╨╧рб▒с>■  +-■   *                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ье┴@ Ё┐jbjbЛюЛю "сМсМ      l╥╥╥╥╥╥╥ " ::::::::╓╪╪╪╪╪╪,1 Q Ъ╥:::::╥╥::::▓╥:╥:╓ц■╥╥╥╥:╓╘╓╥╥╓. ЮTГ╦ь╓╓╓ы ы ╓├хResponse to Trigger Ц Week 6 Ben Jones While it is fair to acknowledge that TriggerТs chapter on the C-Group is meant to be an overview, his generalization of themes and consistent dearth of evidence bothered me throughout his writing. Although there was no overarching thesis he was attempting to defend, a number of his assertions, stated as fact, seemed significantly unsubstantiated. TriggerТs overview of the C-Group runs from their first appearance as a group during EgyptТs Dynasty 6 through the First Intermediate Period. Much of the chapter is spent covering archaeological evidence with broad strokes, beginning with the transition of the C-Group from circular graves built of small stones, similar to A-Group graves, to more rectangular graves built with larger stones, and an introduction to the C-Group pottery types covered much more exhaustively by Bourriau. The pottery, he concludes, belongs to a common tradition shared by different Nile valley groups, noting that similarities exist between the pottery of both the A-Group and the C-Group, and the C-Group and Kerma. The following suggestion that the pottery types in question thus have a shared origin seems exceedingly vague. However, it is whenever Trigger tries to address broader social themes that I truly wish he would back up some of his more sweeping claims. Discussing the origin of C-Group cultures, he suggests that Уit is not impossible that as the Egyptians grew less vigilant [during the Sixth Dynasty], pastoralists from the Eastern or Western desert began to settle in Lower Nubia.Ф This ties into his comparison of C-Group wares to sherds found in the eastern and western deserts. The fact that these sherds have many similarities to C-Group wares implies for Trigger an Eastern or Western origin of the C-Group. However, the concept of the C-GroupТs existence as an incursion into areas less heavily controlled by Egypt during the Sixth Dynasty seems like a stretch to me. For that to be the case, it seems that one must assume an active policy keeping immigrants out of Lower Nubia prior to the Sixth Dynasty, which, given evidence for Lower Nubian immigration into Upper Egypt during that period, and the trouble and arguable lack of profit Egyptians would have had from enforcing it, such a policy seems unreasonable, especially predating the widespread use of Lower Nubian fortresses. TriggerТs use of ethnographic parallels also struck me as somewhat suspect. Early on in the chapter, he says of a C-Group settlement at Sayala West which contains a number of huts in and around an enclosing compound wall: УThe hut circles each seem to have housed a single family with a number of related ones forming a lineage based settlementЕRecent African parallels suggest that the compound at Khor Abu Bakr may have been inhabited by a man, his several wives and their children. One of the huts inside the compound was a storehouse; probably used communally by its inhabitants or by the whole settlement.Ф This seems like a seriously problematic logical jump, especially considering that no citation is given concerning just who these УAfrican parallelsФ might be. We have already extensively debated the virtue of ethnographic parallels in any context, and I am exceedingly concerned about a nebulous one that seems to have no context. Perhaps this set me up with an unfavorable impression for the rest of the reading, but while reading TriggerТs section analyzing Harkhuf, his assertions regarding the role of the Iamite ruler: Уif trade were not carried out under the patronage of a responsible and powerful official, trifling disputes between traders of different ethnic backgrounds might easily have provoked economically disastrous blood feuds. To assure the proper conduct of trade, the Upper Nubians probably agreed that it was best controlled by the ruler of IamФ, seemed equally problematic. The concept that various Upper Nubian states got together and designated a ruler from one culture (if УstateФ and УcultureФ apply in this context) to control all commerce seems almost comical. All of this does nothing to address the broader question with which I was left: is the term СC-GroupТ appropriate to refer to any group of Nubian people? Does it describe a unique and definable culture, and if so, what are the boundaries of that culture? This has never been made clear in a way with which I have been satisfied, and I hope we can work on it some in class. While the archaeological record shows an A-Group absence during the middle of the Old Kingdom, how comfortable are we defining the boundaries of their УC-GroupФ successors? From Egyptian sources, we have records for many Nubian groups Ц Yam, Wawat, Medjai, which are themselves definitions imposed by an outside culture. 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