The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs | Date: 05 May 2011, 14:54
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The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs
By Jan Assmann
* Publisher: Metropolitan Books
* Number Of Pages: 512
* Publication Date: 2002-04-12
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0805054626
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780805054620
* Binding: Hardcover
Product Description:
From one of the world's greatest Egyptologists, an original and brilliant study of the inner life of ancient Egypt
The Mind of Egypt presents an unprecedented account of the mainsprings of Egyptian civilization-the ideals, values, mentalities, belief systems, and aspirations that shaped the first territorial state in human history. Drawing on a range of literary, iconographic, and archaeological sources, renowned historian Jan Assmann reconstructs a world of unparalleled complexity, a culture that, long before others, possessed an extraordinary degree of awareness and self-reflection.
Moving through successive periods of Egyptian civilization, from its beginnings in the fifth millennium b.c.e. until the rise of Christianity 4,500 years later, Assmann traces the crucial roles of the pharaohs, the priests, and the imperial bureaucracy. He explores the ideal relation of man to God and explains monumental architecture and ritual celebrations as expressions of that ideal. Most strikingly, he focuses on the meaningful world of ancient Egypt-the multiple notions of time, the structures of immortality, and the commitment to the principle of social justice and human fellowship.
Widely acclaimed for his cross-disciplinary approach, Assmann has produced a tantalizing study of an ancient civilization, even as he has opened new directions in historical investigation.
Amazon.com Review:
"Writing a history of the development of the ancient Egyptian mind," wrote the Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt a century and a half ago, is "an impossibility." Today, observes Jan Assmann, we know "infinitely more about Egypt" than did the scholars of Burckhardt's day. But, even so, the ancient Egyptian mind continues to elude us.
Turning to what he calls "the hidden face of history," Assmann explores the meaning of the Egyptian past to the ancients themselves. For them, history, that chronicle of pharaohs and empires, began with the recognition that humans, not gods or demigods, controlled earthly affairs. From the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the time of the Ptolemy dynasty, the idea of the state was central to Egyptians' view of themselves in the world. With this centralized power, Assmann argues, grew other ideas, such as the notion that the stone of the pyramids was "an eternalized form of the body" and that our short time on earth was "something more akin to a dream than to reality." Full of learned discussions on such matters as the origins and development of hieroglyphic writing and the evolution of funereal architecture, Assmann's book offers a fascinating view of ancient history, and of ancient ways of thinking. --Gregory McNamee
Summary: Great book
Rating: 5
It is hard to imagine how transient and fleeting our civilization is. A hundred years has seen a shift from the Sand Creek massacre, where Christian priests were scalping Native American women and children to nominal civilization with universal suffrage. A thousand years ago Europe itself was in Dark Ages of barbarism and chaos. A modern day European has no connection to the Langobards, Alemani, Thracians and Visigoths. In contrast, the ancient Egyptians had known three thousand years of relative continuity and self-identity so that the people born in the New Kingdom could identify themselves with the texts, narratives and beliefs from the Middle and the Old. What made possible this amazing continuity? Who were these people and how did they look at life? Jan Assman, a Heidelberg University professor and one of the most eminent Egyptologists of our time has written a superb book on this topic, a book that addresses key elements of time, memory, free will and historical continuity that are ever so relevant today. I found it difficult to put down.
According to Assman, life for the ancient Egyptian was a fellowship, a connectedness. This connectedness was maintained by harmony and justice (ma'at) a key organizing principle that can perhaps be regarded as the Egyptian version of Tao or perhaps the Navajo idea of `hozho'. Harmony makes community possible and is synonymous with law, security and order set by a centralized state. The failure to realize this interconnection of life results in loneliness and death. Maat is ensured by the State: all common, shared things, depend on the state: language, knowledge, and memory.
The Egyptian state was founded on an unshakable faith in the immortality of the soul and the prospect of future judgment. Interestingly, these ideas are also central to Christianity, but not the Old Testament (a tribal document devoid of the concept of life after death or notions such as kindness, or lovingness).
The Egyptians identified covetousness, greed, as the source of all evil. Keeping greed in check required constant effort. The great countergod of the E. pantheon, Seth is:
"He who is content with separation and hates fraternization;
he who only supports himself on his [own] heart among the gods"
very modern, this guy Seth. Would feel very comfortable in Wal-Mart or NYSE. Or the blood diamond merchants of Antwerp. There is great sophistication in using language and thinking in Middle Kingdom, when we observe a universal political education, indoctrination and propaganda. Religion itself required a great mnemonic effort on the part of the pharaoh and the priests; including ritual practices that we might call magic, as thoughts and dreams were very real to E. - so real, that evil in the sphere of language and imagination is given greater prominence than bad deeds; figurines found in pots made of burnt clay had inscribed curses against:
"All bad words, all bad speech, all bad imprecation,
all bad thoughts, all bad plotting
all bad battle, all bad plans, all bad things,
all bad dreams, all bad sleep."
Assmann emphasizes that human equality is a fundamental principle of Egyptian society. Unlike the Vedic Indians with their castes, and the Greeks with their free citizens and slaves, the Egyptians did not see existing differences between rich and poor, strong and weak, as part of the creation... "I have made each man the same as his neighbor", says Amon Ra, the sun god. The king is advised to `appoint his officials solely on the criterion of ability'. Inequality was seen as a product of covetousness, the "greed of the heart". Hardheartedness, selfishness and megalomania were universally condemned. These differences are traced back to the "heart" -to human free will. In fact, the idea of a "heart-guided individual"is central the Middle Kingdom.
Assman is ever so careful to evade a (self-imposed) 'hermeneutical trap', avoiding any temptation to actually 'feel' what Egyptians themselves might have felt or experienced. Conequently, while the book has many fascinating pages, it lacks a certain depth that could only come from the author's 'tuning in' into phenomenology of subjects he has devoted his life to studying.
Anyway, I liked the chapters on the two Transitional Periods, and the descriptions of the Hyksos (who, according to Assman were related to the Jews), the Nubians and even references from the Greeks; what I missed was more information of the Assyrian and Persian conquest and more information about the Egyptian religion. Here are "Instructions for King Merikare":
"Beware of unjust punishment.
Kill not, for that cannot be useful to you.
Punish with beatings and prison:
By this the land will be well founded. [...]
Kill no one whose spiritual strength is known to you
With whom you have sung scriptures
Who has read in the book of trial and can walk freely in the sacred space.
For the soul returns to the place
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