I'm having some trouble figuring out if there's a "group" that covers people of Egyptian descent. Like, when you would describe Chinese, Japanese, or Thai as Asian. The situation is that I have two characters run into the Egyptian goddess Ma'at, but it's in a more modern setting and I don't want to go the easy way out with "hello, I'm Ma'at." I'd prefer readers to get it from context. Is there an umbrella term of sorts I could use? Because I don't think you can look "Egyptian" per se, and looking African doesn't paint the right picture. There's a catch. It's from the point of view of characters who aren't exactly into genealogy. One's a cop, the other's her daughter who spent more time on Type O Negative's discography. So the term I'd be looking for would be basic. I can't really go with "of ancient coptic mid-African descent" or whatever is appropriate. Is Nubian maybe something I could use?
"North African" Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt.... all primarily Arabic and Coptic peoples that could describe someone "of Egyptian decent"
Nubian and Coptic would be too specific as most Egyptians don’t fit into either one. “North African” is complicated because the countries to the west of Egypt are considered Maghreb, whereas Egypt is grouped with eastern Arab countries as the Mashriq. But that might be the least awkward option.
You could go with Egyptian, they do have a pretty characteristic look (I mean some of them). Though of course that would work better if said goddess were wearing kohl around her eyes in that typical pattern (which she very well might? it's not an uncommon makeup strategy these days).
Eh I’ve met a few Copts, who are supposed to be the most Egyptian of Egyptians, and their features varied wildly. I don’t know if you could really make a generalization about Egyptian features that you couldn’t make about other Mediterraneans.
I've put robes on her "that almost seemed to resemble wings" so I might as well go all the way with it. Sure. That's why I came here with it. As far as I've gathered, because of Egypt's location and the subsequent travelers that passed through, there would seem to be no one single Egyptian kind. That said, to the average person, describing someone as Egyptian will probably lead them to the stereotypical Walk Like An Egyptian look. We're familiar with them, yes. Did some interesting things with triangles. ;o) Egyptian it is.
