Rethinking “Peasant Consciousness” in Colonial Egypt: An Exploration of the Performance of Folksongs by Upper Egyptian Agricultural Workers on the Archaeological Excavation Sites of Karnak and Dendera at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (1885–1914)

Abstract

This paper aims to rethink “peasant consciousness” in colonial Egypt, through a study of the performance of folksongs by Upper Egyptian agricultural workers on the archaeological excavation sites of Karnak and Dendera at the turn of the twentieth century (1885–1914). Mainly based on a historical‐anthropological analysis of songs collected between 1900 and 1914 by the French archaeologists Maspéro and Legrain, this essay proposes a new understanding of subaltern consciousnesses as fragmented objects constructed through a dialectical relationship of power and resistance as performed by the various actors present on the scene. Drawing its inspiration from the work of contemporary ethnomusicologists (Finnegan 1977, 1992; Slyomovics 1987) and relying on the framework shaped by their use of oral‐formulaic and speech‐act theories, this study conceives of the performance, reception and collection of the songs as a crucial locus of encounter, interaction and negotiation between the local landless peasants employed as daily workers on the excavation sites, and the colonial administrators of the Antiquities Service during the key period of transition from corvée to contract labour.