2023. Ancient Egypt (Comparative Guts exhibition)

Lingua Aegyptia 20 (2012), pp. 165-184

A recent review in this journal of my book Breathing Flesh provides the point of departure for a discussion of the possibility of approaching questions of conceptions of the body in ancient Egypt drawing on conceptual frameworks derived from outside the field of Egyptology. Along the way, this contribution also touches upon broader questions of the ideal nature of constructive scholarly debate, especially when dealing with attempts to offer new interdisciplinary perspectives on heavily entrenched traditional Egyptological positions.

Afrikantistik-Ägyptologie-Online, 2021

Abstract This article is the revised version of a presentation at the International Workshop “The Body as a Toolbox” (Cologne, October 2018). It can discuss only some aspects of body conceptions in Ancient Egypt and will focus on few anthropological issues. An overview of the Ancient Egyptian idea of man will be given, including corporal as well as intellectual and social aspects. These aspects are not only to be considered separately, but intertwined. First, the Ancient Egyptian idea of the origin of human beings and its basic condition (anthropogenesis) will be presented, because it represents the reflection on human nature (anthropology). This nature comprises different aspects (Corporeality/ Ka/ Ba/ Heart/ Name/ Shadow und Ach), which need a short introduction. Then the human body will be described with regard to its capabilities of perception and interaction. At this point we also talk about single body parts as symbol for special skills. Ancient Egyptian sources also combine body parts with material culture. Finally, the idea of human beings’ ambivalence or its complexity will be illustrated by a primary source (The Struggle between Horus and Seth). Zusammenfassung Der Artikel ist die Ausarbeitung eines Vortrages, den ich beim Internationalen Workshop “The Body as a Toolbox” (Köln, Oktober 2018) gehalten habe. Diese Abhandlung kann lediglich einige Aspekte altägyptischer Vorstellungen zum Körper behandeln und wird sich auf einige anthropologische Fragestellungen fokussieren. Es wird ein Überblick über das altägyptische Menschenbild gegeben, wobei sowohl körperliche als auch geistige und soziale Aspekte angesprochen werden. Diese Aspekte sind nicht nur getrennt voneinander zu betrachten, sondern interagieren miteinander. Zunächst wird die altägyptische Vorstellung vom Ursprung des Menschen und dessen Rahmenbedingungen (Anthropogenese) vorgestellt, da diese als Ergebnis der Reflektion über die Beschaffenheit des Menschen (Anthropologie) zu sehen sind. Diese Beschaffenheit umfasst verschiedene Aspekte (Leib/ Ka/ Ba/ Herz/ Name/ Schatten und Ach), die kurz erläutert werden. Anschließend wird der menschliche Körper v.a. im Hinblick auf seine Wahrnehmungs- und Interaktionsfähigkeiten beschrieben. Hier werden auch einzelne Körperteile als Symbole für bestimmte Kompetenzen angesprochen. In altägyptischen Quellen werden diese auch mit der materiellen Kultur in Verbindung gebracht. Schließlich wird die altägyptische Vorstellung von der Ambivalenz beziehungsweise der Komplexität des Menschen anhand einer Primärquelle (Der Kampf zwischen Horus und Seth) exemplarisch veranschaulicht.

2021

during the Current Research in Egyptology (CRE) 2021, University of the Aegean, Rhodes (visio-conférence), 13/05/2021.

The ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts form a corpus of ritual spells written on the inside of coffins from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1650 BCE). The spells are part of a long Egyptian tradition of equipping the dead with ritual texts ensuring the transition from the state of a living human being to that of a deceased ancestor. The Coffin Texts provide a rich material for studying ancient Egyptian conceptions of the body by providing insights into the underlying structure of the body as a whole and the proper function of individual parts of the body as seen by the ancient Egyptians. Drawing on cognitive linguistics and phenomenological anthropology, Breathing Flesh presents an analysis of the conceptualisation of the human body and its individual parts in the Coffin Texts. Also discussed are the ritual conceptualisation and use of powerful substances such as ‘magic’, and the role of fertility and procreation in ancient Egyptian mortuary conceptions. Introduction, table of contents and errata are available from Museum Tusculanum Press: http://www.mtp.hum.ku.dk/details.asp?eln=202870 Reviews • PalArch: http://www.palarch.nl/wp-content/moje_j_2010_review_of_nyord_r_2009_breathing_flesh_carsten_niebuhr_institute.pdf • The History Association: http://www.history.org.uk/resources/general_resource_3410_73.html • Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 106 (2011), pp. 80-83: http://www.oldenbourg-link.com/toc/olzg/106/2" • Lingua Aegyptia 19 (2011), pp. 375-386 • Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 101 (2011), pp. 501-506: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/volltexte/2016/2874 • Bibliotheca Orientalis 71/3-4 (2014), coll. 403-406: http://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?url=article&id=3062121&journal_code=BIOR

Comparative Guts, 2024

The 13th International Congress of Egyptologists, Leiden, 6-11 August 2023

Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, 2018

Anthropology and Egyptology share the same interest in mortuary rituals. However, the higher-order interpretative framework developed by anthropology is not standardly applied by Egyptology. The present study focuses on summarizing a comparative framework of mortuary rituals and applying it to the study of bodily fluids in ancient Egypt. The bodily fluids under discussion—menstrual blood, milk, efflux of Osiris (rDw-fluids), and semen—have been chosen because of their specific connection to birth and rebirth in the ancient Egyptian symbolical system.

Novos Debates, 2015