Thursday, December 8, 2011
Post for December 12
For your blog post this week I want to keep it simple as you SHOULD all be preparing for your exams in anticipation of the questions. For your post think back through the semester and pick out a piece of evidence, fact, particular topic, etc. that either confirmed or changed our expectations about ancient Egypt. Alternatively you could compare something learned this semester with similar phenomena in a different culture (including your own) or another historical period. Keep it to one paragraph and don't worry about referencing. I want to see what resonated with you all throughout the semester.
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Throughout the semester, I have noted the unwavering devotion of the Egyptian people to their king. They undoubtedly believe that he is divine and never question his abilities as a ruler. They know that he is not only the ruler and a god, but he is also a priest, he makes all important decisions and is a warrior in battle, yet, in reality one person is not capable of accomplishing all of these tasks. They only question his authority in severe times of trouble i.e. an irregular flood of the Nile, famine, foreign invasion, etc. Some peoples, such as the craftsmen at Deir el-Medina and servants of the king, dedicate their whole lives to serving the good graces of the Pharaoh by building his tomb or carrying his sandals. This sense of devotion is definitely unique in terms of examining the cultures of ancient times. Today, we see rulers being overthrown and democracy taking over, which is definitely the exact opposite of how a ruler was viewed in ancient Egypt. Anymore, religion and rule have been severely separated in many places, yet, Ancient Egypt shows us how the two went hand in hand and every political issue, economic crisis, and topographical element either depended on or was influenced by theology and Egyptian belief.
ReplyDeleteI found the fact that the pharaoh was ingrained into the religion of the state very interesting. This integrated the power of the government into the thought process of the citizens, keeping them trapped in both religion and government. Additionally, this meant that any dissent against the rule of the king or the government was deemed sacrilegious, discouraging such behavior. This is similar to a medieval Europe where the church was the law, and affected the decisions of the state. (and eerily similar to a certain contemporary country). Since Ancient Egypt was one of the earliest great civilizations, this means that ruling bodies have been using religion to control citizens for a very, very long time.
ReplyDeleteThe piece of evidence that resonated with me the most this semester was the selection from McDowell about the various rules and practices for renting donkeys. I was surprised that there were such detailed instructions for leasing donkeys in Deir el-Medina. The way in which disputes over rentals were documented and dealt with reminded me a lot of modern-day disputes over renting machinery or property. There were specific allowances in place for who was responsible for damage to the donkey, just as in a lease for an apartment there are various responsibilities that have to be upheld. I think that it was the extent of the concern about the care and economic importance of donkeys that made me realize that Egyptian society was not just a vague exotic past, but that they had very similar concerns to us: progressing economically, maintaining their property, and dealing with the pragmatics of everyday life.
ReplyDeleteI found the importance placed on afterlife in Egypt very unique. This aspect of religion involved every social class and members of society often prepared for their burial from a fairly young age. Devoting such work and time to one's burial was the one common thing uniting all Egyptians, even in different time periods. Whether a craftsmen being commissioned, an elite collecting goods, or a peasant trying to scrape together some meager belongings, it afterlife was a high priority for every man. I can't thing of something today in our country that is not only so timeless, but also so universal throughout all classes. Certainly the lastingness of this tradition can be blamed on the connection between politics and religion in Egypt. In that sense, I actually think there was a benefit of tying the two so closely.
ReplyDeleteThe most surprising element in this course is that the reality of ancient Egypt is so far off from the Hollywood and media-driven portrayals of what it is supposed to be. One always hears stories about the ancient magic and various traps and curses in the tombs and how people were actually seriously injured and cursed when they attempted to rob the tombs. However, heka is mostly used for medicinal purposes and other good uses such as protecting a pregnant mother or warding off evil spirits or preventing crocodile attacks. Further, tomb texts are mostly texts about the deceased and passages from The Book of the Dead regarding the afterlife. Even though ancient Egyptians were definitely preoccupied by the notion of tomb security (evident in the job title of medjay, who patrolled the Valley of the Kings), Hollywood has largely exaggerated the mythical aspect of tomb security. There seem not to be secret passages (beside the shaft, I suppose) or a rock which triggers arrows to suddenly be released. However, one thing Hollywood did get right is the vast treasures within these tombs - the beautiful artwork on the wall, the sacrophagus, religious objects made out of gold and other valuable material, etc etc (in the king's tomb, that is). It is just surprising that Egyptians had normal daily lives (even if all they cared about half of the time was their tombs) and they were not that extraordinary (only in the sense of magic and tomb security, I do believe ancient Egypt was incredibly advanced in the context of law, morality, and science for its time).
ReplyDeleteWhat I found most surprising were the laws and ethics of Ancient Egypt. During that lecture, I couldn't help but think that in many ways Ancient Egypt was more forward thinking than many modern cultures. Women could own property, couples could get divorced, and there was a system set up for punishment and for bartering. Wages were carefully delegated by scribes and prices were measured. They had their own units to standardize trade. Everything the Egyptians seemed to do was measured out carefully and purposefully and could easily be replicated. This also shows in their tomb measurements. The society was clearly preoccupied with everything being laid out, even such things just instructions for their sons (Teaching of Merikare). Throughout the whole semester I just felt that the Ancient Egyptians were advanced way before their time.
ReplyDeleteBefore taking this course, never before would I have guessed the devotion the Ancient Egyptians had for their Gods. Of course, I assumed that they were pious people, however, they worshipped in ways I never even thought possible. For example, I was very surprised to learn about the procedures regarding the God's statues that took place in the temples. The statues of the Gods, which the God's spirits were meant to inhabit, were bathed and clothed and fed thrice daily as if they were living, breathing entities. Only the holiest of priests were allowed to be near, let alone tend to these statues within the temples. The Egyptians regarded these statues of the Gods so highly that they were sometimes paraded around for the people to see. The spectators asked questions to the statues and based on how they moved, they received their answer. Of all of the primary sources that we read for this course, I can't recall one in which an Egyptian questioned the authenticity of these statues of the Gods. Nobody once said "But that's just a statue and it's obvious that the priests are just moving it themselves. There's no way that the Gods are actually responding to our questions." I think that the extreme piousness of the Ancient Egyptian people is something that makes them incredibly unique and probably strengthened the structure of their communities.
ReplyDeleteI think the Harem Conspiracy case confirmed some of the corruption in Egyptian culture that Hollywood glamorizes. Before entering this class, I only had some basic knowledge about tomb art and pyramids through an art history course I took in high school. Besides these visuals, I had somewhat of an idea of Egyptian classes through its depiction in movies. In movies such as The Mummy we see aspects of Egyptian culture, but the plot and storyline affirm that our suspicions can’t be plausible. What is interesting to note, however, is that because Egyptians believed in magic and black magic, the idea of a mummy waking from the dead maybe isn’t as far fetched as I think it is now? I’m not sure if this is something Egyptians believed possible.
ReplyDeleteFilled with corruption, betrayal, lies, and magic I think the Harem Conspiracy case would make for an entertaining movie idea. It is through this case we can see many themes we’ve learned about over the semester – maat, law and order, ethics, magic, Gods, class structure… It was one of the very few times someone tried to challenge the mighty, god-like Pharaoh. It's interesting to think about what was going on in society around that time. Of course, it was the queen who wanted her son to become ruler that sparked the conspiracy, but actually executing the plan and getting people to back you up suggests possible economical, political, and social turmoil.
I always knew that Ancient Egyptians placed a fairly large portion of faith on the afterlife, but I did not understand the specifics of their beliefs. Something that I found particularly interesting was their great devotion to the preparation of their tombs. Spending an incredible amount of “deben” on their grave’s art, furniture, structure and inscriptions; people made a remarkable effort to showcase their lives after death. I had always seen the pyramids as the Egyptian homage to death, but figured only the pharaohs reserved such a right. Another aspect of life and death that I really enjoyed learning about (and didn’t know previously) was the idea of the ba and the ka; the ka as a part of earthly life and the ba traveling through the afterlife. I had always realized that the ancients placed significance on life after death, but did not understand these in terms of the human soul (or know that they believed in an idea of the human soul similar to many contemporary humans, for that matter).
ReplyDeleteThe concept that surprised me the most this semester was ancient Egyptians' relationship with the most divine god(s) and how those gods changed over the course of time. Before taking this course, I had thought that the Sun god Re was the only "all mighty" god in Egyptian religion. However, through this course I learned that there were other gods just as powerful and influential as Re, for example Osiris. Additionally, I was shocked when I learned that Akhenaten denied all previous gods and goddesses and only set Amun-Re as the divine god. I wonder how ancient Egyptians kept up with these changes in religion, since it seems like no other religions in other cultures seemed/seem to radically change their central beliefs.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it was interesting to see the tomb robbers in ancient Egypt. Since Egyptians valued their tombs and religion so much, I would never have imagined that Egyptians could actually dig up someone's tomb and steal items from there. I saw many modern people trying to discover treasure from ancient tombs in the movie, "The Mummy," so I only expected modern people to commit such a crime, but I guess it was not. I wonder if those tomb robbers actually had got cursed by the pharaohs. Well, professor Morris said metals such as gold and silver from a tomb were worth 50 years of salary, so I understand why Egyptians were blindly robbing the tombs. Also, the Hahkatnak letter (sorry I can’t spell it), stories about donkey business, and literature in Simpson made me think that Egyptians were same like normal people in these days. They pursued happiness, wanted to get rich, and shared emotions like we do. I’ve always thought that ancient Egyptians were somewhat distant from contemporary people, but they were not. This Egypt of Pharaohs class was such a fun class because I could attain a new perspective on ancient people and further, humanity.
ReplyDeleteAncient Egypt had a number of mythological stories to explain occurrences in the world around them. We can see this in pretty much every culture whether it is one that is modern or one that existed years back. For example, one Native American tribe had a unique story to explain why the moon sometimes turned red (what we now know as a lunar eclipse). As Professor Morris said in lecture a while back, certain maladies were attributed to the person’s wrongdoings or even the work of demons and this is where sometimes amulets or other trinkets were brought in as aid. The Romans, the Greeks, and the Egyptians all had sun gods just called by different names (Apollo, Phoebus, Ra and all his other counterparts). The religion of ancient Egypt had its own take on creation as well by describing the world as (introducing us to characters such as Nut, Geb, etc.) This is not unique to Egypt since we can see this in contemporary religions such as Christianity and its story about God’s 7-day creation process and the Garden of Eden .
ReplyDeleteBefore taking this course, I always thought of a culture's religion having one or a few Gods. For example, in the West there is Christ, and Budha in the East. And some cultures, like old Korea believed in natural things such as tree, earth and such. Whilst taking the course I learned that literally everything has its own god. God of right, wrong etc. And that the king is deified also. In Korea the King was also deified but 'not as much' in the manner a Pharaoh was treated. Also, of course it was the responsibility of the kings to 'get things right' in a country, like making sure everyone was fed well and stuff. But for a Pharaoh it was more sort of a destiny. It seemed as if it was 'all his fault' where in Korea king addressed the fault to his officials. Also I found the emphasis on after life very intriguing, because it is similar in my culture too. In old Korea people used to put a coin in the mouth of the dead so he can use the money to find his way after life, eating delicious stuff. We still do it today that we give some money when going to a funeral. Also, we believed that a proper funeral was needed for one to 'sleep well' and we annually do rituals for the dead. in Egypt, too, do a lot for the dead. They also have to give offerings to the dead or else the dead will get angry? and come talk to you, like mentioned in the Ghost Story. ALso the Egyptians drew drawing on the coffins that are supposed to be the map to find his way after life. So the emphasis on after death also was very similar to my culture.
ReplyDeleteWe have covered several primary texts this semester, and the one thing I have noticed throughout our discussion is the tone and diction used by the Ancient Egyptians. In almost all of the translated sources we have read, the Egyptians exhibited a formal voice full of nobility, poise and logic. I don't know if the tone we hear in english was the same in spoken Egyptian, or if the formality is a result of many translations into English. Either way., I think it is safe to say that the people of Ancient Egypt, especially the nobility and royal family, spoke with a formality that is very different from the way our individuals of power speak today.
ReplyDeleteThe most surprising thing for me when it came to learning about Ancient Egypt was the level of importance of the afterlife and what it meant to the Ancient Egyptians. Even before taking this course, I had some knowledge about Ancient Egypt, based on what you learn in public school as a child, but now I realized that these people basically lived their lives based on their religion, and ultimately on having a good afterlife. I knew about the mummification process from movies such as The Mummy, but it never occurred to me that people were spending most of their youth designing their coffins and preparing for death. It is pretty mind boggling for me because in this time period, people would normally consider that doing something like that is very depressing, but that only goes to show how the way of life changes as technology got better and people could live longer.
ReplyDeleteThe Egyptians' preoccupation with death is most interesting when compared to today's view on death. In what we've learned about the Egyptians' rituals when it comes to respecting the dead, there was never an explicit sense that they viewed it as negatively or neutrally as people do today. (Note: I can only speak from my experiences having grown up in the U.S.) In other words, there is an increasing agnostic or atheistic sentiment in the U.S. regarding the nature of death. Either it is purely an emotional drawback in life, with no links to the idea of a "religious" hope and an afterlife, or it is strictly a biological inevitability that need not be frowned upon but rather, seen as just another part of the cycle of life. To the ancient Egyptians, however, death was highly religious, meaning they tied it closely with their idea on the afterlife and how they paid their respects to the gods. They did this so extensively that it almost appears as if they looked forward to or enjoyed tending to and communicating with the dead. Nowadays, however, I find a far more negatively superstitious attitude regarding interaction with the dead to take prevalence; the use of ouija boards, for instance, may be seen more as a "pagan" practice. Of course, the practice of maintaining close ties with the dead continues on in many cultures today, such as in Mexican culture with its Day of the Dead celebration.
ReplyDeleteAfter a semester of Ancient Egyptian studies, I have found the most fascinating aspect of this time period to be the focus on religion. Before taking this class, I knew that the Egyptians were a very religion based society; however, I was unaware of the degree to which religion and real life intermingled. I found the texts about the early religious stages and formation to be the most compelling, as real life and religions really seemed to be inseparable. For some primary sources, it was nearly impossible to determine what was religion and what was a metaphor for real life. It seems that the Egyptian revered religion to a degree that far surpasses anything we can imagine in modern times.
ReplyDeleteMost interesting aspect?
ReplyDeleteThe Egyptians’ obsession with death was the civilization’s sacred lifeblood. As time passed, its declining role surpassed an undefined but critical threshold, leading to the ultimate destruction of the civilization.
Sacrifices for tomb
Spent large part of salary preparing tomb
Various trinkets (‘work substitutes’)
Spend whole life preparing tomb
Prayer is part of every day life (any job matched to religious afterlife equivalent)
Concern for death begins high, then declines.
This was decreasing as the centuries went on. Started high (everyday farming was ‘coped with’ by singing songs of praise to those who will judge you) Soon villagers were inscribing King’s names on their tomb walls Rampant tomb robbing, and it permeated every social class of society.
Lack of concern for death correlates with destruction of civilization.
With decreasing concern for death, gods, and the afterlife, there were coincidentally increasing examples of death showing up elsewhere (famines, drought, strikes, High Priest of Amun as ruler) until foreigners invaded, and Egypt’s civilization was destroyed.
Perhaps modern society’s declining concern for death represents a parallel for our destruction in 2012?