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tiompan wrote: The Sea Cat wrote: tiompan wrote: The Sea Cat wrote: tiompan wrote: The Sea Cat wrote: tiompan wrote: The Sea Cat wrote: Unfortunately, his views of Ancient Egypt were woefully inaccurate, and this put me off watching any further. To casually dismiss such a fascinating and civilised culture as xenophobic, and obsessed with death and the occult was a very poor and misleading historical analysis. As well as being highly learned and philosophically advanced, they were under constant threat from neighbouring envious civilisations, and would only go to war to protect their borders. The Babylonians, however, when encountering any stranger would rip out their tongue and disembowel them on the spot, no questions asked, regardless of age and gender. The Assyrians were equally warlike, agressive and unpleasant. He didn't seem to understand historical context in the case of the Egyptians, that's for sure!
Apologies for yet abother grumpy post tjj, from a disgruntled History buff and Michael Woods fan ! :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGMqGaarvzs&feature=related
ps. to no one in particular : the Pyrammids were not built by slaves either, but by generations of skilled artisans and labourers, who were very well paid and accommodated!
edited
He was referring to Bronze Age Egypt and xenophobia , partly due to the Hyksos invasion , is fair comment for that period .
So, 'obsessed' by death and the occult is from the same period, I take it ?
:-)
I did specify the use of xenophobic as being appropriate for the period , the other two could also possibly apply to earlier periods but I didn't mention them .
They were actually quite culturaly inclusive during this period, the Bronze Age, their height, in the same way that the future idea of Roman Citizenship became.
Xenophobia and the New Knigdom seem to go hand in hand in the majority of references to the period ,it's almost a truism .
Sorry. Disagree categorically on that. Context. 'Xenophobia', when applied to the realities of the ancient world can take on an entirely different meaning. What may broadly be seen as a prejudicial and irrational racism in a modern context, could mean a perfectly justifiable means of self preservation and defense to tribe or state. Were the Saxons xenpophobic in regard to The Norman threat to their culture for example ? Or the Celts re. the Romans, and so forth ? Fear of oppression and it's attendant cultural threat would surely be a very different matter when that literal. I honestly do believe it is far too easy and therefore unrealistic to apply modern concepts of our morality in certain cultural aspects of ancient history.
edited.
The Vikings appear blood thirsty despite some attempts at showing them in a nicer light , maybe with the benefit of hindsight and a more liberal view the Nazis will be seen as just a symptom of their hard times in a few millenia , or even the present British government as trying their best to fix a broken society/economy .Today others might disagree . But ,the point was about the tv presenter's description being an accurate reflection of how the Egyptians are viewed today by Egyptologists and xenophobic is a very typical adjective applied to them particularly from the end of the Middle Kingdom , some recent e.g.s .
http://ancient-egypt-book.com/ancient-egyptian-culture-of-xenophobia.htm
speaks for itself
http://www.unrv.com/provinces/brief-history-of-egypt.php
scroll down to just before New Kingdom .
http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/people/foreigners.htm
Plenty text in relation to foreigners .
http://www.tobywilkinson.net/TW/Books.html
A recent review of one =As Toby Wilkinson, in his magisterial new history of ancient Egypt, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, makes clear, the attitude of the average pharaoh towards dissent would have done credit to Kim Jong-il. "Political propaganda, an ideology of xenophobia, close surveillance of the population, and brutal repression":
Toby is wrong.
:-)
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