Ever fancied a past life?

Now there's a bit of a kerfuffle kicking off in the Antipodes based around the content of this article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/confessions-of-a-young-anti-feminist/

For those of you who can't be arsed reading the aforementioned piece it is written by a "29-year-old single anti-feminist" and is based on this stunning piece of scientific thinking -

Renowned Australian neurosurgeon Charlie Teo believes men and women have different roles “set not only by society but set by physiology”.

“The current trend is for dads to be more hands on. But for all we know it may be proven in a hundred years time that that may be a negative thing for the upbringing of children,” he said recently on Seven’s Sunday Night program.

“They’re there to be protective. A man has to have a good job; he has to do well at school so he can get a good job and support his family. A woman has to be loving and caring,” he said.

Oh it gets better!

For thousands of years men were providers and protectors and women nurturers. Evolution provided each with the physical and emotional assets to do these jobs well.

Well into the last century the husband provided his family with a home and food and this sole responsibility gave him a sense of power and purpose. And women didn’t feel pressure to justify their existence with a career. They were proud home makers and mothers.

Until feminism.

Now, I can't pretend to be an expert on gender roles or realities throughout "thousands of years", but I can give a little insight into the good old days of home life in ye anciente Egypte. Any of you who may have held romantic ideas about past lives may want to look away now.

And be warned, there are going to be some sweeping generalisations, but I doubt if anyone would want to read an academically tinged thrashing of "fact" and hypothesis, laced with innumerable examples, so I am just churning out some basics. But I figure if a professional journalist can make over-arching statements about "thousands of years", then I think I should be allowed to do the same about roughly 1500 years of human activity in one particular location as I've spent quite alot of time researching/learning about it.

Hold onto your hats! We're about to check out Egypt between 2600-1200BC, the era of pyramids, temples and pharaohs!

- The average lifespan of an ordinary Egyptian was between 30-35; if you were wealthy you may have a slightly better chance of living past 45
- children were set to work (hard physical labour on inductrial sites) as soon as they could perfom viably
- Only 1% of the population were literate; the vast majority of this 1% were administrators
- the word for schooling translates literally as "punishment"; physical beating was a standard educational motivator
- 90% of population had bone deformity resultant from squatting whilst performing work
- it is estimated 100% of the population had malaria
- the recommended marriagable age for "women" was 12 or 13 years old
- 33% of pregnancies miscarried/stillborn
- 33% of children died in infancy
- Food supply dependant upon an annual flood; if flood failed = starvation, if flood too high = disease and starvation
- Fundamental diet = rough bread and gruel
- Egypt's greatest "new build" city, Tell el-Amarna had streets filled with discarded household rubbish, including food, animal and human waste and thus vermin BTW this city was built whilst Egypt was at its peak in terms of power, wealth and creativity
- Animals kept within confines of domestic houses include cattle, sheep, goats and pigs
- natural environment of Nile valley condusive to rapid proliferation and breeding of insects and parasites
- Nile = main source of water - home to numerous parasitic worms
- Sedentary and permanent settlements ideal for infestations of fleas and bedbugs
- Everyday ailments included -
Anaemia
Gingivitis and tooth loss
Dental caries (most likely caused by grit/sand in food) resulting in severe dental abscessing and exposed pulp cavity
Conjunctivitis and eye disorders
Schistosomiasis, which may lead to haematuria, anaemia, loss of infection resistance, gynaecomastia, rectal pain and bladder cancer
- it is suspected that Tell el-Amarna may have been the site where human influenza came into being.
- local fauna included -
21 different species of known snake, amongst which were the Egyptian cobra, the spitting cobra, black desert cobra, vipers, puff adders and pythons
Various deadly scorpions
Lions
The Nile Crocodile
Hippos (which can bite a crocodile in half)
Hyenas
- standard punishments for crimes included slavery, forced labour, cutting off of nose and/or ears, being burned alive, impaling. Should the accused do a runner his/her family would be punished in their place

And to think I haven't even gone near any theorising about gender-based distinction...except that wives of high officials would carry on their husband's duties, such as tax collection, should their husband be otherwise engaged; that woman ran their own businesses and raised extra income by selling surpluses/goods at market; that women could initiate divorce and retained all their own property; that infertility was not considered firm grounds for divorcing a woman; that women could raise legal cases and served on "juries"; that women owned and inherited property on an equal status to men; that their religious beliefs suggest that female deities were the main protectors - note that the main protectors of the king were ALL female deities...

Shall I go on?

In short, Egypt during this time was a harsh, viscious place to live, but the concept of men as protectors and women as nurturers, if it existed, certainly bore no resemblence to Ms Asher's deluded "good old days".

Now I am going for a lie down in a darkened room with a large glass of scotch.