Biography of Ramses II

Biography of Ramses II Ramses II (ca 1303 BC – 1213 BC) was one of the most powerful and influential Egyptian pharaohs in history. He led expeditions and focused on building up the New Kingdom, and most likely reigned longer than any other pharaoh. Fast Facts: Ramses II Full Name:  Ramses II (alternative spelling Ramesses II)Also Known As: Usermaatre  SetepenreOccupation: Pharaoh of ancient EgyptBorn: circa 1303 BCDied: 1213 BCKnown For: The longest-reigning pharaoh in history, Ramses IIs reign defined the New Kingdom era of Egypt as one of conquest, expansion, building, and culture.Prominent Spouses: Nefertari (died circa 1255 BC), IsetnofretChildren: Amun-her-khepsef, Ramses, Meritamen, Bintanath, Pareherwenemef, Merneptah (future Pharaoh), and others Early Life and Reign Little is known about Ramses’ early life. His exact year of birth is not confirmed but is widely believed to be 1303 BC. His father was Seti I, the second pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, founded by Ramses I, the grandfather of Ramses II. Most likely, Ramses II came to the throne in 1279 BC, when he was approximately 24 years old. At some point prior to this, he married his future queen consort, Nefertari. Over the course of their marriage, they had at least four sons and two daughters, and possibly more, although historians have uncertain evidence of children beyond the six who are clearly mentioned in documents and on carvings. A statue of Ramses II stands in the Temple of Karnak in Luxor, Egypt. David Callan / Getty Images In the first few years of his reign, Ramses foreshadowed his later power with battles against sea pirates and the beginning of major building projects. His earliest known major victory came in the second year of his reign, probably 1277 BC, when he defeated the Sherden pirates. The Sherden, who most likely originated from Ionia or Sardinia, were a fleet of pirates who kept attacking cargo ships en route to Egypt, damaging or outright crippling Egyptian sea trade. Ramses also began his major building projects within the first three years of his reign. On his orders, the ancient temples in Thebes were completely renovated, specifically to honor Ramses and his power, revered as nearly divine. The stone carving methods used by past pharaohs resulted in shallow carvings which could easily be remade by their successors. In place of this, Ramses ordered much deeper carvings that would be harder to undo or alter in the future. Military Campaigns By the fourth year of his reign, approximately 1275 BC, Ramses was making major military moves to regain and expand Egypt’s territory. He began with war against the nearby Canaan, the region to the northeast of Egypt where the countries of the Middle East such as Israel now are located. One story from this era involves Ramses personally fighting a wounded Canaanite prince and, upon victory, taking the Canaanite prince to Egypt as prisoners. His military campaigns extended into areas previously held by the Hittites and, eventually, Syria. Wall carvings of Ramsess army defeating the Hittites.   skaman306 / Getty Images The Syrian campaign was one of the key points of Ramses’ early reign. Around 1274 BC, Ramses fought in Syria against the Hittites with two goals in mind: expanding Egypt’s borders, and replicating his father’s triumph at Kadesh about ten years earlier. Although Egyptian forces were outnumbered, he was able to counterattack and force the Hittites back into the city. However, Ramses realized his army wasn’t able to sustain the kind of siege required to take down the city, so he returned to Egypt, where he was building a new capital city, Pi-Ramesses. A few years later, however, Ramses was able to return to Hittite-held Syria and eventually pushed further north than any pharaoh in over a century. Unfortunately, his northern victories did not last long, and a small bit of land kept going back and forth between Egyptian and Hittite control. In addition to his campaigns in Syria against the Hittites, Ramses led military attempts in other regions. He spent some time, alongside his sons, on military action in Nubia, which had been conquered and colonized by Egypt a few centuries prior but continued to be a thorn in its side. In a surprising turn of events, Egypt actually became a place of refuge for a deposed Hittite king, Mursili III. When his uncle, the new king á ¸ ªattuÃ… ¡ili III demanded Mursili’s extradition, Ramses denied all knowledge of Mursili’s presence in Egypt. As a result, the two countries remained on the brink of war for several years. In 1258 BC, however, they chose to formally end the conflict, resulting in one of the earliest known peace treaties in human history (and the oldest with surviving documentation). In addition, Nefertari kept up a correspondence with Queen Puduhepa, á ¸ ªattuÃ… ¡ili’s wife. Buildings and Monuments Even more than his military expeditions, the reign of Ramses was defined by his obsession with building. His new capital city, Pi-Ramesses, featured multiple huge temples and a sprawling palatial complex. Over the course of his reign, he did more building than any of his predecessors. Aside from the new capital city, Ramses’ most enduring legacy was an enormous temple complex, dubbed the Ramesseum by the Egyptologist Jean-Franà §ois Champollion in 1829. It included large courtyards, enormous statues of Ramses, and scenes representing his army’s greatest victories and Ramses himself in the company of several deities. Today, 39 of the 48 original columns are still standing, but much of the rest of the temple and its statues have long since disappeared. The Great Temple at Abu Simbel is generally considered the greatest of the temples built during the reign of Ramses II. Tom Schwabel / Getty Images When Nefertari died, approximately 24 years into Ramses’ reign, she was buried in a tomb fit for a queen. The wall paintings inside the structure, depicting the heavens, the deities, and Nefertari’s presentation to the gods, are considered some of the most exquisite achievements in art in ancient Egypt. Nefertari was not Ramses’ only wife, but she was honored as the most important. Her son, the crown prince Amun-her-khepeshef, died a year later. Later Reign and Popular Legacy After reigning for 30 years, Ramses II celebrated the traditional jubilee held for the longest-ruling pharaohs, called a Sed festival. By this point in his reign, Ramses had already achieved most of the accomplishments he would be known for: expanding and maintaining the kingdom’s territory, improving the infrastructure, and building new monuments. Sed festivals were held every three (or, sometimes, two) years after the first one; Ramses ended up celebrating 13 or 14 of them, more than any other pharaoh before him. After reigning for 66 years, Ramses’ health deteriorated, as he suffered from arthritis and problems with his arteries and teeth. He died at the age of 90 and was succeeded by his son (the oldest son to outlive Ramses), Merneptah. He was first buried in the Valley of the Kings, but his body was moved to deter looters. In the 20th century, his mummy was taken to France for examination (which revealed that the pharaoh was most likely a fair-skinned redhead) and preservation. Today, it resides at the Museum of Cairo. One of the statues of Ramses II at the Temple of Luxor in Egypt. inigoarza  / Getty Images Ramses II was called the â€Å"Great Ancestor† by his own civilization, and several subsequent pharaohs took the regnal name Ramses in his honor. He’s often depicted in popular culture, and is one of the candidates for the pharaoh described in the Book of Exodus, although historians have never been able to determine conclusively who that pharaoh was. Ramses remains one of the best-known pharaohs and one who exemplifies what we know of the ancient Egyptian rulers. Sources Clayton, Peter. Chronology of the Pharaohs. London: Thames Hudson, 1994.Kitchen, Kenneth. Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, King of Egypt. London: Aris Phillips, 1983.Rattini, Kristin Baird. â€Å"Who Was Ramses II?† National Geographic, 13 May 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/people/reference/ramses-ii/.

Race and Ethnicity in Sociology

Race and Ethnicity in Sociology The sociology of race and ethnicity is a large and vibrant subfield within sociology in which researchers and theorists focus on the ways that social, political, and economic relations interact with race and ethnicity in a given society, region, or community. Topics and methods in this subfield are wide-ranging, and the development of the field dates back to the early 20th century. Introduction to the Subfield The sociology of race and ethnicity began to take shape in the late 19th century. The American sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois, who was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard, is credited with pioneering the subfield within the United States with his famous and still widely taught books The Souls of Black Folk  and Black Reconstruction. However, the subfield today differs greatly from its early stages. When early American sociologists focused on race and ethnicity, du Bois excepted, they tended to focus on the concepts of integration, acculturation, and assimilation, in keeping with the view of the U.S. as a melting pot into which difference should be absorbed. Concerns during the early 20th century were for teaching those who differed visually, culturally, or linguistically from the white  Anglo-Saxon norms how to think, speak, and act in accordance with them. This approach to studying race and ethnicity framed those who were not white Anglo-Saxon as problems that needed to be solved  and was directed primarily by sociologists who were white men from middle to upper-class families. As more people of color and women became social scientists throughout the twentieth century, they created and developed theoretical perspectives that differed from the normative approach in sociology, and crafted research from different standpoints that shifted the analytic focus from particular populations to social relations and the social system. Today, sociologists within the subfield of race and ethnicity focus on areas including racial and ethnic identities, social relations and interactions within and across racial and ethnic lines, racial and ethnic stratification and segregation, culture and worldview and how these relate to race, and power and inequality relative to majority and minority statuses in society. But, before we learn more about this subfield, its important to have a clear understanding of how sociologists define race and ethnicity. How Sociologists Define Race and Ethnicity Most readers have an understanding of what race is and means in U.S. society. Race refers to how we categorize people by skin color and phenotype- certain physical facial features that are shared to a certain degree by a given group. Common racial categories that most people would recognize in the U.S. include Black, white, Asian, Latino, and American Indian. But the tricky bit is that there is absolutely no biological determinant of race. Instead, sociologists recognize that our idea of race and racial categories are social constructs that are unstable and shifting, and that can be seen to have changed over time in relation to historical and political events. We also recognize race as defined in large part by context. Black means something different in the U.S. versus Brazil versus India, for example, and this difference in meaning manifests in real differences in social experience. Ethnicity is likely a bit more difficult to explain for most people. Unlike race, which is primarily seen and understood on the basis of skin color and phenotype, ethnicity does not necessarily provide visual cues. Instead, it is based on a shared common culture, including elements like language, religion, art, music, and literature,  and norms, customs, practices, and history.  An ethnic group does not exist simply because of the common national or cultural origins of the group, however. They develop because of their unique historical and social experiences, which become the basis for the group’s ethnic identity. For example, prior to immigration to the U.S., Italians did not think of themselves as a distinct group with common interests and experiences. However, the process of immigration and the experiences they faced as a group in their new homeland, including  discrimination, created a new ethnic identity. Within a racial group, there can be several ethnic groups. For example, a white American might identify as part of a variety of ethnic groups including German American, Polish American, and Irish American, among others. Other examples of ethnic groups within the U.S. include and are not limited to Creole, Caribbean Americans, Mexican Americans, and  Arab Americans. Key Concepts and Theories of Race and Ethnicity Early American sociologist W.E.B. du Bois offered one of the most important and lasting theoretical contributions to the sociology of race and ethnicity when he presented the concept of double-consciousness in  The Souls of Black Folk. This concept refers to the way in which people of color in predominantly white societies and spaces and ethnic minorities have the experience of seeing themselves through their own eyes, but also of seeing themselves as other through the eyes of the white majority. This results in a conflicting and often distressing experience of the process of identity formation.Racial formation theory, developed by sociologists Howard Winant and Michael Omi, frames race as an unstable, ever-evolving social construct that is tied to historical and political events. They assert that differing racial projects that seek to define race and racial categories are engaged in constant competition to give the dominant meaning to race. Their theory illuminates how race has be en and continues to be a politically contested social construct, upon which is granted access to rights, resources, and power. The theory of systemic racism, developed by sociologist Joe Feagin, is an important and widely used theory of race and racism that has gained particular traction since the rise of the BlackLivesMatter movement. Feagins theory, rooted in historical documentation, asserts that racism was built into the very foundation of U.S. society and that it now exists within every aspect of society. Connecting economic wealth and impoverishment, politics and disenfranchisement, racism within institutions like schools and media, to racist assumptions and ideas, Feagins theory is a roadmap for understanding the origins of racism in the U.S., how it operates today, and what anti-racist activists can do to combat it.Initially articulated by legal scholar Kimberlà © Williams Crenshaw, the concept of intersectionality would become a cornerstone of the theory of sociologist Patricia Hill Collins, and an important theoretical concept of all sociological approaches to race and ethnicity within the academy today. The concept refers to the necessity of considering the different social categories and forces that race interacts with as people experience the world, including but not limited to gender, economic class, sexuality, culture, ethnicity, and ability. Research Topics Sociologists of race and ethnicity study just about anything one could imagine, but some core topics within the subfield include the following. How race and ethnicity shape the process of identity formation for individuals and communities, like for example the complicated process of creating a racial identity as a mixed-race person.How racism manifests in everyday life and shapes ones life trajectory. For example, how racial biases affect student-teacher interaction from elementary school to university and graduate school, and how skin color affects perceived intelligence.The relationship between race and the police and the criminal justice system, including how race and racism affect policing tactics and arrest rates, sentencing, incarceration rates, and life after parole. In 2014, many sociologists came together to create The Ferguson Syllabus, which is a reading list and teaching tool for understanding the long history and contemporary aspects of these issues.The long history and contemporary problem of residential segregation, and how this affects  everything from family wealth, economic well-being, education, access t o healthy food, and health. Since the 1980s,  whiteness has been an important topic of study within the sociology of race and ethnicity. Up until that point, it was largely neglected academically  because it was simply seen as the norm against which difference was measured. Thanks largely to scholar Peggy McIntosh, who helped people understand the concept of white privilege, what it means to be white, who can be considered white, and how whiteness fits within the social structure is a vibrant topic of study. The sociology of race and ethnicity is a vibrant subfield that hosts a wealth and diversity of research and theory. The  American Sociological Association  even has a webpage devoted to it. Updated  by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D.