalMummies,no. 61065; head A; short hair: e.g., Smith, Morimoto,HumanMummies, RoyalMummies,nos. 61066-67, 61069, 61073; IwataroMorimoto et al., AncientEgyptianMummies from Qurna,EgyptII, Studiesin EgyptianCultureno. 7 (Tokyo:WasedaUniversity, 1988), 2, fiffs.1-5. 11 Survivingmale wigs:e.g., Fletcher,EgyptianArchaeology 5 (1994), 32.

HAIR AND THE CONSTRUCTIONOF IDENTITYIN ANCIENT EGYPT sources are the monuments produced for the elite: their tomb chapels, stelae, and statues. In this paper,I shallconcentratemainlyon representationsfrom tomb chapels. Although built only by high-ranking male officials, such tomb chapels incorporated images of both male and female familymembers,as well as images of nonelite individuals,who left no monuments of their own; the scenes feature agricultural activities, animal husbandry,work in the marshes, workshops, and some household activities. Since the images on these monuments were manipulated to fit the elite world view, they may not always have coincided with actualpractice.They should, nevertheless, conform to prevailingideals about social identities and hierarchies. Children Severalvisual indicators,not all of which need be presentat once, distinguishprepubescentchildren from adults.12Children are depicted on a smaller scale; they are usually nude; they suck their index fingers; and most important for the purposes of this paper, their heads are shaved apartfrom a lock of hair that falls from the righthand side. This sidelock, worn by both girls and boys, occurs in several styles, either as a single braid or as a series of braidsor curls.13 Since children are conventionallyrepresented as naked,boysand girlslack the differentiationin dress that distinguishesgender in adults. Nevertheless, boys are usuallydepicted with the darker skin that is the markerof adult male status,and girls with the lighter skin of adult females. In some images, however, boys wear earrings and 12Because scale indicates importance, adult offspring and other figures of less importance than the tomb owner may be shown on a small scale. However, as adults, these figuresare clothed and wearadult hairstyles. 16Braid with curled end: tomb of "Nebamun," Arpag Makhitarian,La miseredes tombesthebains(Brussels:Fondation egyptologiquereine Elisabeth,1994), pl. 8 (boy); tomb of Paheri,J. J. Tylorand F. LI. Griffith,TheTombofPaheriat ElKab(London:EgyptExplorationFund, 1894), pl. 4 (boy), pl. 10 (sex unclear,no inscription);Boston MFA1981.2, Sue and Magic(Boston:Museumof Fine D'Auriaet al., Mummies Arts,1988), no. 80 (boy);BolognaKS1917,SilvioCurtoet al., nelVantico II SensodelVArte Egitto(Milan:Electa,1990), 103, 105 no. 52 (boy);statueof Senenmutand Neferura,Janssenand Janssen, Growingup in AncientEgypt,127 fig. 45 (girl); statue of Benermerut and Meritamun,Georges Legrain, Statueset

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below-the-elbow circlets that among adults are only worn by women,14so that the construction of gender for boysis somewhatambivalent.Thus, male gender seems to become fully constructed only with the transition to adulthood, when nudity and femalejewelry are abandoned, and hairstyles and clothes become gender specific. Since images of male children show them to be uncircumcised, circumcision may also have occurred as part of this same symbolicsystemto mark the transitionfrom one life stage to another.15 Although girls share nudity and hairstyleswith boys, they are represented with certain other traitsthat are characteristicof adult female gender, such as earrings, below-the-elbow circlets, hip girdles and light skin color. It seems to be the adoption of specific female hairstyles and dress that marksthe transitionfrom girlhood to womanhood. Statusdifferentiationis also less markedamong children than among adults. Although the king and his female relativesare clearlydistinguished from members of the elite class by the wearing of royal insignia, their offspring,when shown as prepubescentchildren, appearto be represented little differentlyfrom the offspring of the elite. Although children of the non-elite are usually shown with a shaven head only, without a sidelock, royal and elite children can also be shown in this way,so they are not clearly distinguished from the non-elite. Although non-elite children statuettesde rois et de particuliersII (Cairo:Institut Francais d'Archeologie Orientale, 1909), no. 42171 (girl); series of braids/curls:TT 52, Abdel Ghaffar Shedid and Matthias Seidel, Das GrabdesNacht(Mainzam Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1991), 60 (boy), 61 (girl); tomb of "Nebamun,"Nina M. Davies,AncientEgyptianPaintings(Chicago:Universityof Chicago Press, 1936), pl. 65 (girl?); Pierre Lacau, Stelesdu Nouvel Empire(Cairo:InstitutFrancaisd'ArcheologieOrientale, 1909), no. 34095 (two girls); LudwigBorchardt,Statuen und Statuettenvon Konigenund Privatleutenim Museumvon Kairo(Berlin:Reichsdruckerei,1930), no. 800 (girl);Arielle III Kozloff and Betsy Bryan,Egypt'sDazzlingSun:Amenhotep and his World(Cleveland:The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992), 292 (boy). Forthe mummyof a boy,probablya prince, with a shaven head and long flowing sidelock, see Smith, no. 61071. RoyalMummies, 14 E.g., TT 52, Shedid and Seidel, Das GrabdesNacht,60; TT 226, Norman de GarisDavies, TheTombsof MenkheperraandAnother(London: EgyptExplorationSosonb,Amenmose ciety, 1933), pl. 30E (naked with earrings, boys); tomb of "Nebamun," Mekhitarian,La misere,pl. 8. 15See n. 6.

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are not shown wearingjewelry, not all royal and elite children wearjewelry either in their depictions. Thus images of children that clearly mark a prepubescent stage of life differ from adult images in that they are only lightly marked for gender and status. Infant and childhood mortality were both high in ancient Egypt, as in most pre-modern societies.16Burialsof babies and veryyoung children tended to be poor in content, with old jars, baskets and chests reused as coffins. As they became older, children seem graduallyto have received more elaborateburialswith purpose-made coffins and an increasing amount of funerary equipment. This trend probablyreflects the fact that as they grow,children acquire a personality, getting to be recognizable as individuals,and become socialized, graduallylearning to fulfil their allotted role within the family and eventuallyin society as a whole. The more integrated into familyand society a child has become by the time of its death, the more care is likely to be taken over its burial. Children who survived to reach puberty,the age when a person becomes capable of reproduction, would have left childhood behind, passing into the next stage of life as an integrated member of society. Puberty marksa point when men and women are distinguishedbiologicallyto a far greater degree than as children. For boys, body hair becomes more prolific, growingon the chin, under the arms, and on the torso and pubic region. At the same time, seminal emissions begin to occur and bring the possibility of fathering children. For girls, body hair growsunder the armsand on the pubic triangle, and menstruation begins, a sign that conception is now possible. Elite adults, unlike children, are not shown nude, for only non-elite adults are unclothed, and in adulthood, nudity carries a connotation of lack of status.17Not only are adults clothed, however, 16

Gay Robins, "Women and Children in Peril: Pregnancy, Birth and Infant Mortality in Ancient Egypt," KMT, A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt5 no. 5 (Winter 1994-95), 27-28. See also Lynn Meskell, "Dying Young: The Experience of Death at Deir el Medina," ArchaeologicalReviewfrom Cambridge13 (1994), 35-45. 17 Gay Robins, "Dress, Undress and the Representation of Fertility and Potency in New Kingdom Egyptian Art," in: N. Kampen (ed.), Sexuality in Ancient Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 27-40.

but the clothes theywearserve to markthe wearer for gender (figs. 1-3). To reinforce the message conveyed by clothes, the types of hairstylesworn from puberty onwardsare also strongly marked for gender. Gone are the unisex styles of childhood, to be replaced by adult styles appropriate only to men or to women. Men Adult hairstyles, therefore, function both to signal a new life stage, and to help establishgender identity. In art, elite men, when depicted without a wig, and male household servantsboth have shaven heads.18The former, however,usually cover their heads with wigs, which may be elaboratelydressed, but which do not come below shoulder level. By contrast, elite women and female household servantsare represented with long hair falling below the shoulders, often to breastlevel. This difference in length applies also to the non-elite, although they are distinguished from the elite, in part, by their rather unkempt hair. In addition to distinguishing gender, adult male hairstylesalso helped to display and reinforce social status and hierarchies among men. For elite men, the most prestigious hairstylewas the shoulder-length wig, in which the hair is often elaborately arranged in strands, curls or braids.19It is worn by the high officials who owned tomb chapels, stelae and statues, as well as by their high-rankingmale relatives,including 18

Figures with shaven heads are often shown with a line marking the boundary between the face and the shaved part of the head. Sometimes the upper part of the head is the same color as the rest of the skin and sometimes paler, perhaps to indicate that this area was normally protected from the sun by a wig. In Old and Middle Kingdom art male figures are not shown with shaven heads but with a cap of close-cut hair outlined and painted black. In line drawings where the cap of hair and the shaven head are both rendered by outline only, the results often look very similar. 19 E.g., TT 38, Nina Davies, Scenesfrom Some Theban Tombs (Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1963), pls. 1-5 (all figures of tomb owner); TT 39, Norman de G. Davies, The TombofPuyemreat ThebesI- II (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 192223); TT 45, Norman de Garis Davies, Seven Private Tombsat Kurnah (London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1948), pls. 2, 4; TT 52, Shedid and Seidel, Das Grabdes Nacht, 18, 34-35, 5657, 74, 77 (nine out of ten surviving figures of tomb owner); TT 82, Nina Davies, The TombofAmenemhet(No. 82) (London:

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Fig. 1. The tombownerDjeserkarasenebmakesa ritual offeringfollowed by his wife and son. Threemoresons are shown in the upperregister.The otherfigures are not labelled;the two men in the middleregistermay beservants, and the threewomen in the bottomregisterare probablydaughters. TT 38, Davies, Scenes from Some Theban Tombs, pl. 1. Reproducedby kind permission of the GriffithInstitute.

their fathers.20 Adult sons, who were not only members of a younger generation but who were also likely to be junior to their fathers in the bureaucratic hierarchy, most frequently appear

Egypt Exploration Society, 1915), pls. 4, 14, 24, 27, 35; TT at Thebes 100, Norman de G. Davies, The Tombof Rekh-mi-re (New York:MetropolitanMuseumof Art, 1953), pls. 51, 63, 70, 73, 75, 77, 85, 95, 97, 103 (all survivingfigures of tomb owner); TT 343, Heike Guksch,Das GrabdesBenja,gen.Paheqamen.ThebenNr. 343 (Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1978), pls. 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 21, 24, 25 (all figuresof tomb owner); El Kab, Tylor and Griffith, TheTombof Paheriat El Kab,pls. 2, 4, 6, 9-10; Kozloff and Bryan, Egypt'sDazzling Sun, 38, 40, 41,43-44, 47. 20 E.g., TT 82, Davies, The Tombof Amenemhet, pl. 3 (vizier), pl. 7 (father, father's father, father's mother, wife's father(?), father of wife's father(?), brother of wife's father(?)); TT 100, Davies, TheTombofRekh-mi-re, pl. 109 (banquet guests); TT 181, Norman de GarisDavies, TheTombof TwoSculptors at Thebes(NewYork:The MetropolitanMuseum of Art, 1925), pl. 5 (banquetguests), pl. 17 (father);TT 343, Guksch, Das Grabdes Benja,frontispiece (father); El Kab, Tylorand Griffith,TheTombofPaheri,pl. 7 (father, mother's father).

in their fathers' tomb chapels with either a short, round wig or a shaven head (fig. 1). One of the most common scene types from tomb chapels shows the deceased owner, the most important figure in the decorative program, seated before a table of offerings; one of his sons or less often another male relative stands on the other side of the table, performing the offering ritual. This figure is usually depicted with a round wig or shaven head, whereas the chapel owner frequently wears the shoulder-length wig (fig. 2).21 This difference in hairstyle signifies the relative status and roles of the figures. Because the performer of the ritual was ideally the deceased's son, any male who enacted the part also undertook a filial (and hence junior) role in relationship to the deceased. In other words, the 21 E.g., TT 38, Davies,Scenes fromSomeThebanTombs, pl. 3; TT 45, Davies, SevenPrivate Tombs,pl. 2; TT 82, Davies, The Tombof Amenemhet, pl. 35; TT 100, Davies, The Tombof Rekh-mi-re, pl. 70; TT 112, Davies, The Tombsof Menkheperrasonb,pl. 24; TT 343, Guksch,Das GrabdesBenja,pl. 12; El Kab,Tylorand Griffith,TheTombofPaheri,pl. 6.

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Fig. 2. The tombownerPaheri and his wife Henuternehehsit while their son performsthe offeringritual for them.El Kab, Tylorand Griffith,The Tomb of Paheri, pl. 6. Reproducedby kind permission of the EgyptExploration Society.

shoulder-lengthwig establishes the senior status of the deceased, while the round wig or shaven head marks the junior status of the performer of the ritual. This relationship is also embodied in the posture of the participants: visual and textual evidence indicates that sitting (here the position of the deceased) was more prestigious than standing when it came to the conventions of hierarchy.22 The tomb chapel owner may not be the only recipient of ritual in the chapel. Sometimes he gives up his primarystatus to honor his parents, in which case they are the ones shown sitting before the table of offering, while he stands to perform the ritual before them. The identity of the tomb owner has therefore shifted from being the recipient to the enactor of the ritual. Interestingly, this new identity is often accompanied by a change in wig style:while the seated father wears the shoulder-length wig, the tomb owner may be representedwith the short wig or shaven 11 Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient EgyptianLiteratureII (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1976), 139.

head to mark his now junior, ritual role in relation to the senior figure of his father.23In other words,ritual context, relativestatus,and hair are all highly interrelatedin this performance. The so-called round wig, which has a long history in ancient Egyptianart, is less restricted in its use than the shoulder-length wig (see fig. 2 right), and in many ways it appears to be an all-purposeadult male wig. Sometimes it is worn by the tomb chapel owner (instead of the shoulder-length wig),24 as well as by his adult sons25 23 E.g., TT 39, Davies, The Tombof Puyemre,pl. 6; TT 82, Davies, The Tomb of Amenemhet, pl. 7 (owner offers to senior family members including father, father's father and mother's father); TT 112, Davies, The Tombsof Menkheperrasonb, pl. 26; TT C4, Lise Manniche, Los Tombs:A Study of CertainEighteenthDynasty Monuments in the Theban Necropolis (London and New York: KPI, 1988), pl. 27 no. 45; Tylor and Griffith, The Tombof Paheri, pl. 10. ^ E.g., TT 52, Shedid and Seidel, Das Grab des Nacht, 60 (1 example only); TT 81, E. Dziobek, Das Grabdes Ineni ThebenNr. 81 (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1992), pls. 2-3, 7, 17; El Kab, Tylor and Griffith, The Tombof Paheri, pls. 1,3-4, 8. 1 E.g., TT 181, Davies, The Tombof Two Sculptors, pl. 5; El Kab, Tylor and Griffith, The Tombof Paheri,pls. 6, 10 upper.

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Fig. 3. The tomb owner Rekhmiraand his wife Merit are offeredsistra and menit- necklacesby their daughters. TT 100, Davies, The Tomb of Rekh-mi-re, pl. 63. Reproducedby kind permission of the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, New York.

and other male relatives. In the firsthalf of the eighteenth dynasty it is depicted on figures of offering bearers and variouskinds of priests. By the end of our period, however, the representation of priests changed so that we find them more often with a shaven head. Shaving the head solves the problem of keeping the hair clean and free from headlice and their eggs (nits), for lice do not infest wigs.27Therefore, a shaven head guaranteed cleanliness and perhaps became associated with ritual purity, so 26

E.g., TT 343, Guksch,Das GrabdesBenja,pl. 13 (banquet guests); TT 100, Davies, TheTombofRekh-mi-re, pls. 6667 (banquetguests). 11Fletcher, 5 (1994), 31-33. EgyptianArchaeology

that for a priest it may have encoded a message of ritual purity rather than strict social hierarchy. Since priests were government officials and part of the bureaucratichierarchy,their identities could shift between an official and a priestly one. High-rankingpriests,therefore, could commission images with the shoulder-length wig to indicate their status, or with a shaven head to emphasize their priestly function.28 Similarly, when the tomb chapel owner is shown performing a ritual action, the ritual context- and Compare,for instance,the statuesof Taitai,high priest of Hebenu with a shavenhead and Anen, second prophet of Amun with a shoulder-lengthwig, Kozloffand Bryan,Egypt's Dazzling'Sun, nos. 42-43.

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hence his proper role vis-d-vishis parents and deities- could be reinforced by showing him with a shaven head.29 As already mentioned, shaven heads are not confined to the elite. In fact, it is the only style depicted for indoor male servants and musicians, who are never shown wearingwigs.30This may relate to their sphere of work inside the house, since they would not need protection against the sun, a practicalbenefit from wearing a wig, or it may indicate a concern with cleanliness. It is even tempting to suggesta link between the shaven heads of male household servants who served the elite, and those of elite priests who served the gods and the dead. In some tombs, male guests at banquets are shownwithoutwigs and with shavenheads, sometimes alternatingwith guests wearingwigs. Since these guests must belong to the elite class, it is possible that we should understand them as representing holders of priestly office, or simply as being marked as inferior in status to the tomb chapel owner who wears a wig. However, other explanations are possible. It may have been acceptable to remove one's wig when indoors and out of the sun. Further,the artistmayhavewished to introduce variationamong the male guests by mixing wigs and shaven heads. Two particular types of priest, the Iunmutef priest31 and the high priest of Ptah at Memphis,32are associatedwith a unique type of hairstyle: a round wig with the braided sidelock of a child. The Iunmutef priest performed the ritual in the funerarycults of the king and membersof the royalfamily,and sometimes in privatefunerary cults, where he played the part of the deceased's eldest son. Thus, the attached sidelock identifies the filial role adopted for the performance of the ritual,whereasthe wig denotes the 29

E.g, TT 139, Cyril Aldred et al., L'Empiredes Conquerants (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1979), fig. 68. 30 E.g., TT 38, Davies, Scenesfrom SomeTheban Tombs,pl. 6; TT 52, Shedid and Seidel, Das Grabdes Nacht, 46; TT 79; TT 80; TT 82, Davies, The TombofAmenemhet,pl. 15; TT 85; TT 100, Davies, The Tombof Rekh-mi-re,pls. 66-67. 31 E.g., Kozloff and Bryan, Egypt's Dazzling Sun, 254 fig. 46b. For the Iunmutef, see Hermann Te Velde, "Iunmutef," LexikonderAgyptologie3 (1980), 212-13. 32 Kozloff and Bryan, Egypt'sDazzling Sun, 241 no. 37.

wearer's actual adult status. It is less clear why the high priest of Ptah should have worn a braided sidelock, but he may likewise have been regarded as playing a filial role toward the god that he served. It is interesting that the only male figures shown wearing their own hair are of non-elite status:mostly laborers working outdoors in the fields or marshes,and occasionallyworkshoppersonnel. In some cases they are shown with heads of thick, blackhair,33but often they appearbalding, with short, unkempt hair at the back.34Unlike the wigs of the elite, which are almost always black,35 this natural hair may be rendered as reddish-brown36 or as graying.37In addition,non33

E.g., TT 52, Shedid and Seidel, Das Grabdes Nacht, 3839; TT 38, Davies, Scenesfrom SomeThebanTombs,pl. 2; TT 69, Davies, AncientEgyptianPaintings, pls. 50-51. E.g., outdoor laborers: TT 38, Davies, Scenesfrom Some Theban Tombs,pl. 2; TT 39, Davies, The TombofPuyemreI, pls. 12, 15; TT 52, Shedid and Seidel, Das Grabdes Nacht, 35, 39, 41, 57, 68-69, 71; TT 69, Davies, Ancient Egyptian Paintings, pl. 51; TT 78, Annelies and Artur Brack, Das Grabdes Haremheb. ThebenNr. 78 (Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1980), pl. 24; TT 100, Davies, The Tombof Rekh-mi-re,pls. 4546, 48, 50; TT 261, Davies, Ancient Egyptian Paintings, pl. 28; tomb of "Nebamun," ibid., pl. 68; workshop personnel: TT 39, Davies, The TombofPuyemrel, pl. 23; TT 100, Davies, The Tombof Rekh-mi-re,pls. 52, 54-55; TT 181, Davies, The Tombof TwoSculptors,pl. 13. 35 In the art, hair and wigs are almost always represented as black. Surviving hair, however, can be black, Smith, Royal Mummies, nos. 61063, 61067; brown to dark brown, ibid., nos. 61057, 61066, 61069-70; reddish-brown, Smith, Royal Mummies,nos. 61080, 61097; Fletcher, "ATale of Hair, Wigs and Lice," 32; or, in older mummies, gray, Smith, RoyalMummies, nos. 61062, 61068-69, 61078-79, 61087. The embalming process may have affected hair color, Morimoto, Ancient Egyptian Mummies, 2. Wigs could also be made of brown rather than black hair, Fletcher, "A Tale of Hair, Wigs and Lice," 32. That brown hair was not usually shown in the art may be purely a matter of convention. Since human skin was represented by various shades of brown, black, rather than brown, may have been chosen as the conventional hair color in order to provide a clear contrast between hair and skin. The convention may have been deliberately ignored for non-elite figures to signal their low status. E.g., TT 69, Davies, AncientEgyptianPaintings, pl. 51; TT 78, Brack and Brack, Das Grab des Haremheb,pl. 24; TT 82, Arpag Mekhitarian, EgyptianPainting (Geneva: Editions d'Art Albert Skira, 1954, reprinted 1978), 42; TT 261, Davies, AncientEgyptianPaintings, pl. 28. 37 TT 52, Shedid and Seidel, Das Grabdes Nacht, 68-69.

HAIR AND THE CONSTRUCTIONOF IDENTITYIN ANCIENT EGYPT elite men sometimes appearwith stragglybeards or stubble on their cheeks and chins,38in contrastto the clean-shavenfaces of most male Egyptians or the very short, square-cutbeard worn on the point of the chin by some elite figures. These non-elite fashions are dramaticallydifferent from those conferredupon images of elite men, who are almost always shown with their natural hair removed, or with it replaced by an artificial wig constructed from the hair of another person. Thus, if hairstyle was intimately connected to identity,elite males may have been rebuilding their identities, overlayingnature by culture. By shavingtheir heads and wearingwigs, they were able to hide visible signs of aging: baldness or gray hair. The wearing of wigs also indicates the power of the elite to command the hair of others for their own use. The intricate styling of the wigs, with their carefullyarranged strands, curls and braids, shows that their wearers had the resources to acquire and maintain them. All this is in contrastto the unkempt,balding and sometimes graying natural hair of the non-elite laborerwho workedcloser to nature in the fields and marshesand had none of the artificial overlayof high culture or elite status. Although household servants were not part of the elite group, they lived in the same homes as the elite and hence shared the same space. Thus, their workingcontext removed them from the natural world and brought them into elite spheres. Although their natural hair was removed, it was not artificiallyreplaced by a wig; hence, their participationin elite behavioralpatternswent only so far.It is more difficultto explain whysome workshoppersonnel and peasantlaborers seem to have had shavenheads or round wigs. Possibly,their headswere not deliberatelyshaven, but were naturallybald,while the structureof the 38 E.g., TT 39, Davies, The TombofPuyemre,pls. 12, 15, 28; TT 73, Charles Wilkinson, Egyptian WallPaintings (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983), 75; TT 78, Brack and Brack, Das Grabdes Haremheb,pl. 24; TT 100, Davies, The Tombof Rekh-mi-re,pls. 48, 58; TT 181, Davies, Tombof Two Sculptors,pl. 12 = Mekhitarian, EgyptianPainting, 125; TT 261, Davies, Ancient Egyptian Paintings, pl. 28; Karl-Heinz Preise (ed.), AgyptischesMuseum (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1991), 85 no. 52.

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wigs is not clear from the availablevisual depictions; they may perhaps have been distinguished from the skilfullymade wigs of human hair worn by the elite by poorer craftsmanship or by the materialsused, such as animal hair or vegetable fiber. Women Female hairstylesdiffered fundamentallyfrom those of men; as alreadyseen, women wore their hair longer, and are never shown with shaved heads. Even when a wig was worn, the natural hair remained underneath, as is demonstrated by some female statueson which the naturalhair is represented emerging from under the wig at the forehead.39 Elite women wear hairstylesequally elaborate as those of men, but they are totallydifferent in style from male wigs, reinforcing the gender distinction inherent in Egyptiansociety. The most striking difference is in length, for while male styles at this period rarelyreach below the shoulder, women'shair usuallyfalls to the level of the breasts. Further, although elite men may be shown without their wigs, revealing their shaven heads, it is not clear how elite women wore their hair under their wigs. Since a number of female mummieshave been found with long hair underneath wigs, while others were buried with their own hair elaboratelydressed,it maybe that in life some women wore wigs over their own long hair, whereas others wore their own hair arrangedin the required style. In either case, women would not have been protected againstlice. Although texts provide relativelylittle information about hair, the availablereferences suggest that women's hair had erotic significance, helping to markwomen as icons of sexualityand fertility.40There are no comparable references to suggest that male sexualitywas linked to hair. One might posit, therefore, that women, in contrast to men, kept their natural hair and kept it long, even if they wore a wig over it, because it

39 Kozloff and Bryan, Egypt'sDazzling Sun, 171. 40 Derchain, "La perruque et le cristal," Studien zur altdgyptischenKultur2 (1975), 55-74.

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more directlyembodied their sexualityand hence female gender identity.41 The mothers, wives and daughters of tomb chapel owners are usually depicted wearing one of two general hairstyles:the so-called tripartite style, common in the first part of the eighteenth dynasty,or the enveloping style, which replaced the tripartitein the second half of the period.42In the first style, the hair is divided into three bundles, twofalling on either side of the face, and one down the back, leaving the shoulders exposed (figs. 2-3). In the enveloping style, the hair is arranged in a single mass, covering the shoulders (fig. 1). Detailed renderings show the hair arranged in masses of braidsor ringlets. Daughters of the elite may also be depicted with an alternativetripartitestyle, in which thick tresses or ringlets frame the face, while a thin bunch of hair at the back, like a ponytail, leaves the rearpart of the head more exposed (fig. 3).43 Since this alternative tripartite style is not generallyworn by wives,mothers, or those daughters who are specificallycalled "mistressof the house," a title that indicates a married woman, one might imagine that the style markeda particular stage in a young woman'slife, when she was no longer a child but still not married. This hypothesis is strengthened by representations of female household servantswho sharesimilarhairstyles.44While servants with the common tri41 A female mummy found in the tomb of Amenhotep II had hair that had been cut very short or had perhaps been shaved, Smith, Royal Mummies, no. 61072, but this seems to have been exceptional. Haynes, "The Development of Women's Hairstyles," 18-24. 43 E.g., TT 38, Davies, Scenesfrom SomeTheban Tombs,pl. 6; TT 75, Norman de Garis Davies, The Tombsof Two Officials of TuthmosistheFourth (Nos. 75 and 90) (London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1923), pl. 14; TT 100, Davies, The Tombof Rekhmi-re,pls. 70-71; Kozloff and Bryan, Egypt'sDazzling Sun, 286, 296. E.g., TT 75, Davies, The Tombsof Two Officials,pl. 14; TT 100, Davies, The Tombof Rekh-mi-re,pl. 63. E.g., tripartite: TT 100, Davies, The TombofRekhmire,pls. 64-67; enveloping: TT 38, Davies, Scenesfrom Some Theban Tombs,pl. 6; TT 75, Davies, The Tombsof TwoOfficials,pls. 5-6; alternate tripartite: TT 22, Davies, Ancient EgyptianPaintings, pl. 26; TT 38, Davies, Scenesfrom SomeThebanTombs,pl. 6; TT 45, Mekhitarian, EgyptianPainting, 64; TT 78, Brack and Brack, Das Grabdes Haremheb,pl. 3; TT 100, Davies, The Tombof Rekhmi-re,pls. 64-67; tomb of "Nebamun,"Davies, AncientEgyptian Paintings, pl. 70; Manniche, Lost Tombs,pl. 46 nos. 65-66.

partite or enveloping style often wear an opaque dress, those with the alternative tripartite style are frequentlyrepresented nude,45or wearing a transparentgarment (figs. 4, 5).46 Although we know from indications of pubic hair that the latter group of women are post-pubescent,47their bodies, nevertheless,still appear to have the soft flesh and plumpness of extreme youth. This evidence suggests,therefore,that differenthairstyles mayhavedistinguishedadolescentgirlsfrom fully adult women, and unmarried or marriageable girls from married women. Interestingly,corresponding life stages do not seem to have been markedon the male head. Younger female servants and musicians may also be shown with a variety of "non-standard" hairstyles that are usually fairly elaborately arranged.48The erotic context of the banquet scenes in which they occur suggests that the purpose is to heighten the sexuality of the wearers. Some servantswaiting on guests, however, wear short, round wigs that end above the shoulder (figs. 4, 5). This type of wig can be found worn by elite women in the Old and Middle Kingdoms and again in the Late Period, but at the time under study, the style seems to be confined to servants;its significanceis unclear. In contrast to what happens with men, women's hairstyles and identities do not seem to change from one social context to another. Although elite women- mostlywivesand daughters- could, like men, perform rituals for the deceased, this junior role does not affect their hairstyle.Thus, we do not find wiveswearing the more junior alternative tripartite style, in contrastto the wayin which adult men took on junior hair styles in this context. In other words, elite 45 E.g., TT 38, Davies, Scenesfrom SomeThebanTombs,pl. 6. 46 E.g., TT 22, Davies, Ancient EgyptianPainting, pl. 26; TT 100, Kazimierz Michalowski, Art of Ancient Egypt (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1969), 93. E.g., TT 38, Mekhitarian, Egyptian Painting, 67; idem, La misere,pl. 9. 48 E.g., TT 52, Shedid and Seidel, Das Grabdes Nacht, 52; tomb of "Nebamun," Miriam Stead, Egyptian Life (London: British Museum Publications, 1986), fig. 82 (lower register and upper register right; the figure on the left in the upper register wears a version of the alternative tripartite style); T. G. H. James, Egyptian Painting (London: British Museum Publications, 1985), cover (dancing girls).

HAIR AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN ANCIENT EGYPT

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Fig. 4. Part of a banquetsceneshowingfemale guests, musicians and servants. TT 100, Davies, The Tomb of Rekh-mi-re, pl. 64. Reproducedby kind permission of the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, New York.

female hairstyles appear to define absolute age or social status, rather than relative hierarchies that may shift with movement from one context to another. A scene in the tomb chapel of Djeserkaraseneb at Thebes illustrates this difference in style and significance between male and female hairstyles (fig. 1). The owner, Djeserkaraseneb, makes a ritual offering together with his wife and son. Behind this group are three registers of figures on a smaller scale: on top, three more sons bringing offerings; in the middle, two servants running with offerings; and at the bottom, three female figures (almost certainly daughters) also bringing offerings. Most important here is the uniformity of hairstyle among Djeserkaraseneb 's four sons and servants (in contrast to Djeserkaraseneb's shoulder length wig) compared with the differentiation of styles among his daughters.

Two of his daughters wear the enveloping hairstyle, which they share with his wife, but the third daughter wears the alternative tripartite style. This difference in hair may indicate a difference in age and/ or marital status among the sisters. A similar relationship between the female life cycle and hairstyle may be seen in a few tomb chapels dating to the reign of Amenhotep III. In these cases, we find the mothers of the tomb owners wearing tripartite-style wigs, which otherwise were by now out of fashion.49 Although uncommon, the intention was surely to mark these women as belonging to an older generation than that of the tomb owner. 49 yx 45, Davies, SevenPrivate Tombs, 2; TT 55, Norman pl. de Garis Davies, The Tombof the VizierRamose (London: The Egyptian Exploration Society, 1941), pls. 10, 11, 16; TT 181, Davies, The Tombof TwoSculptors,pl. 17.

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Fig. 5. Part of a banquetsceneshowingfemale guests, musicians and servants. TT 38, Davies, Scenes from Some Theban Tombs, pl. 6. Reproducedby kind permission of the GriffithInstitute.

As alreadydiscussed, there is in the art a clear distinction between the hairstyles of high male officials and their male household servants. By contrast,there is far less distinction between the hairstylesof elite women and their female household servants,although possiblyonly elite women wore wigs over their natural hair. Wigs would have had the same social significancefor women as for men: to hide thinning and graying hair, and to demonstrate the ability to appropriate the hair of others for one's own use. When elite women wore their own hair elaboratelydressed, often with extensions to give extra body, this added another level of luxury: it implied that

they had the leisure to expend on having their hair groomed and the resourcesto command another's servicesfor the task. The differences in the treatment of the hair throwsome light on gender ideologies and hierarchies current at this time. The identity and statusof elite men depended mainlyon their position in the government bureaucracy;on their monuments, men constructed their identity textually by listing all their titles of office. In other words, men looked outside the home to fulfil their ambitions, their concerns being centered on the social structureof government order and control. Women, by contrast, had few official ti-

HAIR AND THE CONSTRUCTIONOF IDENTITYIN ANCIENT EGYPT ties. Instead, their identities on monumentswere constructed in terms of their kinship to a man: mwt.f "his mother," hmt.f "his wife," sBt.f "his daughter" or snt.f "his female relative." These kinship terms were often followed by the most common title given to women, nbtpr "mistressof the house,"signifyinga marriedwoman and denoting her main sphere of activity.Ideologically, the concerns of women did not relate to government, but to the natural process of reproduction.50 In art, we find generic images of naked women with long hair or wigs being used to ensure conception and safe birth into this world, and, by extension, rebirth into the next.51 It might be that an ideology that stressed the role of women in reproduction also saw women as being closer to nature than men and that this wasexpressed through their unshavenheads and long hair. Turningnow to non-elite women workingoutside the domestic sphere, we seldom find them wearinganyof the basichairstylesassociatedwith elite women and their servants.Unfortunatelywe have fewer depictions of such non-elite women than we do of men, since women are not included among the personnel in workshopsor as laborersin the marshes.Nevertheless,women are sometimes present in agriculturalscenes, mostly at the harvest.They present a range of unelaborated, often unkempt,hairstyles:most frequently, tied back with the ends falling down the back;52 but also loose;53 in a few thick ringlets;54in straightishstrandsending at chin level;55or in a solid black mass cut off at the shoulders.56Al50 Gay Robins, Womenin Ancient Egypt. 51 Gay Robins, "Dress, Undress and the Representation of Fertility and Potency in New Kingdom Egyptian Art," in: N. Kampen (ed.), Sexuality in Ancient Art; Geraldine Pinch, "Childbirth and female figurines at Deir el-Medina and elAmarna," Orientaliab2 (1983), 405-14. 52 E.g., TT 52, Shedid and Seidel, Das Grabdes Nacht, 35; TT 57, Walter Wreszinski, Atlas zur AltaegyptischenKulturgeschichtel (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 1923), pl. 192; TT C4, Manniche, Lost Tombs,pl. 34 no. 56; tomb of "Nebamun," ibid., pl. 49 no. 69; Mekhitarian, La misere, pl. 24. 53 TT 69, Wilkinson, Egyptian WallPaintings, 50 no. 49. 54 TT 52, Shedid and Seidel, Das Grab des Nacht, frontispiece. 55 TT 6g? Mekhitarian, EgyptianPainting, 79. 56 TT 69>Wilkinson, Egyptian WallPaintings, 49 no. 46.

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though many women no doubt actuallyworked out of doors in the fields, the prevailingideology seems to have held that outdoor work was to be performedmostlyby men. In this context, women workingin the fields almost certainlyhad a lower status than household servants. This hierarchy becomes expressedon the head;while the household servantshave the same hairstylesas the elite women they served, the female laborers are depicted with their hair undressed and often unkempt. Hair thus becomes a way to distinguish not only between rich and poor, but also between different non-elite groups. Nevertheless, basic gender distinctions are generally maintained at all levels of society through differences in hair length. Although women's roles were more limited than those of men, women did sometimes have a part to play in certain ritual contexts. In scenes depicting the funeral procession of the tomb chapel owner, two women regularlytake on the identities of the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, knownas the "twokites,"who mourned the death of their murderedbrother Osiris,the god of the dead, and brought him back to life. In many depictions these women cover their head with the Ma£-headdress,made of white cloth, that is not normally worn by women, but which is a frequent accoutrementof the goddesses;57the headdress was thus used to identify the women with the goddesses in this particular context. Elsewhere, the women playingthe twokitesare shown with a cap of short black hair that leaves the ear uncovered, and with a white fillet tied round the head (fig. 6) .58There is no evidence as to whether the women's natural hair was cut for this occasion or whether it was concealed under a wig. A similar hairstyle is worn by the god's wife of 57 E.g., TT 82, Davies, The Tombof Amenemhet,pls. 10-11; TT 100, Davies, The Tombof Rekh-mi-re, pls. 83-84, 87-88, 92-93; TT C4, Manniche, Lost Tombs,pl. 34 no. 56, pl. 42 no. 62 [1]; El-Kab, tomb of Paheri, Tylor and Griffith, The Tombof Paheri, pl. 5. 58 E.g., TT 39, Davies, Tomb of Puyemre, pl. 46; TT 82, Davies, The Tombof Amenemhat,pls. 10, 12; TT 96, Christiane desBiirgDesroches Noblecourt et al., Sennefer.Die Grabkammer ermeistersvon Theben(Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1986), 30; TT 100, Davies, The Tombof Rekh-mi-re,pls. 79-80; TT 139, Aldred et al., L'Empiredes Conquerants,fig. 68; Paheri, Tylor and Griffith, The Tombof Paheri, pl. 5.

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Fig. 6. The two kites engaged in a ritual performanceat the tombowner'sfuneral TT 100, Davies, The Tomb of Rekh-mi-re, pi 79. Reproducedby kind permission of the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, New York.

Amun, one of the few female priests in the cult of Amun at Thebes, when she is shown performing temple rituals.59Since short hair is not a style normally associated with eighteenth dynasty women, its use seems designed specifically to mark the performance of a cultic role by a woman and to shift her identity from a secular to a religious one. This shift is also made visible by the continued use of the traditional, tightfitting sheath dress, after depictions of women in more secular contexts had changed to show them wearinga longer, looser wrap-arounddress.

blessed dead in the afterlife. Their new identity was displayed through the images on their coffins. Once again, hair plays an important role in this process of identity formation. Both men and women are shownwearing,not the hairstyles of the living, but a striated, breast-length, tripartite wig specificallyassociated with images of male and female deities.60In addition, male coffins sometimes incorporated the long, braided false beard associatedwith Osirisas well as other male deities.61 This last shift in identity transformed the deceased into an idealized divine being proper to an inhabitant of the next world.62

Death Conclusions

The final transformationof the social identity of both elite men and women occurred at death, when they made the dangerouspassagefrom this world to the next and took their place among the

Depicted adult hairstyles clearly divide between those appropriateto men and those appropriate to women, thus reinforcing the division

59A. Gayet, Le Templede Louxor(Paris: Mission archeologique francaiseau Caire, 1894), pl. 35 fig. 100, pl. 51 fig. 125;PierreLacauand Henri Chevrier,line chapelled'Hatshepsouta KarnakII (Paris:InstitutFrancais d'ArcheologieOrientale, 1979), pls. 18 top, 19 middle.

60 E.g., Kozloff and Bryan, Egypt'sDazzling Sun, fig. X.2a-b, nos. 61-64 (coffins),nos. 17-19 (deities). 61 E.g., ibid., no. 62. 62 J. Taylor,EgyptianCoffins(Aylesbury:Shire Publications, 1989), 39.

HAIR AND THE CONSTRUCTIONOF IDENTITYIN ANCIENT EGYPT of society by gender. Among elite women who have passed childhood, hairstylesappear to differentiate between younger, possiblyadolescent, women and older, possibly married, women. These hairstylesare sharedwith non-elite female household servants, suggesting that age rather than social status is the primary information imparted. Women working outside the house, who are certainly of lower status, rarely wear these same hairstyles,so here social statusrather than age may be important. Among elite men, increased social statuscame with promotion in the government bureaucracy. At a certain level, officialsseem to have become eligible to wear a form of the shoulder-length wig. Unlike the tripartite and enveloping wigs of elite women, the shoulder-length wig is not shared with non-elite servants. Further, within a composition, the different hairstylesworn by the male figures often establish a relative hierarchy between them, with the primary figure wearing the shoulder-length wig and secondary figures the round wig or a shaven head. Such relativehierarchiesdo not commonly occur with female figures, where instead senior and junior women often both wear either the tripartite or

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enveloping hairstyles.In addition to the use of hair to indicate social status, age, and gender within the hierarchies of ancient Egyptiansociety, different styles were also employed to mark figures playing certain religious roles, such as the Iunmutef priest or the god's wife of Amun. The evidence thus shows that the hairstyles depicted in ancient Egyptianart were not freely selected by artists.Rather they formed part of a visual systemthat was used to help constructand display the social identities of the figures represented, and so had to be appropriate to the age, gender and status of the wearers.Although scenes in tomb chapels were not intended to reproduce exactly the real world, but rather represented an elite ideal, the systemof identity constructed in the art must have reflected a corresponding systemin life that defined the identity of individualsand their place within society. Its incorporation into visual representation not only served to convey information to viewers about the figures depicted, but by constant repetition reinforced what the elite group held to be the correct social order. Emory University