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This chapter gives context to the changes affecting the urban development of the Theban foothills, and discusses contemporary ways of making a living in this environment. These urbanizing processes initiated by the protective measures of expropriation and eviction not only accelerated the expansion of contemporary vernacular forms, but also resulted in a particular architectural assemblage typical of the Theban Necropolis. This chapter begins by developing a picture both of the archaeological characteristics of the foothills landscape generally, and of one particularly formative episode that has affected perceptions about Qurnawi habitation of the necropolis ever since. The urban landscape of the Qurnawi foothills, as observed by some of those early khawaja travelers, presented a picture rather different from the settlement pattern characteristic of the foothills during the late twentieth century.

Much of what characterizes the people of al-Qurna today is not only inherent in the physical aspects of the surrounding landscape, but also the historical process of archaeological recognition and interpretation that has resulted in the culturally constructed characterization of the Theban foothills. This perspective immediately directs the attention to the historically situated development of western academic involvement with the Theban west bank, necessitating a global perspective in explanation of the particular cultural constructions that resulted from the contact with foreign interests. This chapter argues that the communities of the Luxor west bank represent a case in which the emergence of the originally western academic practice of Egyptology acted as one of those external formational processes, and that it is in this light that the al-Qurna material, at least in part, must be presented and understood.

This chapter explains the situation in al-Qurna during mid-November 1997, at the start of the anthropological fieldwork: the scenario of local and global forces behind what has become known as the “Luxor Massacre,” the sudden collapse of the tourism industry during what otherwise would have been the year's busiest season, and the physical and emotional trauma that resulted for local villagers. The particular conditions of the Egyptian winters of 1997–98 provided sets of circumstances that allowed ethnographic observation of not only social and economic activity in this archaeological landscape, but also of the strategies people employ to make ends meet during such episodes of adversity. The history and plurality of social and economic practices that were found to operate in the Theban foothills became a leitmotif of resilience that connected and gave meaning to much of the ethnographic material, in the process countering long-held assumptions about life and human activity in the Theban Necropolis.

Although, archaeological work for the Supreme Council of Antiquities is government employment, the nature of Qurnawi economics for those so employed is one that combines formal with informal money-earning activities. Even where such formal government work is not related to archaeology, informal aspects may still be present However, for many Qurnawi to identify themselves in the first instance as farmers, confirms that which escaped most of the early European visitors, namely the inherently agricultural quality of west bank subsistence. This chapter provides a discussion of Qurnawi agricultural practice that must be offered before considering Qurnawi involvement in archaeology. It aims to establish the variety of ways in which agricultural pursuits continue to form part of the range of economic practices to which Qurnawi in the Theban foothills have access.