Monday, 11 January 2010

What is a slave?

The article "Egypt tombs suggest free men built pyramids, not slaves" in the Science and Environment section of the BBC News caught my eye because it seems so wrong. Actually, it reminded of an article that appears in Quest 2 Reading and Writing which also suggests that the lives of the pyramid builders were not as bad as they are commonly believed to be (Hartmann, 2007).
The article reports on recent findings of workers tombs led by archaeologist Zahi Hawass, who says that the location near royal tombs "indicates these people were not by any means slaves" (¶ 5). Other evidence is that the workers were well fed, being provided with both beef and lamb on a daily basis. Hawass argues that the farmers who provided the animals for the workers' food were acting freely to contribute to a great national project, not paying royal taxes used to feed slaves.
I'm not sure how much I agree with Hawass. Perhaps the workers were not technically slaves, but I find if hard to imagine why so many would willingly give up so much of their lives unless there was some force being used, even if only social force. Unfortunately, the article is very short, and does not give more details about why the workers might have been devoting so much of their lives to such projects. I'm also not clear why Hawass thinks that the cattle and sheep provided were not taxes. If they really were being provided freely, what evidence is there for that? There doesn't seem to be any evidence provided in the article that would support this conclusion.
I think the idea is interesting, and it certainly seems that at least some of the workers were not slaves, but I think we need a lot more detail before we conclude that they were really free. In Mediaeval Europe, the peasants were not slaves either, but neither were they free. They were required to work their lord's lands and provide service as ordered. Although they might not have been slaves, they were not obviously much better off, certainly not very free.
__________
References
Egypt tombs suggest free men built pyramids, not slaves. (2010, January 11). BBC News. Retrieved January 11, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8451538.stm
Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing. new York: McGraw-Hill.

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