Research Blog #9- argument and Counter Argument

 My Argument or research Question was, Exactly why and how did the Hieroglyphs, Pyramids and Mummies lead to the association between Ancient Egypt and the occult, in Western Culture and Media? Furthermore, how did the idea and cultural representation of Egypt as a whole become altered due to the portrayal and interpretations of the hieroglyphs and mummies? I am answering this question by providing specific cases in which these discoveries shed light on occult rituals or practices used by the Ancient Egyptians such as the Boo of the dead, or mummification as a whole as a way to enter the afterworld.

However, one source I somewhat disagree with is

Glynn, Basil. The Mummy on Screen: Orientalism and Monstrosity in Horror Cinema. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2019.

In this book, Glynn describes how Egypt is portrayed in a altered fashion because of the exaggeration of the magical practices in films. However, Although we may never know, The Egyptians could very well have been able to use magic or magical powers, and the depictions on the screen would then not be an exaggeration, because the Egyptians truly had the knowledge and powers as shown in many mummy movies. Because so much mystery and ambiguity is involved, we truly do not know the extent of the knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians, therefore we cannot assume the depictions of magical spells and powers in movies to be an exaggeration or false.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ancient Sites of the World

Image
  The topics that I would like to work around are ancient sites around our planet that we really do not know the origin of. These include the Egyptian Pyramids, Stonehenge, Easter Island etc... Many people believe that these places were built with the help of extraterrestrial beings since much of the architecture would have been very difficult for people of their time. For example, the stones at Stonehenge are estimated to be around 25 tons, and the bricks in the Pyramid of Giza are around 10 tons each, and are 7.5 feet tall. How were the ancient people able to create these structures? These places always intrigued me and I would like to research further about the mysteries and theories that lie in these ancient locations.  
Read more

Research Blog #10- Final Paper Abstract and Works Cited

Abstract: Ancient Egypt, often referred to as the cradle of civilization, was said to be the birthplace of many different ideas and theories, all affecting us even to this day. Many acclaimed feats were achieved by the ancient Egyptians, such as building the pyramids and creating their own language. To this day, many mysteries of Egypt are largely unknown, which fuels the fascination behind discovering the ancient Egyptians’ true knowledge and purpose behind their many rituals, oftentimes leading to different abstract theories being sparked. Our orientalist interpretation and representation of these rituals and theories can be clearly seen throughout western media and thoughts, detailing the almost obsessive fascination behind many of Egypt’s controversial and fascinating rituals and discoveries. This paper will examine hieroglyphs and mummies, and how the portrayal of both led to a looming fear of the “magic” of Egypt leading to Egypt being strongly associated with the occult in the w...
Read more

Literature Review #2

Image
Citation:    Glynn, Basil. The Mummy on Screen: Orientalism and Monstrosity in Horror Cinema. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2019. Summary: In this book, Glynn talks about the portrayal of the mummy and egyptian culture and practices  in western media. She also talks about the evolution of the Egyptian culture and portrayal of "magical" practices. Author: Basil Glynn is a lecturer in films and television. He is knowledgable since he studies media and films as his job.  Key Terms: Portrayal, Egyptians, Mummy Quotes: Mummy films acknowledge little difference between the ancient and the modern, with only scant attention given to the Muslim country that Egypt has been since AD 639.(25)  Although monsters evidently rise and fall in popularity, to be resurrected anew, the death of the Mummy genre is one that appears to have been actively sought by a number of critics, being pronounced dead on the screen on a number of occasions.(29) In the midst of this ‘Mummy craze’ Mumm...
Read more