Patient Voices from Ancient Egypt

Objective

PAVE is the first comprehensive study of patienthood in ancient Egypt (1550–1069 BCE). The goal is to analyze experiences of illness, sickness, and treatment, and to uncover the social dynamics that shaped these. To do so, PAVE pioneers an interdisciplinary approach that combines concepts from history of medicine, anthropology, sociology, and phenomenology with philological and bioarchaeological evidence. The project is important because it fills a major research gap—illuminating the patient’s perspective and the life opportunities of sick people in Egypt for the first time—and by doing so it demonstrates how and why theory from outside the field of Egyptology must be integrated into the discipline. Moreover, PAVE will extend the temporal depth of the history of medicine, and by bridging the gap between ancient evidence and modern theory, PAVE offers major theoretical gains, challenging common assumptions in the history of medicine. To gain insight into the patient’s view, I will unveil expressions of illness (the individual experience of being unwell) and sickness (the social construction of and response to unwellness) by analyzing the broad range of health-related texts and human remains within the framework of the “eidetic characteristics of illness” and the sick role. Moreover, I will investigate the textual sources for the treatment choices sick people made and what factors governed such choices by applying the concept of therapeutic navigation. My work will be supported by my supervisor, medical historian Ylva Söderfeldt, my mentor, medical anthropologist Claudia Merli, and colleagues at Uppsala University. The MSCA-PF will allow me to develop transferable skills in leadership, communication, and project organization, and provides a unique opportunity for me to deepen my knowledge of history of medicine, medical anthropology, and interdisciplinary research. The acquisition of these skills will have a significant impact on my future career.