Mummy and Painted Cartonnage of an Unknown Woman Essay

Mummy and Painted Cartonnage of an Unknown Woman - Essay Example This can be revealed through the decorative funerary rituals that were done during the time. These practices reveal the fascination and the obsession of the people on immortality. One way through which this can be revealed is through the mummifications and decorations that could be found in museums. One of these beliefs and customs are revealed through the mummy and painted Cartonnage of unknown woman The mummy and painted Cartonnage of unknown woman looking upwards is made up of decorated layers of linen and plaster (The Walters Museum par 1). These are made into a shape of a woman. However, the woman is not known. It was believed that the mummy would sustain the life of the dead woman when it comes back. The mummification contains decorations all over. The mummy also contains a decoration of floral wreath on the wig, a winged scarab beetle and a broad collar (The Walters Museum par 1). The mummy also has decorations that include four men who are standing facing one direction. The f our men represent the four sons of Horus. According to the Egyptian culture, the four sons of Horus are associated with protection. They offer security from any threat. This further reveals the fact that the ancient Egyptians believed on immortality of the soul. This is revealed by the act of providing protection for the dead; in this case who are represented through a mummy. The decorations also include the boat of the funerary deity Sokar. This boat was a sacred one. The sacred boats are very significant to the ancient Egyptian culture. They were usually used when the gods were brought out from their sanctuaries where they processed before the public. The decorations on the mummy of the unknown woman also include a mummy of Osiris who is lying on a funerary bed. This reveals the importance of the god to the dead people. The God of Osiris was important for the protection of the dead. The mummy also contains a decoration of a divine falcon god. The falcon god is among the most impor tant gods of the Ancient Egypt. The divine falcon god is considered as the divine personification of the kinship of Egypt (Nicholson and Shaw 156). The god was also a representation of the god of heavens. In the ancient Egyptian culture, Horus relates to the Egyptian divine kingship. It was representation of the last king who has ever ruled in Egypt. Since the living king was Horus, when he died the new king would usually become the new image of Horus and the dead king would become Osiris (Nicholson and Shaw 185). The decoration on the mummy and painted Cartonnage of unknown woman also contains a short hieroglyphic text, which contains an offering formula. The burial customs that were observed in the ancient Egypt were meant to ensure immortality after death. All the rituals performed were believed to contribute to the immortality of humanity. This was the main reason why they preserved the bodies through mummification. In addition, the dead would be accompanied with the things the deceased would need afterlife. The mummification process usually took a period of 70 days. The internal organs were usually removed from the body after which the body was desiccated using a special kind of salts. The body could then be tied with linen. The latest mummies were also kept inside painted Cartonnage mummy cases. Therefore, the mummy of an unknown woman is more recent since it was made using the latest mummification technology that was used then. According to the ancient Eg

Rousseau's Idea of Amour-Propre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Rousseau's Idea of Amour-Propre - Essay Example This theoretical research on defining amour-propre would highlight on the causes and consequences of 'self-love' in the light of political philosophy. We would analyse the claim that why amour-propre has been a complex ontological process that negatively undermines community and civic harmony and why it is perceived in quest for honor to be superior to others, particularly in liberal societies. 'Amour propre' and 'amour de soi-meme' are two different works of Rousseau which differ in their nature in which they are presented and their effects and must not be perceived alike (Bertram, 2003, p. 22). Amour-propre is an evil effect of amour de soi-meme (self love) which in itself holds a natural innocence for it is close to nature and inclines every living being to be attracted towards its self-preservation. Self-love in contrast to amour-propre respects humanity and does not consider worldly or materialistic ambitions, thereby producing virtue. Amour propre is the ultimate production of society, ruled by the society, and deceived by the society which governs a set of principles to be established for acquiring the genuine source of honor. On contrary 'self-love' is close to nature, ruled by the nature and appreciated by God and is responsible for bringing the true contentment of the human being. Rousseau's innovative social ontology revolves around the ongoing competition for self-esteem which suggests various dimensions central to understand amour-propre. The first dimension presents before us the reason for social survival that is unalterable to the extent which pressurises the individuals to come together to construct lives with shared understandings and institutions. The cause for social survival has itself causes and consequences, as social existence possess meaning for others in society which in turn reveal important truths about themselves. Truth reveals about the development of self-conscious life which in turn cause the individuals to seek their own identities in the light of worldly materialism which by becoming part of a group compare themselves with other members of the society. Causes for social survival to name a few includes sharing commonalities with other members, competition for self-esteem, motivation by honor and so on. Though Rousseau succeeded in naming the categories of 'self-love' but where he failed to acknowledge the application of 'self-love' was the area of 'self-exploration'. With 'self-exploration' comes 'self-knowledge' and awareness for which Rousseau never denied that he used self-examination as a means to generate universal knowledge, however he portrayed that self-exploration is something deeply related with self-knowledge. One can consider self-knowledge to be one of the major consequence for social existence, where Rousseau often portrayed himself as unable to inspect the true source of knowledge, since when he considered that knowledge is from the self, he never meant to exactly oppose