AN EGYPTIAN OFFICIAL
Egypt was an extremely well governed kingdom in antiquity. Does this Middle Kingdom bust of an Egyptian bureaucrat suggest why this might have been the case? Egypt's Middle Kingdom is dated as c. 2050-1652 BCE.
This man was probably a civil servant for the royal household in Egypt. The Egyptian royal house, the per'aa (hence "Pharaoh"), ruled the entire land very efficiently using civil servants like this one. These civil servants were, in a sense, human "tools" of the Pharaoh.
Points to Ponder:
-- Civil servants formed part of a "bureaucracy." How does a bureaucracy work?
-- Does a bureaucracy function as a mechanism of control in peoples' lives?
-- Do you have to deal with bureaucracies? At school for example? At work? Do bureaucracies control you (whether you like it or not)?
-- Does this statue of a human civil servant express a kind of technology? Remember that technology is not simply a tool, but also technique and method of control. Does this sculpture express authority?