Hornung,
E. Conception of God in Ancient Egypt: the One and the Many. London,
1993. Department of Africology
Temple
University, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
Office Hours: TUTH 10-12
Preferably by Appointment
Room Gladfelter Hall 615A
Class Meets: Gladfelter Hall 614
Tuesdays 4:40 to 7:10
This is a graduate level discourse on the language and culture of ancient Kemet. Ancient Egyptian Language and Culture is not strictly a language course but rather an Afrocentric experience in ferreting out the interstices between language and action in a Nile Valley culture. Since we have an abundance of material, more written documents and scripts than ever produced by any ancient civilization, we are constrained by the generosity of the ancient Egyptians and must be selective in dealing with the corpus. Therefore, I have chosen to deal with selected trans-generational concepts that can be found in the Archaic as well as the Middle and New Kingdoms. This is not strictly a Middle Egyptian intensive although we will use Faulkner for some of our discussions. The work of Dr. Troy Allen on Egyptian Kinship Systems will be used as well as the work of Dr. Mohammed Garba on the relationship of the Vulture-glyph to other African languages. Did the Eurocentric Egyptologists make a mistake? Special attention is given to the philosophical concepts (Dr. Cynthia Lehman’s work on ancient Egyptian rhetoric) and ethical bases (Dr. Maulana Karenga’s work on Maat) of the Kemetic culture. An Afrocentric methodology applicable to an Africological interpretation of cosmological, epistemological, axiologicial and aesthetic phenomena is demonstrated through linguistic, historical, comparative, and ethical data. Students completing this course should have a general overview of the history of ancient Kemet, an appreciation of the major cultural achievements of early Kemet in terms of language development and dissemination throughout the Nile Valley; knowledge of the basic glyphs, and an appreciation Kemet’s place as one of the classical civilizations of Africa.
Students are challenged to explore the various dimensions of ancient Kemetic culture from the standpoint of the readings and the discussions in class. Special attention is given to the relationship between Kemet and other African civilizations as expressed in literature and through experience.
Sir Alan Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, l994, Third Edition.
Faulkner, Middle Egyptian.
Molefi Kete Asante, The Egyptian Philosophers: Ancient African Voices from Imhotep to Akhenaten. Chicago: African American Images, 2000.
Theophile Obenga, African Philosophy in the Context of World History. Princeton: Sungai Books, l996.
Molefi Kete Asante and Abu Abarry, African Intellectual Heritage. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996.
Adams, William. Nubia: Corridor to Africa. Princeton, 1977.
Asante, Molefi Kete. Classical Africa. Maywood, N. J.
Allen, J.P. et al, ed. Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt. Yale Egyptological Studies, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1989.
Blackman, A. M. The Story of King Kheops and the Magicians. J. V. Books, 1988.
Bonfante, L., et al. Reading the Past, Ancient Writing from Cuneiform to the Alphabet. British Museum Publication, 1990.
Clarke and Engelbach. Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture. Dover, 1930.
Faulkner, R.O. The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. British Museum Press, 1993.
Hornung,
E. Conception of God in Ancient Egypt: the One and the Many. London,
1993.
Karenga, Maulana. The Husia. Los Angeles: University of Sankore, 1988
Kemp, B.J. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. Routledge, London, 1989.
Lichtheim, M. Ancient Egyptian Literature. 3 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press, l966.
Loprieno, Antonio. Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press,1995.
Parkinson,
R.B. Voices from Ancient Egypt. British Museum Press, 1991.
Wenig, Steffen, ed. Africa in Antiquity. 2 vols. The Brooklyn Museum, 1978.
Wilkinson, Richard, Reading Egyptian Art. Thames and Hudson, 1992.
.
Requirements
The course requirements consists of four parts. There will be three examinations in this course. The first one will be given on October 5 and test your understanding of the foundations of Kemetic society, particularly how language and culture interact in an African society. You will be responsible for the readings and the lectures. Your ability to answer the questions in this first test will indicate how well you will be able to do in the remaining two examinations. The second examination will be given on November 9 and will cover the specifics of the cosmological and epistemological topics. The third examination will be given on December 7 and will cover the axiological and aesthetic areas of the course. The fourth part of your grade will be determined by the small paper (10-16 pages) that you write covering one of the principal zones of influence in Kemet: Waset, Heliopolis, Dendera, Edfu, Esna, Abydos, Tell El Amarna, or Memphis. I expect you to write a paper describing how the cultural dissemination from one of these centers impacted on the rest of the Nile Valley. Explain the significance of the site, its priesthood, and the particular meaning of the expression, "religion is the deification of ancestors," within the context of these places.
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND DISCOURSES
It is important that Kemet be placed in its African context otherwise almost none of the concepts that we discuss in this course will make any sense to you as they did not make any sense to many of the early European Egyptologists. Indeed, as we shall see, many contemporary European writers on Kemet have little understanding of what they see because they have refused to see Kemet for what it was, an African civilization. Students will be introduced to the Rosetta Stone, Champollion’s success in deciphering, the rush by Maspero, Breasted, and others to reject the implications that the Egyptians were Africans, and the principles of the writing system. After completing this segment you should be able to explain in detail the types of Kemetic writing according to the received view as well as to discuss alternative views of the language.
Kemet in the African Context: The term Kmt, meaning and implication of the Black Land
European Egyptology and the Stealing of African Culture
The Idea of Writing/An African Idea?
Types of Writing in Ancient Kemet
Mdu Ntr or Hieroglyphics: The Beginning of the Problem
The Vulture-glyph: A or L?
Sedjem F and other Key Rules
Transliteration: Reading and Writing
Consonant Sign List
Development of Aesthetics and the Arrangement of Signs
Determination and Precision of Language
Direction of Writing and the Importance of Person
Making God Divinity: The Plurality of Things
COSMOLOGICAL
The Kemetic conception of the neter anchors the entire cultural system. This discussion will include a cluster of deities during each lecture-discussion. You must have read Theophile Obenga by now or else you will find yourself outside of the worldview we are building in this class. I expect you to master the glyphs for each neter, be able to explain the spiritual principle and demonstrate knowledge of the cultural implication of each neter.
RA
ATUM
PTAH
AMEN
AUSAR
AUSET
SET
NEBHET
KHEPERA
KHNUM
SOBEK
SOKER
ATON
EPISTEMOLOGICAL
What is truth or how does one prove anything becomes a key to understanding reality. But what did the Kemetic people want to know? How did they prove anything? What are the implications of their epistemology for the world today? A demonstration of ancestral wisdom was central to discovering power and truth. They were a demonstrative people. How did the ancient Kemetic people demonstrate their relationships to each other and to the divine? What is the language used?
The King as Divine
Son of God
Daughter of God
Nebty
Heru Nomen
Neb Pet
Ancient of Days
Imhotep
Names of the King
Ren
Khunanup
Khufu
Hm Ntr
Mes
AXIOLOGICAL
What values constitute the soul of the society? Since all societies develop a set of governing values what are the core elements in the ancient society? How do you explain the inexplicable and if you do, what do you have in the end? Show how Maat works in relationship to holding the universe together. What are the central features of Karenga’s approach to Maat? Explain his conceptualization of the seven aspects of Maat.
Fertility
Resurrection
Reciprocity
Harmony
Joy, Expansion of Heart
Peace
Truth
Becoming, Being
Stability, Sanity
Health
Life, Eternal Life
Old, Adoration
AESTHETIC
Students are not only introduced to the idea of the good and beautiful but challenged to discover in contemporary societies the new meanings of these terms in order to compare and contrast them with Kemet. What is the Yoruba expression, the Akan expression, or the African American expression of the good and beautiful? We shall have a discussion on the Afrocentric conception of the aesthetic within the ancient model. What are the earliest evidences of polyrhythms and polycentricities? Can Iwa be seen in the notion of the good and the beautiful in ancient Kemet.
Nefer
Nefertari
Neter Nefer
Ib
Maa
Kha
Hrw
Maat
Good God Almighty!
Beloved
Waset
Akh
Pehty
Bennu
Benben
Iwnw
Hotep
Wsr
Now that we have completed this course you know more
than you knew before but none of us knows a whole lot about this very complex
society. We know the things that we have researched and studied, but we do not
know all the ways those ideas, concepts, and attitudes worked in the actual
environment at the time. We can speculate and learn from our speculation how
wonderful are the creations of human beings, but even so we are left breathless
by the enormity of the ancient African classical civilization. Hotep, Seneb,
and Djed!
BACK TO ARTICLE MENU