This paper studies the phenomenon of legal incapacity in Ancient Egypt throughout the ages, with special attention for the Graeco-Roman evidence in Demotic, the late stage of the indigenous language and script. Because the concept of guardianship is in many ways problematic for the Egyptian tradition, the paper looks at some areas of legal discrimination, and examines how differently women, the under-aged or the old were treated in the case of capitation taxes or the performance of legal acts, specifically inheritance. In all, the evidence points towards very minor discrimination of certain population categories: they were probably considered as constitutive members or membres-to-be of society. While they had most rights and could perform legal acts, as «weaker» individuals they were often assisted by others. As is typical for Egyptian law, much remains implicit. This is certainly annoying for legal historians, but may well be symptomatic of a strong sense of what was legally
«proper».
