Hi Audrey

Your use of Apache tradition makes no reference to mummification as a funerary ritual. Their dead were simply buried in graves with grave goods.

My question to you was: "What else can you interpret from the depiction of a mummified form?"

You have not answered that question.

And, with reference to the depiction of the Hall of Ma'at: let me just get this straight - you think this might be a depiction of an autopsy. The kind where one weighs the human heart in one scale against a feather in the other? Hmmmmm. This is a culture which knew how to remove and preserve vital organs and how to mummify a body. Herodotus explains the process very neatly for us. His description bears no resemblance whatsoever to the scene to which I refer, which is clearly a depiction of religious symbolism.

With reference to the last funeral I asked you to think about, it is my contention - based on an understanding of the hieroglyphs I read and the reliefs which serve to illustrate the text - that 'voice offerings' (prt hrw) are offered for the ka (soul) of the deceased to Osiris, who is described time and again as 'nb ddw' or Lord of Djedu and 'hm ntr Abdw' or Great God of Abydos - and that this is akin to prayers and other rituals which take place around the dead body in Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism among others.

So, really, it doesn't matter what colour you are, what culture you live in or which God(s) you believe in when it comes to funerary rites: there is certainly no "projection of white, modern, Catholic-based behaviour onto ancient ritual" as you claim. I never suggested anything about colour or creed because funerary rites, though variable, are just part of the human condition. They are universal, transcending generations, skin colour, creed and cultures.

Unlike you, I never suggested that the Ancient Egyptians were "English-speaking white people, drowning in Christian beliefs."

You don't have to be white or Christian to engage in funerary rites.

You could be a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, an Apache or even an Aborigine.

We all have funerary rites, funnily enough.


:)



Post Edited (15-Jun-14 01:00)