Letteratura scientifica selezionata sul tema "Life (Egyptian religion)"

The author explores the ancient Egyptian religion’s perspective on value of a human life during the latter part of the Old Kingdom, the First Intermediate Period, and the Middle Kingdom.Polytheistic ritualistic “communal” religions, where ethics did not play a significant role, are typical for the epoch of early antiquity, and the Egyptian views discussed in the article mostly align with this context. It was believed that the gods were concerned about the Egyptian people’s safety and well-being primarily because these were indispensable preconditions for abundant provisions and seamless performance of divine cults. Created ultimately to produce and offer sacrificial gifts to the gods, the Egyptians were kind of their “flock”, “the gods’ (little) livestock”. However, the gods were thought to have little involvement in the individual lives of the king’s subjects: their benevolent attention was focused on the pharaoh, who personified the state. Since the king formally was the sole authorized performer of liturgical rituals, Egyptian religion had a pronounced communal nature that hindered the development of the concept of a man’s enduring personal connection with a deity. Within this framework, moral excellence was deemed essential for an individual to gain favor with the ruler, whereas divine recompence during one’s lifetime for piety and virtue was deemed hardly predictable.

New archaeological and papyrological discoveries in the Egyptian desert are destined to impact the study of religion in late antiquity. This extended review of An Oasis City (2015) will highlight some of most important findings related to the religious diversity of the region. The tremendous wealth of the new discoveries offers insight into the development of religion during the later Roman Empire. Building on this archaeological overview of Amheida (ancient Trimithis in the Dakhleh Oasis), this paper discusses the local situation of Egyptian religion, Christianity, and Manichaeism in late antiquity, with a particular focus on religious diversity and interaction in everyday life.

In this paper, the author aims to analyze the cultural and historical view of religious, philosophical, and mystical searches of Ancient Egyptian in the works by V.Rozanov. The interest in the Egyptian civilization, as an important feature of the turn of the-century era, shows V.Rozanov’s desire to carry out a dialogue with ancientry, from which all religious and philosophical concepts originate. The purpose of the research is to represent the views of V.Rozanov concerning the themes of immortality and deities in Ancient Egypt, the principles of astrology and cosmogony in the culture of ancientry, as well as the relationship of the Ancient Egyptian and Christian religions. According to V.Rozanov, Ancient Egypt was a land, where the principle of silence hided life force and vitality, which has found expression in the longevity of civilization. V.Rozanov focuses on the idea that the Ancient Egyptians were the most religious people that presented the developed doctrine of immortality, which became the fundamental thought of their religion. Rozanov shows the role of stellar astrology, physical and natural phenomena, and also underlines varieties of the religious cult that existed in Egypt, in which he highlights the images of Osiris and Isis. Rozanov particularly notes that, despite the belief in spells and wizardry, the Ancient Egyptian overcame the fear of the mysterious and unknown at a certain stage of development, and then made efforts to build a connection with It.

Hedgehogs held a special place in ancient Egyptian life like many other desert- and marsh-dwelling animals. Their natural defensive qualities were admired by ancient Egyptians and their bodily parts, notably their hardened spines, were used as ingredients in medico-magical prescriptions. In tomb reliefs of the late 3rd Millennium BCE, hedgehogs are represented being carried alive by offering bearers or as background participants in desert hunting scenes. In later periods of Egyptian history, rattles, small unguent vessels, and scaraboid amulets were made in their shape, all of which are presumed to have had apotropaic purposes. A particular votive object of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BCE) is a palm-sized modelled boat with a prow in the shape of a hedgehog head, which has been discovered at sites throughout Egypt. A similar representation of this motif is the so-called ‘Henet’-boat (from the word ḥnt[j]) with a hedgehog head at the prow facing inwards, which is found in late Old Kingdom art. This article reassesses the role of hedgehogs as protective or apotropaic entities and their association with boats, considering how ancient Egyptians understood their ecology and their predation of snakes, scorpions, and similar stinging creatures. An updated list is provided of known representations of hedgehog-head boats, including petroglyphs and as yet unpublished examples from tombs at Giza and Saqqara. The meaning of the ancient Egyptian word ḥnt(j) is also rexamined in relation to the representation of riverine and marsh-water boats in Old Kingdom tombs.

Abstract This article sheds light on a neglected episode in the scholarship on Egypt's intellectual life in the interwar period, as well as on the Arab renaissance (Nahda) and its intensive preoccupation with the triangle of religion, science, and secularism. The discussion focuses on a provocative manifesto published in 1937 by an Egyptian writer Ismaʿil Ahmad Adham, which called for a godless universe. Adham's challenge to established religions is framed within a broader historical and intellectual context. It raises the following questions: How unique is Adham's atheism in the Egyptian and Arab writings of his time? What can we learn from the public discussions of his views about Egyptian civil culture in the 1930s and its commitment to a democratic ethos? Addressing these questions from a comparative perspective in both Islamic and European history may contribute much to the understanding of Arab debates about the existence of God.

The article presents a comparative analysis of Sufism as one of the most important sides of the Muslim religion in the Mamluk and Ottoman periods of Egyptian history. The aim of the study is to trace the changes in various aspects of the mystical-ascetic movement and determine its role in the social, political, religious and cultural spheres of life of the Egyptians. Both epochs are significant for the formation of a systematized, ideologically shaped Sufism and for its popular, non-systemic stream, and its useful to note that the its greatest flowering occurs during the period of Ottoman rule.

✓ In contemporary anatomical nomenclature terms have often been derived from an ancient perspective of the human body. The term “spinal column” was used in ancient Egypt, symbolized by the “djet column.” The authors discuss the first appearance of the term “spinal column,” taking the ancient Egyptian interaction between religion and daily life into consideration, and they describe the different segments of the spinal column known to the ancient Egyptians. Inspection of medical papyri provides insight into the knowledge held by ancient Egyptian physicians and embalmers. It is assumed that hieroglyphs were used to depict the different vertebral regions of the spinal column (cervical, thoracic, and lumbar). The knowledge was gleaned, in fact, in pursuit of religious goals. The djet might be an example of how anatomical knowledge can improve understanding of a symbol that was previously thought to have a primarily religious meaning. The authors maintain that modern medical knowledge is useful for making a more precise and anatomically correct interpretation of the presumed sense intended by the ancient Egyptians.

The author explores specific manifestations of the phenomenon of syncretism in theMeroereligion, as well as the factors, which did significantly contribute to it. She traces these factors on a wide time scale starting from the early archaeological cultures of theNileValleyto the Hellenistic time. The main subject of research is the cult of the gods, as well as the myths and rituals, which did accompany worship. The article deals with concepts of ‘unity and multitude’, which were instrumental for creation of local concepts of Egyptian deities. According to the author, this was the beginning of syncretism. Both the subsequent adaptation and acculturation can be seen in rethinking and creating images that retained many primordial Egyptian features. The Meroe ‘friend or foe’ concept could be traced on specific forms of adaptation of ‘enemy’ images to the Meroitic culture and the subsequent perception of them as “own” or “local”. One can identify this process as “inversion”, which run in two directions: the “alien”, i.e. Egyptian gods in fullness of time became “own” gods inMeroe, the gods ofKush, in their turn became part of the Egyptian pantheon. The results of the process, which culminated in creation of a syncretic culture can be seen in emergence of new hitherto unknown deities, which were distinguished by combination of various Greek, Egyptian and Meroitic features. The Hellenistic features ofMeroedeities came to this culture viaEgypt. The formation of the syncreticMeroereligion up to the beginning of the Christian era was marked by the mutual influence and coexistence of “borrowed” deities as well as those, which came into being in course of the process of “borrowing”. The phenomenon of syncretism was spread through many aspects of religious life covering not just individual images of deities or various ritual practices, but also the whole theological system ofEgypt. In the history of the world religions this was the first recorded spread of religious teaching beyond its historical borders and the subsequent adaptation to an “alien”, Sudanese culture.

This study examines the discursive trajectories of the cosmopolitan Egyptian Jew in the documentaries Salata baladi (Nadia Kamel, 2007) and ‘An Yahud Misr (Amir Ramses, 2012) in light of Youssef Chahine’s classic al-Iskandariyya … leh (1978). Undoubtedly, each of these films provides a complex story of Jewish life in Egypt and, taken together, these creative works offer an alternative to formulaic representations of Jews in Egyptian cinema and television. Yet, a close analysis of the three films reveals an underlying problematic rendering of cosmopolitanism in the context of the Egyptian Jewish community. Arguably, the filmmakers’ main interest in attending to the Jewish question relates more to nostalgic views of Egyptianness (of the pre-1952 Revolution era) as a cosmopolitan, multiethnic and multi-religious identity, than to a genuine interest in Jewish life, history and religion. In other words, the limited and skewed view of the Jewish community, with its near exclusion of the poor, uneducated, monolingual and religiously traditional Jewish residents of Egypt, is driven primarily by anxieties about Egyptian identity in which cosmopolitan Jews are assigned a supporting role in the play of an idealized Egypt of the past and in challenging xenophobic sentiments in the present.

Ancient Egyptian civilization is very often talked about. This is not surprising given the great legacy of the ancient Egyptian leaders. What is taken for discussion is the belief system of the ancient Egyptian people. There are so many things related to Egypt in terms of their civilization which can be said to be very large and extraordinary at that time. The relics that are considered the most historic are the Pyramids which were built using very heavy stone. Then, another thing that was discussed was about the belief of the Egyptian people in the existence of many gods and recognizing and respecting the sanctity of certain animals. In this paper, using a qualitative approach to the method of literature study, through exploration of various data such as books, journals and others. The result of this study is to find that ancient Egyptian folk beliefs were more focused on the number of gods and considered that Pharaoh was the representative of the gods and as a means of intermediary between the people and the gods. Pharaohs who are believed to have sacred powers to intercede for their people with the goddess in the field of knowledge, the ancient Egyptians focused on mathematics and astronomy, they also used the calendar to calculate planting time, the language used comes from the ancient Greek language contained in the covenant called stone. the ancient rosetta hunting system, still uses the hunting system, still uses weapons such as spears and arrows and farms on the banks of the nile because apart from that the area is dry because of the desert, social life is divided into 3 castes, namely upper caste, middle caste and lower caste. Keywords: Ancient Egypt, civilization, religion, history.

This thesis is based upon ethnographic fieldwork carried out in and around three secondary schools and Tahrir Square in urban Cairo between October 2009 and December 2011. It explores the lives of young Egyptians at the time of their secondary schooling and the Arab spring through examining the contradictions and ambivalence of the coming of age for middle class young people inside the school and in the wider everyday life in urban Cairo. This thesis seeks to understand, by examining the social theory on the tension between structure and agency, the way through which disciplinarian interventions enable youth's articulation of critical dispositions and forms of resistance. This thesis, whilst it embarks by looking at the deterioration of the formal schooling system in Egypt after thirty years under Mubarak's rule, examines the extent to which the everyday educational studentship circumstances had constrained the sorts of subjects that Egyptian youth could become and which would constitute them as young and educated in contemporary Egypt. Whilst education, in its broader meaning, emerged as being undeniably crucial for young Egyptians' project for social mobility, secondary schools are presented not as venues for socialisation or reproduction of inequalities but rather as an ambivalent and contradictory resource. The young Egyptians who were the subjects of this thesis negotiated meritocratic aspirations at the intersections of their transversal educational circumstances, and the norms of patriarchy and subordination of their wider everyday life. The forms of exclusion and tension about the future have affected young Egyptians' articulation of their critical dispositions of hopelessness and ambivalence. Their engagement in the Tahrir riots and occupational actions and demanding their right to the city, manifested their emerging political consciousness and capacity to produce new spatial meanings and practices.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In studying ancient Egypt researchers have a great advantage, in that there is a multitude of recorded material to draw from. Unfortunately for anyone interested in studying ancient Egyptian women, the recorded material was most often recorded by, commissioned by, and concerned with, men; royal or high-ranking men to be precise (Robins, 1993: 11-12). Thus, we must look into non-textual artefacts and offerings which may have a symbolic meaning. Though, the textual sources should not be neglected, since these may hold clues to the position and perception of women in society: perceptions held by men. This thesis has drawn largely on art and artefacts to investigate the relationship between women in ancient Egypt and the goddess Hathor. Women are traditionally the mothers, caretakers and homemakers of society. But they are not only that. Women are also individuals, capable of individual thought, feelings, anxieties, hopes and dreams; and like their male counterparts, women also experience religion. But, as was clearly displayed in the thesis, Egyptian women not only experienced religion, they lived religion. In the ancient Egyptian context there was no escaping religion. It must also be understood that the ancient Egyptians thought that the man was the seat of creation and that semen was the essence of creation (according to the cosmogony of Heliopolis, cf. Cooney, 2008: 2). A failure to conceive would be placed directly upon the shoulders of the woman, and could be grounds enough for divorce (Robins, 1993: 63). Women in ancient societies served the main function of child-rearing. This may seem backward, but it was an essential function, without which society would cease to function. When a woman failed to conceive, she in essence failed her function as a woman; many women (and men) in this situation turned to religion. This is where this thesis topic comes into play, since Hathor was a goddess of sexuality and fertility, but also had aspects of safeguarding and caretaking. Women were naturally drawn to her and she developed a large cult following, with cult centres scattered throughout Egypt. Not only were many of her followers female, but her priests were also female (Gillam, 1995: 211-212). Hathor might have been the most relatable of the goddesses because of her dual-nature; she is a caretaker and sexual being, but she can also become fierce and even bloodthirsty. Devotion to Hathor was widespread, with cult centres at Deir el-Bahari, Faras, Mirgissa, Serabit el-Khadim, Timna, Gebel Zeit and elsewhere, each with its own large deposit of votive offerings (Pinch, 1993). Hathor is also referenced in letters between females in a family, as one daughter writes to her mother: “May Hathor gladden you for my sake” (Wente, 1990: 63). It is because of this that this thesis investigated to what an extent ancient Egyptian women had a relationship with her.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In die ondersoek van ou Egipte, het navorsers `n groot voordeel, deurdat daar `n groot verskeidenheid bronne beskikbaar is om mee te werk. Ongelukkig, vir enigeen wat daarin geïnteresseerd is om die antieke Egiptiese vrou na te vors, is die meerderheid van die bronne deur mans opgeteken, of in opdrag van hulle, en het ook betrekking op mans; koninklike of hooggeplaaste mans, om meer spesifiek te wees (Robins, 1993: 11-12). Daarom, moet ons ook ongeskrewe artefakte en offerandes bestudeer, wat moontlik simboliese betekenisse kan inhou. Dit beteken egter nie dat ons wel geskrewe bronne moet ignoreer nie, aangesien dit tog leidrade oor die posisie van vroue in die samelewing en hoe hulle deur mans beskou is, kan verskaf. Hierdie tesis het grootliks gebruik maak van kuns en artefakte om die verhouding tussen die vroue van antieke Egipte en die godin Hathor na te vors. Volgens tradisie, is vrouens die moeders, oppassers en tuisteskeppers van `n gemeenskap, maar hulle is nie net dit nie. Vroue is ook individue, in staat tot hul eie gedagtes, gevoelens, vrese, hoop en drome; en nes hul manlike eweknieë, kan vroue ook geloof ervaar. Maar, soos duidelik in die tesis uiteengesit is, het Egiptiese vroue nie net geloof ervaar nie, maar geloof geleef. In die antieke Egiptiese konteks was geloof onontkombaar. Die leser moet ook verstaan dat die antieke Egiptenare geglo het dat die man die skeppingsbron was and dat semen die kern van die skepping was (volgens die Heliopolis Kosmogonie, vgl. Cooney, 2008: 2). Indien „n egpaar probleme ondervind het om swanger te raak, het die blaam direk op die vrou se skouers gerus en was ook `n aanvaarde rede vir egskeiding (Robins, 1993: 63). Vroue in antieke gemeenskappe het hoofsaaklik gedien om kinders groot te maak. Dit mag dalk “agterlik” voorkom, maar dit was `n essensiële rol, waarsonder die gemeenskap nie sou kon funksioneer nie. Indien `n vrou nie kon swanger word nie, het sy in essensie in haar doel as `n vrou misluk; daarom het baie vroue (en mans) in hierdie situasie hulle na godsdiens gekeer. Dit is hier waar hierdie tesis aansluit, aangesien Hathor `n godin van seksualiteit en vrugbaarheid was, maar ook aspekte van beskerming en versorging gehad het. Vroue was natuurlik tot haar aangetrokke, `n groot gevolg het om haar kultus versamel en kultus-sentrums het deur Egipte versprei. Nie net was haar navolgers vroulik nie, maar ook haar priesters was vroulik (Gillam, 1995: 211-212). Hathor was moontlik die godin waarmee die mense die maklikste kon identifiseer, omdat sy `n tweeledige natuur gehad het; sy was `n versorger en `n seksuele wese, maar sy kon ook kwaai en bloeddorstig raak. Die aanbidding van Hathor was wydverspreid, met kultus-sentrums by Deir el-Bahari, Faras, Mirgissa, Serabit el-Khadim, Timna, Gebel Zeit en elders, elk met sy eie groot versameling artefakte (Pinch, 1993). Hathor word ook benoem in briewe tussen vroulike familielede, soos een dogter aan haar moeder skryf: “Mag Hathor jou bly maak vir my onthalwe” (Wente, 1990: 63). Dit is hoekom hierdie tesis nagevors het tot wat `n mate daar `n verhouding tussen antieke Egiptiese vroue en Hathor bestaan het.

Abstract Much of the surviving evidence of Egyptian piety consists of stelae, funerary monuments, and other records that are standardized and formal and thus difficult to relate to everyday religious ideas and practice. Moreover, the cult as conducted in the major temples those most prominent monuments of New Kingdom religion-was an affair of state, the purpose of which was to maintain the goodwill of the gods and to reaffirm the order of the world and oppose the forces of chaos. As a professional priesthood emerged to run the increasingly powerful temples, there is some doubt whether the common man was much concerned with what went on behind the temple pylons.

This chapter pays attention to the Egyptian experience of the Elephantine Jews. It maintains that there are two areas in Egyptian life that merit a renewed inquiry because they are central to the Elephantine experience. One is the role of Jews as soldiers in the service of the Persians; the other concerns their religion. On both scores, the Papyrus Amherst 63 has bearing—modest in one case, significant in the other. This chapter looks first at the military side of the colony, then discusses various aspects of the religious life of what was essentially a temple community, and finally seeks to present the profile of the various gods that the Jews venerated.

A large proportion of the inscriptional evidence from Alexandria illustrates the key role of religious institutions and activities, under direct or indirect royal patronage, in the formation of a diverse and flexible cultural environment affording multiple permutations. As part of this environment, religion became the vehicle for the promotion of an ideological programme, appropriate for communicating the dual (i.e. Macedonian and Egyptian) character of the Ptolemaic monarchy in which the individual rulers have both human and divine characteristics. This chapter provides an updated chronological overview of the relevant epigraphic evidence, focusing on the roles and relationships of the Ptolemies and their courtiers as well as of other prominent individuals involved in the Alexandrian cults and temples. The discussion takes into account other types of material evidence for comparison, where possible, in order to provide as ‘panoramic’ a view as possible of the religious landscape.

More than any other modernist, H.D. made of religion, occultism, mythology, spirituality, spiritualism, and paranormal experience a life-long study. Her breadth and depth of knowledge about these subjects are unparalleled among her peers, her appetite voracious. Her personal library contained an astounding array of books on a range of subjects, including Eastern and Western mysticism; Swedenborgianism; the Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita, tales of the Buddha, the Midrash, and the Apocrypha; theosophy and theories of Atlantis; Ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian, American Indian, and Greek mythology; spiritualism and ghosts; reincarnation; magic, astrology; Tarot, prophecy, witchcraft, fortune telling, cheirognomy, and cheiromancy; parapsychology; Hermeticism; angels and saints; Gnosticism; Katharism and the Kabbalah; and the Amish and Moravian sects. Offering readings of her poetry and prose engaged with spirituality, this comprehensive overview traces the trajectory of her intensive study of heterodox spirituality from birth to the end of her life, represents the extraordinary breadth of her knowledge, and treats everyday aspects of her practices, including the ways in which the sexual and spiritual are intertwined.

This chapter assesses how The Mummy (1932) approaches ancient Egypt and the ways in which it reflects contemporary attitudes towards the place and era. Although set almost entirely in the Cairo of 1932, The Mummy shows little concern with twentieth-century Egypt; indeed, many of the principal characters are not even Egyptian. In The Mummy, the Egypt of the 1930s is treated merely as a midway point between Western civilisation and the era of the Pharaohs: a land of museums, excavations, archaeologists, and the occasional revived mummy. The chapter then studies how the spectre of Tutankhamun permeates the film. The Mummy appears to have lifted basic details of Tutankhamun's life and worked them into an almost entirely fictitious story. With its themes of death, resurrection, and the afterlife, The Mummy also frequently touches upon ancient Egyptian religion. Finally, there is the phenomenon that originally prompted Universal Pictures to head to Egypt for inspiration: the cursed tomb.

This chapter emplaces the controversial Transvaal fatwa of Egyptian reformist jurist, Muḥammad ʿAbduh (d. 1905), within a longer history of inter-Muslim debates around wearing European headgear spanning nearly a century—from its antecedents in the reformist writings of a Tunisian-French Muslim thinker who has been largely forgotten to its afterlife in the bitter debates between ʿAbduh’s reformist defenders and conservative detractors during the first half of the twentieth century, roughly the period in which Egypt was under British control. These legal debates over Muslim headgear lay bare competing imaginaries over the proper configuration of religion—and Islam—in Muslim public life.

As life approaches expectancy and senescence actualizes, the regenerative capacity of the vital organs and their functionality is reduced. Such a reality gives rise the need to identify with a better purpose in life. Religion and spirituality assume a central role in the wellness and healthcare in such circumstances. Although societies and civilizations differ in their religious and spiritual orientations, all peoples everywhere ascribe to some God or gods. The globalization of religion was initiated sometime between the late Bronze Age and late classical antiquity. The pivotal point was characterized by a conversion from polytheism, or primary religions as practiced by the Ancient Egyptians; Phoenicians; Babylonians; Greek; and Romans on the one hand, to monotheism—secondary religions characterized by the worship of one supreme God. Religion and spirituality has now become the one and remaining source of solace for the terminally ill.

As life approaches expectancy and senescence actualizes, the regenerative capacity of the vital organs and their functionality is reduced. Such a reality gives rise the need to identify with a better purpose in life. Religion and spirituality assume a central role in the wellness and healthcare in such circumstances. Although societies and civilizations differ in their religious and spiritual orientations, all peoples everywhere ascribe to some God or gods. The globalization of religion was initiated sometime between the late Bronze Age and late classical antiquity. The pivotal point was characterized by a conversion from polytheism, or primary religions as practiced by the Ancient Egyptians; Phoenicians; Babylonians; Greek; and Romans on the one hand, to monotheism—secondary religions characterized by the worship of one supreme God. Religion and spirituality has now become the one and remaining source of solace for the terminally ill.

This article presents the definition of myth as one of the important components of ethnic culture. Some ancient mythical systems are analyzed: Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indian, Greek, Roman. It is found that in later historical epochs, with the systematization and recognition of the value of scientific knowledge, the merit of the myth of exemplifying reality becomes more and more plausible, remaining as a value at the level of aesthetic exercise. All world and national religions, as institutional exponents of some myths to the detriment of others, have had a confrontation with mythological phenomena. It is emphasized that through the existence of myths, the human being has managed to evolve. With the help of myths, man maintains his origin. Through the presence of myths the human being is organized in society. It is mentioned that myth is not only the first form of culture, but also man’s change of the spiritual life, which is preserved even when the myth loses its absolute importance. Myth is the oldest system of values. Thus, culture evolves from myth to knowledge, from imagination to law.