The Pharaoh, the 'Other', and the Politics of Boundary-Making: A Digital Ethnography of Egyptian Nationalist and Anti-Migrant Groups

This thesis explores Neo-Pharaonic nationalism (or Kemetism) in Egypt, investigating why individuals adopt this exclusionary ideology and how they construct the nation by positioning themselves as the 'Pharaoh' in opposition to racialized and ethnicized 'Others'. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork on Facebook and X and complemented with 15 semi-structured interviews, this study employs Wimmer's (2013) boundary-making framework, particularly the strategy of "contraction", whereby the boundaries of belonging are narrowed through symbolic and discursive means. Temple iconography, historical evidence, and genetic ancestry testing emerge as key tools in this exclusionary process and are used to legitimize claims to ancient Egyptian heritage and to limit who can belong to the nation. Depending on the subtype of Neo-Pharaonism, Africans and/or Arabs are cast as the excluded 'Other'. Anti-Arab sentiment features prominently due to a newly-found, informal, cross-religious coalition network. Although racial tropes and stereotypes are espoused by some nationalist individuals, anti-blackness and the biologization of difference are interpreted not as inherent foundations of Neo-Pharaonism but as outcomes of the intensified and reactionary social closure, of which Black and Nubian Egyptians as well as migrants and refugees are indirect victims.