{"id":4147,"date":"2012-04-26T22:38:35","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T04:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4147"},"modified":"2012-04-28T16:19:39","modified_gmt":"2012-04-28T22:19:39","slug":"necrophilia-an-ancient-egyptian-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4147","title":{"rendered":"Necrophilia: An Ancient Egyptian Tradition?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This may be the worst sort of environmental determinism, but what is it with Egypt? Is there something in the Nile water?<\/p>\n

For centuries Egyptian Paganism seemed to function\u2014on one level\u2014as as sort of post office of the dead. All those mummified cats, ibises, crocodiles, etc. neatly stacked in little p.o. boxes. What’s with that?<\/p>\n

And of course there was the elaborate bureaucratic ritual that accompanied the mummification. The Greek historian Herodotus<\/a> (a bit of a gossip) commented,<\/a><\/p>\n

The wives of men of rank are not give to be embalmed immediately after death, nor indeed are any of the more beautiful and valued women. It is not until they have been dead three or four days that they are carried to the embalmers. This is done to prevent indignities from being offered them. (Link is to a different translation, but quite similar.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then, for several centuries, Egypt was mostly Christian. Christians liked to store the body parts of saints in their churches, which is why the Emperor Julian <\/a>(PBUH) referred to them as “charnel houses<\/a>.” What went on in the funeral business I do not know.<\/p>\n

Today, in majority-Muslim Egypt, the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television network reports that Egyptian women’s rights campaigners (there are some<\/a>) are protesting two laws proposed in the “Islamist-dominated parliament”:<\/a><\/p>\n

She was referring to two laws: one that would legalize the marriage of girls starting from the age of 14 and the other that permits a husband to have sex with his dead wife within the six hours following her death. . . . . Egyptian prominent journalist and TV anchor Jaber al-Qarmouty on Tuesday referred to [cleric] Abdul Samea\u2019s article in his daily show on Egyptian ON TV and criticized the whole notion of \u201cpermitting a husband to have sex with his wife after her death under a so-called \u2018Farewell Intercourse\u2019 draft law.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because nothing expresses grief over losing one’s spouse quite like that.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Another source says that no such law was proposed<\/a>. Was Al-Arabiya fooled?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This may be the worst sort of environmental determinism, but what is it with Egypt? Is there something in the Nile water? For centuries Egyptian Paganism seemed to function\u2014on one level\u2014as as sort of post office of the dead. All those mummified cats, ibises, crocodiles, etc. neatly stacked in little p.o. boxes. What’s with that? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[96,116,15,141],"class_list":["post-4147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-death","tag-egypt","tag-islam","tag-women"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-14T","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5367,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5367","url_meta":{"origin":4147,"position":0},"title":"Akhenaten, Proto-Monotheist, Worked His People to Death","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Things were hard for the people who built an instant capital city for the Dear Leader. Researchers examining skeletons in the commoners' cemetery in Amarna have discovered that many of the city's children were malnourished and stunted. Adults show signs of backbreaking work, including high levels of injuries associated with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Egypt\"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=egypt"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3636,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3636","url_meta":{"origin":4147,"position":1},"title":"World Religions versus the Blue Bra Revolution","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Washington Post writer Sally Quinn looks at photos of Egyptian soldiers beating an abaya-shrouded Muslim woman, and a light bulb goes on for her about major religions: Why would men, particularly under the guise of religious belief, want to keep women down? Because they understand that women\u2019s sexuality is something\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":652,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=652","url_meta":{"origin":4147,"position":2},"title":"A Fatwa against Egyptian SculptureA\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A Fatwa against Egyptian SculptureA high Islamic cleric has issued a fatwa against the classical sculpture of Egypt. In his fatwa - or religious ruling - issued earlier this month, Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa quoted a saying of the prophet Muhammad that sculptors will be among those receiving the harshest\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4437,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4437","url_meta":{"origin":4147,"position":3},"title":"Puppy Mills for the Gods","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"When I read an article like \"Millions of Mummy Puppies Revealed at Egyptian Catacombs,\" I realize how little we know about what was really going on with popular religion there centuries ago. It's one thing to study the tombs of high-ranking individuals. We still put high-ranking individuals in fancy tombs,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6195,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6195","url_meta":{"origin":4147,"position":4},"title":"“Block like an Egyptian”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Too late for Yule, but isn't there a Kemetic-reconstructionist gift-giving festival for which these would be perfect? And give the copywriter a raise.","rel":"","context":"In \"Egypt\"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=egypt"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4697,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4697","url_meta":{"origin":4147,"position":5},"title":"D&D in Ptolemaic Egypt","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"What were they doing with 20-sided dice? Here is one speculation: The symbols for eta, theta, and epsilon can be clearly seen. Maybe it was used to determine which frat the ancients were going to pledge, but I'd like to think it was used to roll for hit points for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"divination\"","block_context":{"text":"divination","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=divination"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4147"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4156,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4147\/revisions\/4156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}