11 juni 2026 | Caring after birth

Caring after birth: Mothering as social practice in ancient Egypt

Traditionally, Egyptological discourse has largely focused on the physiological aspects of motherhood: conception, pregnancy and childbirth, as defining features of what it means to be a mother. Nevertheless, motherhood has never been simply a biological fact. This talk explores through a wide range of texts, images and archaeological evidence that motherhood was shaped by a set of social practices: caring, nurturing and protecting, that extended far beyond birth and were reproduced throughout the lives of both mother and child. It also highlights how different models of motherhood emerge when comparing the human and the divine spheres. The ways in which goddesses cared for and protected their children offered powerful examples of how mothering should be carried out, shaping expectations and ideals in everyday life. By focusing on what mothers did rather than simply what they were, this approach offers a new way of understanding motherhood in ancient Egypt as an ongoing social practice, deeply embedded in both social expectations and lived experience.

Dr. Beatriz Noria-Serrano is research fellow at the University of Pisa and recently completed her PhD at the University of Alcalá in Madrid. Her research focuses on motherhood, gender and religion in ancient Egypt, especially during the Middle Kingdom. Her works combines approaches and methodologies from Egyptology, Linguistics, and Anthropology to better understand of the role of mothers in society and in the religious mindset of ancient Egyptians.

Images
– Tomb of Menna (TT 69). © Patricia Mora Photography.
– Group of two women and a child, Metropolitan Museum of Art (22.2.35), 12th-18th Dynasty.

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