1. Throughout the Pharaoh's period, dwarfs became officials serving the royal family, and their status was low. The murals of many tombs in the ancient kingdom once depicted the "private houses" of aristocratic ministers and gnome craftsmen, who were engaged in the labor processing of jewelry. There are also tomb murals depicting two "bought people" with Egyptian names, namely dwarf slaves, one of whom is holding his master's bed; The other man has crutches and sandals in his hand.
Mr. Liu thinks that these ordinary dwarfs are all slaves. Omori believes that most of these ordinary dwarfs are subordinates of royalty and senior officials. Because the existing data only focus on the dwarf groups serving the upper class of society, it is impossible to judge the living conditions and status of dwarfs under non-senior officials.
And were these dwarfs brought into the palace by their parents or senior officials? Is the dwarf status serving the upper class of society an ordinary free man or a slave in a sense? These problems have yet to be solved.
However, it seems unreasonable to treat these dwarves as slaves, because in the ancient kingdom, there appeared an upper class of dwarves with many titles like Snibb, who could get married and have children and own their own property. This is a right that slaves do not have.
Second, the status of dwarves in the ancient kingdom seems to be the highest. In the existing medical papyrus, we haven't found three words to represent dwarfs, namely dng, nmw and Hwa. This shows that the pygmies were not regarded as diseases in the eyes of ancient Egyptians, and they did not find that the pygmies' desire was to be taller as a prayer or to avoid such physical defects.
This shows that dwarf individuals are still very confident in themselves, and the height problem is not a defect in their eyes. It is worth noting that, despite this, comparing the information of dwarves in the ancient kingdom, the middle kingdom and the new kingdom, we can see that dwarves in real society seem to have the highest status in the ancient kingdom. During this period, not only the information of dwarfs is rich, but also dwarfs can play different roles. Goblins in Otawa, like normal people, are engaged in ordinary occupations, and some of them are still very prominent. They hold many political and religious titles in the families of members of the royal family and have luxurious graves after their death.
However, during the Middle Kingdom period, midgets mostly served as assistants to take care of babies among members of the royal family and senior officials, and their family roles were single. After the New Kingdom, gnomes in real life basically withdrew from the tombs of high-ranking royal officials (except during the Amana era) and were replaced by religious gnomes with rich information.
Moreover, the above-mentioned Oracle Bone Inscriptions documents in the New Kingdom period once wrote: "Don't laugh at a blind man, and don't laugh at a dwarf; Don't bring inconvenience to the lame; Don't laugh at those who are resigned to their fate; Don't be angry because of others' failures. "
It is worth noting that, first of all, Oracle Bone Inscriptions literature appeals to the society to respect dwarfs, which shows that there may be a phenomenon of laughing at dwarfs during the New Kingdom period; Secondly, literature puts dwarfs together with the blind and the lame. This invisibly lowered the status of dwarfs, because the blind and the lame were regarded as disabled people in the eyes of ancient Egyptians, and eye diseases and limb defects were regarded as diseases, which were also mentioned in Egyptian medical papyrus. For example, Ebos medical papyrus begins with the treatment of patients with limb diseases, and mentions how to take measures to deal with fractures so as not to become lame. Articles 58 and 59 of Papyrus are prescriptions for eye diseases.