Entry one-What's this?

I thought this would be a good way to start writing and think a bit more about my research project in my history class.

My basic want is to explore the intersection of archaeological interpretations of the Egyptian past and their modern understandings of gender. Either looking through time at the incorporation of females in archaeological sites, such as is addressrf in the book Archaeologies of Social Life by Lynn Meskell, females as archaeologists and more importantly the awareness of the Egyptian people of the position of ancient women. This has of course quite a few components and is rather broad topic and I would like to focus more specifically on a single site or monument but in order to do that I will need to do some crash course like reading on the topic in general.

My professor pointed me towards some readings that I plan on starting soon, such as Whose Pharaohs? , which deals with Egyptian archaeology and nationalism. A chapter in Lynn Meskell's Archaeology Under Fire specifically addressed the relationship between different political movements in Egypt and their archaeological past but it was not particularly detailed. It mentioned that politicals would "remind" themselves, and the Egyptian people, of the great ancient past but didn't mention any specific sites or people that they where inspired by. This either suggests that perhaps it was just the idea of a "great" ancient civilization that they used or that the author was generalizing. I think that Whose Pharaohs? will be able to provide that detail.

On the Archaeological side, I began reading Lynn Meskell's Archaeologies of Social Life to get more archaeological information about a specific site. Her focus is on a specific site Deir el Medina also known as "The village" that has more archaeological evidence that can be corroborated with some textual information. I also named this blog URL after it in a way (Deir el Feminina) However, before she analyzes this site she explores some of the theoretical paradigms that have impacted archaeology but have, to a certain extent, passed over Egyptology. Particularly the role of women (or gender) and the social sciences currently as well the different stages of philosophy.