Review: Jan Assmann, Egypt in the light of a pluralistic theory of culture
The book tells us briefly but dense and concise about the different socio-political, religious or military evolutions, in addition to the different thoughts and knowledge of Egyptian civilization from the creation of the ancient empire until the beginning of the Roman Empire.
For example, it deals with issues such as the differentiation between culture and history that we see clearly in the affirmation “cultural time, on the contrary, it is not measured but interpreted, and constitutes, so to speak an alloy of time and meaning. Cultural time is a construct ". or between mythical thinking and thought, through the beginnings of the new empire
As indicated above, the work begins by pointing out a separation by the Egyptians of cultural time and historical time, as well as their notion of time and culture. In addition, it clarifies the concepts of mythical thinking, which is circular, in the face of the historical one that would be linear. Linking to the idea of Claude Lévi-Strauss about the existence of two types of societies, talks about: "cold" societies that want to avoid any rate of change in their structure or evolve, and the "hot" societies that assume that they must advanceand evolve in history, evolving through the aforementioned linear story.
Thus, the Egyptian culture is known with two types of time, one cyclical known as Nehen and the other known as DJET.
Knowledge, for the author, cannot correspond to a closed society, that is, all knowledge arises and is conceived within a single breast, since that implies that there would be no desire to improve with respect to other civilizations and that any kind would also denyof contact with them.
In general, the book focuses a lot on the change from the ancient empire to the new empire, praising on certain occasions the capacity of Egyptian society to sublime many periods of transitions, continuities and ruptures, of which they will also be discussed inThis work of Assmann and that represent one of its main essences with that kind of internal self-ylination.
Throughout the times of the pharaonic history of Egypt from the ancient empire or dynasties III-VI (2700-2150 to.c) Until the same new empire (1550-950 a.c) Or in the low time it is always not to take off from the values and the remembrance contact of all past times, especially in that last stage where it is tried with more effort to link in a more complex way at the same time with thethree other periods.
Next, the author focuses on the different aspects that build the ancient empire, using a methodology that divides it into three major processes;The internal colonization of bureaucratization and cultural “demotization”, making interrelations between them and blaming them in turn of the chaos and crisis of the empire since as the author “the peculiar and more interesting of all these processes affirms is that they do not lead precisely ina developed and mature state "
And it is that those processes entail is a mismatch and a differentiation perhaps too marked between the elites and the rest of the society that will lead to a cultural impoverishment and a demographic decline.
From this moment on the book, literature praises as an indispensable means to know the stories of civilizations and begin to constantly support classic texts of different characters in Egypt’s history to base their ideas. In one of these first references, it relies on a fragment of abdera.Hist. Yo. 300 a.c) To comment and argue the incredible and probably unmatched funeral tradition of the Egyptian people, in addition it also shows us different testimonies collected in registrations in tombs, where it can be seen that the Egyptian monumental tomb is not just a place to bury and venerate the deceased ifNot that it is something much more important in their religion and culture. Since for example as many Egyptologists have verified, food was still taken to the tombs so that the "soul" could continue feeding and being alive.
The Middle Empire, who borrowed from the ancient the same main ideas, however, now the monarch is not just the son of God but now, he is specifically chosen by the God. This entails entering the time of great legitimation of the monarchs that also find ourselves in a time without any great apparent crisis, that further benefits its image, showing themselves as the divine envoys to get the population before the population.
Loyalty is still vital for monarchs.
Like the literature that at this stage are more perfected and also politicizes more for the legitimation of the throne.
"The intimate connection of literature and politics is private of the Middle Empire" (Posener, 1956).
The prophecies of Neferti, which are included in the Papyro Hermitage 1116B, the only copy that is preserved and was published by Vladimir Golenishchev, will become one of the main texts of the time of the time. Mainly the cosmic and natural order of things are raised. Neferti, is the wise man who appears before the king describing the future as chaos in all its essence and predicts the situation of decay and anarchy in which Egypt will fall with internal confrontations also present.
Finally, the Middle Kingdom ends with an invasion of the HICSOS, which will later be released and with that liberation the new kingdom that will cover the XVIII-XXI dynasties will start. Something that does not make the author very clear, and that in other magazine articles yes, is that this is a moment of great splendor and strengthening of external and internal relations, with notable improvements on commercial routes and in the conquests abroad. In the same way we work for a reunification of Alto Egypt and Bajo Egypt, lost during the previous intermediate period.
It is a time of wars like Qadesh’s, under the reign of Ramses II in which in the representations of the battle they show as realistic as possible, managing to define the historical performance of the king and his performance ceases to be understood as something routine. The important thing is victory at that time.
In this last section where the religiosity of the new empire develops deeply, it relies a lot again in texts and inscriptions.
I also observe how, in the section that discusses the theology of representation, the author introduces references to his previous phrases ”” What will happen to me tomorrow I do not know ”, but:" Today I am doing well;Tomorrow is in the hands of God ”(Assmann.1975,66) "
Religiosity will be governed by two elements "personal piety" and cosmoteism or pantheism. José Antonio Aranda García in his article of the magazine La Reason Historical, affirms that following an exit of images of both the king and of gods outside his real tombs, he will promote changes in "personal piety" and in the judgment on the gods;A new conception of the creative God is shown, separating from the religious tradition. It also refers, like Assmann that piety is what makes man pay attention to his heart and follow him to follow and be faithful to his king or God. Aranda, brings us closer to how each individual could follow their king, and although he assures that not everyone had access to the temple or the images of God, there were sanctuaries and statues in front of the temple to facilitate his devotion for those not belonging to the priesthood. Another of the forms of approach would be the use of steles or the famous oracles, among many others ..
In general, it is a relatively brief but quite dense book, although it is true that sometimes it is difficult to understand, I have noticed compared to other books that carry out similar studies of past times such as “people of the Middle Ages” of theMedieval historian Robert Fossier, Madrid, Taurus, 2007, usually go to the grain ‘in most of the issues he encompasses and complements them very successfully with texts and citations of various travelers over time in Egypt, which they do,At least in my view, the most enjoyable reading.
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