The principles behind ancient Egyptian religion, cosmologies
and gods were manifested in symbols and metaphors that were
drawn largely from the world around them. Inextricably linked
with all aspects of daily life, religion explained the cycles
of nature and sustained the political system by which the Egyptians
lived.
In an excerpt from Egypt and the Egyptians, Douglas
J. Brewer and Emily Teeter explain the fundamental principles
of Egyptian theology. They reveal the ritual actions of the
king and the everyday actions of his subjects that the Egyptians
believed kept the forces of chaos at bay, as well as the duties
required of individuals to ensure a secure afterlife.
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| B I O G R A P H Y |
| Emily
Teeter is a research associate and curator
of Egyptian and Nubian antiquities at the Oriental
Institute Museum, University of Chicago. She is
the author of a wide variety of books and scholarly
articles about Egyptian religion and history,
and has participated in expeditions in Giza, Luxor,
and Alexandria. |
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| B I O G R A P H Y |
| Douglas
J. Brewer is professor of anthropology
at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and director
of the Spurlock Museum. He has written four books
and numerous articles on Egypt, and has spent
eighteen years involved in field projects in Egypt,
including research on the natural history of the
Eastern Desert, the Palaeolithic/Neolithic transition
in the Fayum, and excavations concerned with the
Predynastic and Dynastic culture of the Nile Valley. |
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