1
00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:03,800
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how

2
00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:13,840
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

3
00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:17,160
Speaker 1: I'm editor kandas Keener time by staff writer Jane McGrath. Hey,

4
00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:19,919
Speaker 1: they're Candice. Hey Jane. You know it's funny. I feel

5
00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:22,439
Speaker 1: like we keep rehashing the same theme over and over,

6
00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:26,599
Speaker 1: but it's just so interesting. The formula is someone Greek

7
00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:31,200
Speaker 1: comes over to Egypter Africa and sees that things are different,

8
00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:34,600
Speaker 1: and then goes back home and tells people about it. Yeah,

9
00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:38,640
Speaker 1: are you getting a sense? Yeah, definitely. And we're talking

10
00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:42,159
Speaker 1: about Herodotus and he is a Greek who came over

11
00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:45,160
Speaker 1: about the fifth century to Egypt, and uh, he knowed

12
00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:48,680
Speaker 1: something really interesting, and that was that the women were

13
00:00:48,680 --> 00:00:52,720
Speaker 1: in the market place trading and dulling all that market stuff,

14
00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:55,360
Speaker 1: while the men's at home and did all the weaving.

15
00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:57,680
Speaker 1: And he thought this was really up, especially compared to

16
00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:00,120
Speaker 1: how gender issues were going on in in Greece at

17
00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:03,560
Speaker 1: that time. Yeah, and so he went back home and

18
00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:07,560
Speaker 1: he actually uh told people. Whether he wrote it or

19
00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:11,640
Speaker 1: said it, I don't know, but apparently he mentioned that

20
00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:17,000
Speaker 1: the Egyptians have reversed the ordinary practices of mankind and

21
00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:19,000
Speaker 1: that's a pretty loaded statement if you think about it.

22
00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:22,039
Speaker 1: If Herodotis seemed to think that, um, we were God

23
00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:24,000
Speaker 1: ordained for women to sit at home and we even

24
00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:25,720
Speaker 1: and do the wash, and men were the ones who

25
00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:28,400
Speaker 1: were supposed to go out into the marketplace and trade

26
00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:30,479
Speaker 1: and barter and make the world go around with money.

27
00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:36,400
Speaker 1: But what's interesting is that his observations weren't entirely accurate.

28
00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:38,360
Speaker 1: And we see this all the time. Someone looks at

29
00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:42,520
Speaker 1: a very small slice of life and a society and

30
00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:46,320
Speaker 1: sort of generates opinions and thoughts about how the entire

31
00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:50,320
Speaker 1: society must work. And while he propound that this notion

32
00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:53,480
Speaker 1: that Egyptians must be these very forward thinking or to him,

33
00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:57,280
Speaker 1: backward thinking people who had an entirely different type of

34
00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:00,280
Speaker 1: society that was really a matriarchy than a patriarch archy,

35
00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:05,800
Speaker 1: was incorrect, actually, And we asked ourselves a question at

36
00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:08,760
Speaker 1: how stuff works, and that was we're ancient Egyptians, the

37
00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:13,080
Speaker 1: first feminists. And our colleague Christian Conger wrote an article

38
00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:16,360
Speaker 1: by that very same title, and after reading her research

39
00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:19,040
Speaker 1: and conducting a little bit on our own, we were

40
00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:21,480
Speaker 1: hoping to come to you guys and tell you something

41
00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:25,120
Speaker 1: really exciting about how feminism was not a brand new

42
00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:28,560
Speaker 1: thing back in the twentieth century. The ancient Egyptians had

43
00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:30,560
Speaker 1: discovered a long time ago, and they already started a

44
00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:34,359
Speaker 1: society by those rules and precedents that that wasn't exactly

45
00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:37,880
Speaker 1: the case. Yeah, I mean, it's true that the they

46
00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,600
Speaker 1: were sharing sort of gender equalities that were really ahead

47
00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:44,160
Speaker 1: of their time, and certain things that we're still struggling

48
00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,560
Speaker 1: with today they achieved back then. But there's a lot

49
00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,880
Speaker 1: of caveats to that statement. But one interesting point is

50
00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:54,520
Speaker 1: one expert in this field, actor Joanne Fletcher, talks about

51
00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:58,480
Speaker 1: the duality of male and female in in ancient Egypt,

52
00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:00,760
Speaker 1: and you can see this in the gods and goddesses

53
00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:05,000
Speaker 1: that they had in their religion, but also obviously even

54
00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:07,960
Speaker 1: political power. You can see in the list of God

55
00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:11,800
Speaker 1: or a list of kings and pharaohs that women held

56
00:03:11,919 --> 00:03:15,120
Speaker 1: the position at least six times. I believe it is.

57
00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:18,679
Speaker 1: We all know Cleopatra obviously from the first century BC,

58
00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:21,760
Speaker 1: but there were also women who won each in the

59
00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:25,800
Speaker 1: twenty second century BC, as well as the eight and

60
00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:28,960
Speaker 1: the twelve. And I think something that these female rulers

61
00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:32,760
Speaker 1: struggled with was the idea of being a powerful woman

62
00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,480
Speaker 1: and still preserving their femininity. And we know that a

63
00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:39,640
Speaker 1: couple of those rulers were forced, uh not unlike Joan

64
00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:41,960
Speaker 1: of Arc who we discussed in an earlier podcast, to

65
00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:46,520
Speaker 1: put on men's clothing or take on more masculine mannerisms

66
00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:50,840
Speaker 1: in order to be assertive and respected. Yes, this is

67
00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,000
Speaker 1: one of the most fascinating um female pharaohs of ancient Egypt,

68
00:03:54,080 --> 00:03:57,280
Speaker 1: and her name is Hut Sheepsut, and she was the

69
00:03:57,360 --> 00:03:59,800
Speaker 1: daughter of a king the Most the first also noticed

70
00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:02,520
Speaker 1: the mosis, but have heard of both ways. So had

71
00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:06,280
Speaker 1: Chapsa was married to her half brother that Most the second,

72
00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:09,760
Speaker 1: who inherited the throne. And so, although she didn't have

73
00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:12,640
Speaker 1: a lot of power at this time, her husband died

74
00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:16,040
Speaker 1: and she didn't have a son to take the throne,

75
00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:20,679
Speaker 1: so the power went to her husband's son by another marriage.

76
00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:23,039
Speaker 1: And at this time pharaoh's were very well known for

77
00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:26,440
Speaker 1: having what's known as lesser or minor wives, and so

78
00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:28,200
Speaker 1: he had a son by one of these wives, and

79
00:04:28,279 --> 00:04:32,159
Speaker 1: he became thought Most the third. So when her husband

80
00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:35,240
Speaker 1: had Chops husband died, thought Most the third was still

81
00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:39,320
Speaker 1: a baby, and so had Chops decided to take over

82
00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:42,440
Speaker 1: as regent in the meantime until the baby grew up,

83
00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:45,760
Speaker 1: and by about the seventh year into her role as regent,

84
00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:49,039
Speaker 1: she was officially crowned king. It's interesting that it took

85
00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:52,800
Speaker 1: that long. Also was especially fascinating about this period is

86
00:04:52,839 --> 00:04:56,279
Speaker 1: that she started gradually more and more wearing men's clothes,

87
00:04:56,320 --> 00:04:59,280
Speaker 1: like you were saying, Candice, and she actually put on

88
00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,040
Speaker 1: a false bear heard, which I find the most curious

89
00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:03,919
Speaker 1: of all. And there are different theories about why she

90
00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,680
Speaker 1: did this, Perhaps like she had herself portrayed at least

91
00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,039
Speaker 1: this way in the in the pictures of the records

92
00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:12,200
Speaker 1: that we have, and maybe um the significance of these

93
00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:15,320
Speaker 1: pictures and their culture meant that if it was portrayed

94
00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:17,160
Speaker 1: that way, then that's what she would become. She would

95
00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:19,840
Speaker 1: become as powerful as a male king, which I found interesting.

96
00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:21,680
Speaker 1: And but I think it should be noted that she

97
00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:24,880
Speaker 1: was no man hater by any means, because she allowed

98
00:05:24,920 --> 00:05:27,600
Speaker 1: her stepson thought most, to share power once he got

99
00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:31,200
Speaker 1: old enough. After she died a few decades later, her

100
00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:34,000
Speaker 1: stepson was still ruling. Near the end of his role,

101
00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:36,600
Speaker 1: there was a movement to destroy the remnants of head

102
00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:40,200
Speaker 1: Chepstot's rule and there's a lot of different theories about that.

103
00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:45,600
Speaker 1: One is um that it was an act of vengeance perhaps,

104
00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:48,719
Speaker 1: but another is that because her name was actually removed

105
00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:51,360
Speaker 1: from documents that said the lists of the kings, it's

106
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:54,479
Speaker 1: believed that maybe the almost the third wanted history to

107
00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:58,200
Speaker 1: remember the list of kings in order, like almost one, two,

108
00:05:58,279 --> 00:06:02,080
Speaker 1: and three without interruption, to actually female interruption. What had

109
00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:05,240
Speaker 1: steps that did for her stepson is actually pretty magnanimous.

110
00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:09,400
Speaker 1: If you look at the history of Egyptian minor wives

111
00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:13,719
Speaker 1: a k. A concubine, because they were known sometimes actually

112
00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:17,400
Speaker 1: off their husbands to put their sons on the throne.

113
00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:20,400
Speaker 1: So there was a real power play at court where

114
00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:22,839
Speaker 1: women could get an upper hand just as easily by

115
00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:28,240
Speaker 1: being you know, good strategists. And if you hearken back

116
00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:30,440
Speaker 1: in your memory to a podcast Jane and I did

117
00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:33,120
Speaker 1: many many months ago about the First Lady of the

118
00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:37,120
Speaker 1: United States. If you look at different women who sat

119
00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:39,760
Speaker 1: at court with their husbands, whether they were queens or

120
00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:42,159
Speaker 1: whether they held some sort of lesser power like a

121
00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:45,080
Speaker 1: regent or even a priest, and a priest was considered

122
00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:48,919
Speaker 1: pretty powerful. Actually, it's almost like this first Lady idea

123
00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:52,200
Speaker 1: where you come into power by virtue of being married

124
00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:55,120
Speaker 1: to someone who is the most powerful man in the country.

125
00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:58,000
Speaker 1: So even powerful women actually owed their power to a

126
00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:00,320
Speaker 1: my own they did. They still o their power to man,

127
00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:02,440
Speaker 1: and they could choose to wield it in whatever way

128
00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:04,520
Speaker 1: they wanted. I think that there were some women a

129
00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:08,200
Speaker 1: court who took on more traditional what we can see

130
00:07:08,200 --> 00:07:10,560
Speaker 1: a love as traditional roles of being a wife and

131
00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:14,720
Speaker 1: a mother. Some certainly use their wealth to leverage leisure

132
00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:19,320
Speaker 1: for themselves, you know, NonStop manicures and hairstyling, and you know,

133
00:07:19,360 --> 00:07:23,440
Speaker 1: tours around the grounds and their own chariots. And there

134
00:07:23,440 --> 00:07:26,840
Speaker 1: were others like never t d who I'm really interested in,

135
00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:30,520
Speaker 1: who took advantage of her power alongside her husband to

136
00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:33,160
Speaker 1: help them and sort of a in a Hillary Bill

137
00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:35,840
Speaker 1: Billary sort of way, she helped him come up with

138
00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:39,160
Speaker 1: new policies for the nation, different types of rules, and

139
00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:42,520
Speaker 1: reformed their system of government. And in addition to that,

140
00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:47,240
Speaker 1: she took a major part in helping to execute different prisoners.

141
00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:50,640
Speaker 1: And when her husband died, there are some historians who

142
00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:54,600
Speaker 1: suggest that she very quietly just assumed role as king

143
00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:58,440
Speaker 1: or queen really but stepped into his shoes. And then

144
00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:02,640
Speaker 1: others think that some somewhere along the marriage she offended

145
00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:04,680
Speaker 1: him somehow and he got very upset, and so he

146
00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:08,560
Speaker 1: elevated a daughter to her place. But you look back

147
00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:11,160
Speaker 1: at Nefer t d and especially just to look at

148
00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:14,640
Speaker 1: that very famous bust of hers, you know, do you

149
00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:18,040
Speaker 1: know that what I'm talking about. It's a portrait really

150
00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:20,680
Speaker 1: and and three dimensions, and we see that she has

151
00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:23,040
Speaker 1: a very serene look on her face. And I guess

152
00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:26,560
Speaker 1: that's how I've always imagined ancient Egyptian women with the

153
00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:30,960
Speaker 1: coal lined eyes and the very elaborate, you know, hairstyles

154
00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:34,079
Speaker 1: and just being a part of society but not really

155
00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:38,720
Speaker 1: being leaders. But that wasn't the case unless you're from

156
00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:42,840
Speaker 1: a lower class. Yeah, we should make a distinction that

157
00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:46,800
Speaker 1: even though there was a very remarkable forward thinking equality

158
00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:50,120
Speaker 1: of the genders at this time, there wasn't the same

159
00:08:50,160 --> 00:08:53,479
Speaker 1: thing when it came to class. Upper class women had

160
00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:56,120
Speaker 1: a lot more power than lower class women. They did,

161
00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:01,160
Speaker 1: and most women in Egyptian society enjoyed some type of freedom,

162
00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:03,480
Speaker 1: or what we would think of as freedom. I think

163
00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,199
Speaker 1: that even if you are poor, there were still some

164
00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:09,160
Speaker 1: sort of choice and what vocation you had, you could

165
00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:11,240
Speaker 1: choose to be a farmer. You could choose to be

166
00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:15,120
Speaker 1: a weaver, a servant, or even a construction worker. And

167
00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:17,400
Speaker 1: if you are very very poor, you could be an

168
00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:20,240
Speaker 1: entertainer at court. And whether you danced or you played

169
00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:24,080
Speaker 1: some sort of instrument, the king even occasionally recognize these

170
00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:27,559
Speaker 1: people as important to his kingdom and would allow them

171
00:09:27,559 --> 00:09:33,040
Speaker 1: to participate in different governmental events or uh state ceremonies.

172
00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:36,120
Speaker 1: And so they played an important role too. But what

173
00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:39,240
Speaker 1: our you know, our Greek friend may have been referring

174
00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:43,679
Speaker 1: to as far as the progressiveness of Egyptian society was

175
00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:48,800
Speaker 1: the legal system. Because even if women in ancient Egypt

176
00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:52,400
Speaker 1: were considered wives and mothers first and foremost, they had

177
00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:55,719
Speaker 1: some pretty interesting legal rights. Yeah, they could own their

178
00:09:55,720 --> 00:10:00,880
Speaker 1: own property. Interestingly, they could make wills like deciding who

179
00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:03,960
Speaker 1: which of their children would um receive whatever their wealth.

180
00:10:04,240 --> 00:10:07,439
Speaker 1: In court, they could represent themselves, they could sue people.

181
00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:10,760
Speaker 1: They could also get divorces and divorce. I think is

182
00:10:10,800 --> 00:10:14,800
Speaker 1: an interesting case because it brings up the idea of

183
00:10:14,840 --> 00:10:17,600
Speaker 1: marriage and the legal idea of marriage in ancient Egypt,

184
00:10:17,880 --> 00:10:20,440
Speaker 1: which is curious because when you got married, you didn't

185
00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:22,600
Speaker 1: necessarily need to get the course involved the law wasn't

186
00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:24,560
Speaker 1: involved at all. You could just have a party, you know,

187
00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:27,720
Speaker 1: and celebrate the fact that you're getting married, but divorce

188
00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:31,000
Speaker 1: was certainly illegal issue. It says there's a similar rule

189
00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:33,280
Speaker 1: I think, if I remember from my research on the

190
00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:37,240
Speaker 1: Code of Hamar Robbie about women could get actually some

191
00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:40,800
Speaker 1: of their dowry back and property as well, and a divorce,

192
00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:43,320
Speaker 1: and the same thing happened in ancient Egypt. And one

193
00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:46,600
Speaker 1: point that I find really funny is that Emanuel, dating

194
00:10:46,640 --> 00:10:48,800
Speaker 1: back to about the twenty fifth century BC, I think,

195
00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:51,760
Speaker 1: advised men to not take women to court. And I'm

196
00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:53,640
Speaker 1: not quite sure whether this had to do because it

197
00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:56,160
Speaker 1: was indelicate to do so, or because women were really

198
00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:58,440
Speaker 1: good when they represented themselves in court. I don't know.

199
00:10:58,559 --> 00:11:00,439
Speaker 1: I'm in a gab they were really good and then

200
00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:03,720
Speaker 1: represented themselves in court. So, as Jane mentioned, marriage wasn't

201
00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:06,640
Speaker 1: even really regarded as an institution. It wasn't ordained by

202
00:11:06,679 --> 00:11:10,320
Speaker 1: the church, it wasn't ordained by government. But if you

203
00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:12,640
Speaker 1: did not have a lot of money, it was pretty

204
00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:15,680
Speaker 1: necessary because if you're pretty poor, you needed to get

205
00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:17,280
Speaker 1: married to have a lot of children to help with

206
00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:19,840
Speaker 1: all the different you know, types of of labor and

207
00:11:19,920 --> 00:11:21,680
Speaker 1: tours that you had to carry out in order to

208
00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:25,560
Speaker 1: really succeed and pull ahead in the society. And like

209
00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:28,840
Speaker 1: Jane was saying, as far as women leaving a marriage,

210
00:11:28,880 --> 00:11:30,480
Speaker 1: it was pretty easy and you could take your money

211
00:11:30,559 --> 00:11:32,920
Speaker 1: with you. And it seems like they looked at a

212
00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:35,599
Speaker 1: marriage and union between a man and woman is a

213
00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:39,520
Speaker 1: pretty casual thing. Because premarital sex wasn't even frowned upon.

214
00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:41,800
Speaker 1: I found that really interesting. I had no idea. I'd

215
00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:44,839
Speaker 1: like to know about more civilizations that had the same

216
00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:47,320
Speaker 1: kind of rules about premarital sex. I guess it would

217
00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:49,520
Speaker 1: have to do with the fact that if marriage was

218
00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:54,520
Speaker 1: a social pact and it didn't have any reference back

219
00:11:54,559 --> 00:11:57,120
Speaker 1: to the church or back to religion. I mean, who

220
00:11:57,160 --> 00:11:59,760
Speaker 1: was there to condemn it? I don't know one in

221
00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,200
Speaker 1: interesting role that a woman could choose. I didn't have

222
00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:06,640
Speaker 1: to go into marriage. You could also enter the priesthood. Interestingly,

223
00:12:06,679 --> 00:12:10,600
Speaker 1: they could become uh, God's wife, is sort of This

224
00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:14,320
Speaker 1: offered women a lot of political power, interestingly, but I

225
00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:15,679
Speaker 1: think she had to have a little bit of money

226
00:12:15,679 --> 00:12:17,400
Speaker 1: to accomplish that. The same way she could be on

227
00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:19,480
Speaker 1: a jury, but she had to have a little bit

228
00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:22,240
Speaker 1: of money to do that too. Yeah, And speaking of religion,

229
00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:25,360
Speaker 1: we were talking about Neffortidi earlier. One major thing that

230
00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:28,960
Speaker 1: she did was that she and her husband were Monotheists,

231
00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:31,760
Speaker 1: and this was really unusual at the time. Um the

232
00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:35,400
Speaker 1: culture was in general worshiping many gods. Nefertidi and her

233
00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:39,520
Speaker 1: husband at Kenneton worship the Sun god alone. They actually

234
00:12:39,520 --> 00:12:43,560
Speaker 1: outlawed worship of other gods of polytheism. And it's believed

235
00:12:43,559 --> 00:12:46,600
Speaker 1: that Nefertidi herself was the driving force behind this, uh

236
00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:49,120
Speaker 1: this rule, and it actually caused gave her a lot

237
00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:52,400
Speaker 1: of enemies. Let's say she took this idea very very seriously,

238
00:12:52,559 --> 00:12:55,560
Speaker 1: and she worshiped him with great fervor. And then we

239
00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:58,600
Speaker 1: see a little bit later on Cleopatra was really the

240
00:12:58,679 --> 00:13:02,880
Speaker 1: last great is matriarch of ancient Egypt before the tide

241
00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:06,800
Speaker 1: turned in. Ancient Egypt became the very very early stages

242
00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:09,240
Speaker 1: of modern Egypt what it is today, as we see

243
00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:13,800
Speaker 1: Egyptian culture sort of ebbing and more Christian culture coming

244
00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:19,079
Speaker 1: in and up until a certain time in ancient Egypt,

245
00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:23,360
Speaker 1: much of the population was illiterate, and I think maybe

246
00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:26,280
Speaker 1: only two percent of Egyptian society could actually read and

247
00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:29,400
Speaker 1: write and an even smaller fraction of that were women

248
00:13:29,480 --> 00:13:32,440
Speaker 1: who could read and write. But when Cleopatrick came along,

249
00:13:32,559 --> 00:13:34,679
Speaker 1: she was very interested in making sure that women were

250
00:13:34,800 --> 00:13:37,199
Speaker 1: educated and that the people of Egypt had a role

251
00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:41,839
Speaker 1: to play in intellectual circles. And so her reign marked

252
00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:45,920
Speaker 1: the emersions of the Great Library at Alexandria, and so

253
00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:49,280
Speaker 1: as that became more of a part of Egyptian culture,

254
00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:54,040
Speaker 1: women i think found new careers for themselves as philosophers

255
00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:57,960
Speaker 1: or scribes or or learned people or academics at the

256
00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:00,840
Speaker 1: very least. And then when Chris and monks came in,

257
00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:04,120
Speaker 1: I think in for four a d they actually killed

258
00:14:04,160 --> 00:14:08,440
Speaker 1: a woman who they saw philosophizing and writing and that

259
00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:11,160
Speaker 1: was the end of that. So that's interesting, yeah, And

260
00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:14,600
Speaker 1: so you know, to wrap it all up, they the

261
00:14:14,679 --> 00:14:17,760
Speaker 1: ancient Egyptians can't be really said to be feminists, Like

262
00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:20,880
Speaker 1: they didn't have marches for women's votes and stuff like that.

263
00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:24,840
Speaker 1: There's nothing that's exactly analogous to what we think is

264
00:14:24,880 --> 00:14:28,280
Speaker 1: feminism today. But at the same time, historians note that

265
00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:32,400
Speaker 1: women were actually paid the same amount, like uh, the

266
00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:34,840
Speaker 1: for the same job. Women would get the same amount

267
00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:38,520
Speaker 1: of wages as a man, and that's something that historians note,

268
00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:40,760
Speaker 1: like we're still struggling with today. So in that in

269
00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:43,840
Speaker 1: that sense, you know, even though ancient Egypt was a

270
00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:47,920
Speaker 1: very patriarchal society, uh, it was really curious and have

271
00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:51,040
Speaker 1: its time in terms of gender issues. And if you

272
00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:54,080
Speaker 1: want to learn even more about ancient Egyptian society, be

273
00:14:54,120 --> 00:14:56,960
Speaker 1: sure to check out this article and others pertaining to

274
00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:01,040
Speaker 1: the Furrows and Clipatra, etcetera on how stuff works dot com.

275
00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:03,240
Speaker 1: And while you're there, be sure to check out our blog.

276
00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:05,640
Speaker 1: So if you missed in history class, Candice and I

277
00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:09,080
Speaker 1: write on once a day and in the ENTRM, be

278
00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:12,800
Speaker 1: sure to keep sending us emails at History podcast at

279
00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:19,080
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com for more on this and

280
00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:21,720
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot

281
00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:28,440
Speaker 1: com