These rites were religious becuase it was a ritual that this particular group did for their loved ones. Medicaly speaking, this makes sense because the mummification process is much like what we do tday to get ready for an open casket funeral, it the best way to prevent decay. With the writtings and spells left the deceased, there is a magical element there.
It is very hard to determin what is what though. In their society and culture the mummified the bodies to prepare them for the afterlife, in our society we do close to the same thing but for our own veiwing pleasure. A large part of our society prays for our loved ones that died to help them find peace, how is that any different then the Egyptians praying for protection during this process.
The rites that were performed on the mummies with ritualistic, with hope of magical properties to follow the deceased in the afterlife. It just happens to be very convenient that Egypt was in a dry area which I think helped aid in the preservation of the deceased anyways.
I'm fascinated by the multi-faceted 'anthropology' that is betokened by Egyptian mummification rituals: we have khat (material-body), sahu (spirit-body), ka (vital essence, spiritual-double), and ba (physical–psychic identity), among other aspects, all aiming to reunite in Sekhet Aaru as an akh (‘effective/shining one’). Nothing, it seems, gets left behind!
I'm tempted to speculate that mummification originated as a way to keep the living safe from the disease that came with proximity to a decaying corpse, but It also seems like the first mummifications were a more religious ritual. This isn't to say that the intention was to appeal to any god necessarily, but that it was a form of reverence to the dead families once held dear. -Devon Naudé
It really is a mix of all of them. The internal organs are put in jars that are watched over by gods. Spells are said to help ward off evil spirits and they developed a way to preserve dead bodies over time. All three, religion, science, and magic, are used during the process.
I would say that these rites were strictly religious. The cleansing of the body, the wrapping of the body, surrounding of spells...etc. All these activities have one common goal- to bring that person safely to the underworld and hopefully to the field of reeds. I know we tend to separate the magical from the religious but, in this case you cannot have one without the other. Spells and magic were how the Egyptians and their religious Gods communicated and dealt with each other.
I would say that it has elements of all three, the process of mumification is very medical in nature, what they do with the organs and other rites could be magic, and the over all process is religous.
7 comments:
These rites were religious becuase it was a ritual that this particular group did for their loved ones. Medicaly speaking, this makes sense because the mummification process is much like what we do tday to get ready for an open casket funeral, it the best way to prevent decay. With the writtings and spells left the deceased, there is a magical element there.
It is very hard to determin what is what though. In their society and culture the mummified the bodies to prepare them for the afterlife, in our society we do close to the same thing but for our own veiwing pleasure. A large part of our society prays for our loved ones that died to help them find peace, how is that any different then the Egyptians praying for protection during this process.
Emily Peterson-Wood
The rites that were performed on the mummies with ritualistic, with hope of magical properties to follow the deceased in the afterlife. It just happens to be very convenient that Egypt was in a dry area which I think helped aid in the preservation of the deceased anyways.
-Taylor E.
I'm fascinated by the multi-faceted 'anthropology' that is betokened by Egyptian mummification rituals: we have khat (material-body), sahu (spirit-body), ka (vital essence, spiritual-double), and ba (physical–psychic identity), among other aspects, all aiming to reunite in Sekhet Aaru as an akh (‘effective/shining one’). Nothing, it seems, gets left behind!
pdk
I'm tempted to speculate that mummification originated as a way to keep the living safe from the disease that came with proximity to a decaying corpse, but It also seems like the first mummifications were a more religious ritual. This isn't to say that the intention was to appeal to any god necessarily, but that it was a form of reverence to the dead families once held dear.
-Devon Naudé
It really is a mix of all of them. The internal organs are put in jars that are watched over by gods. Spells are said to help ward off evil spirits and they developed a way to preserve dead bodies over time. All three, religion, science, and magic, are used during the process.
Tazheem Rubio
I would say that these rites were strictly religious. The cleansing of the body, the wrapping of the body, surrounding of spells...etc. All these activities have one common goal- to bring that person safely to the underworld and hopefully to the field of reeds. I know we tend to separate the magical from the religious but, in this case you cannot have one without the other. Spells and magic were how the Egyptians and their religious Gods communicated and dealt with each other.
Deirdre Adams
I would say that it has elements of all three, the process of mumification is very medical in nature, what they do with the organs and other rites could be magic, and the over all process is religous.
-Casey S
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