Accounting and order / Mahmoud Ezzamel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ezzamel, Mahmoud.

Series:

Routledge studies in accounting ; 12.

Routledge studies in accounting ; 12

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Accounting--Egypt--History.

Accounting.

Social control--Egypt--History.

Social control.

Order--History.

Order.

History.

Egypt.

Physical Description:

xx, 482 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2012.

Summary:

"This book draws on ancient Egyptian inscriptions in order to theorize the relationship between accounting and order. It focuses especially on the performative power of accounting in producing and sustaining order in society. It explores how accounting intervened in various domains of the ancient Egyptian world: the cosmos; life on earth (offerings to the gods; taxation; transportation; redistribution for palace dependants; mining activities; work organization; baking and brewing; private estates and the household; and private transactions in semi-barter exchange); and the cult of the dead. The book emphasizes several possibilities through which accounting can be theorized over and above strands of theorizing that have already been explored in detail previously. These additional possibilities theorize accounting as a performative ritual; myth; a sign system; a signifier; a time ordering device; a spatial ordering device; violence; and as an archive and a cultural memory. Each of these themes are summarized with further suggestions as to how theorizing might be pursued in future research in the final chapter of the book. This book is of particular relevance to all accounting students and researchers concerned with theorize accounting and also with the relevance of history to the project of contemporary theorizing of accounting"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part I Egypt, Order, and Scribes

1 Prologue 3

2 Ancient Egypt: A Brief History 29

Part II Accounting, Order, and Gods

3 Accounting and Order 59

4 Creation, Order, and Divine Accounting 82

5 Pleasing the Gods: Order and Accounting for Offerings 103

Part III Providing for the State

6 Ordering the Taxation Cycle 137

7 Ordering Transportation: Accounting for the Fleet 172

8 Accounting and Redistribution: The Palace and Mortuary Cult 193

9 Accounting and Ordering the Activities of the Funerary Temples 219

10 Accounting for Mining Expeditions 248

11 Accounting and the Ordering of Work Organization 271

12 Accounting for the Bakeries 306

Part IV Ordering the Private Domain

13 Ordering Private Estates and the Household 343

14 Ordering Lives: The Roles of Accounting and Money in Organizing Communities 371

Part V Epilogue

15 Epilogue 407.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [453]-469) and index.

ISBN:

9780415482615

0415482615

9780203123300

0203123301

OCLC:

642845839