Bradley Vaval, Period 1, 1/19/21

Bradley Vaval, Period 1, 1/19/21

Despite the lackluster visual effects, over-dramatic narrator, and unintentionally comedic reenactment of what experts today think happened in Ancient Egypt, “The Book of The Dead” and “Egyptian Secrets of The Afterlife” National Geographic films that were played in class brought up some interesting questions. The documentary made it very apparent that ancient Egyptians looked forward to the afterlife, so much so, that they cared more about their life after death than before death. This explains why they’d put emphasis on being a good person and obtaining a Book of the Dead before their passing, ensuring themselves a good afterlife. However, after initially hearing about it, I challenged the idea, sure that a life constantly worrying about where one will end up after their time here isn’t a life well spent. Additionally, I felt that while a society in which everyone is constantly worried about their life after death might be filled with good people, it's only with the superficial prospect of avoiding the consequences of being a bad person that lie in the afterlife. Lastly, how could someone live a productive life potentially living in a constant state of anxiety? Curious, I decided to read up on it.

“Daily Life in Ancient Egypt” is an article by the World History Encyclopedia which as it sounds, details what we know about the daily life of an ancient Egyptian (Link to Article: https://www.worldhistory.org/article/933/daily-life-in-ancient-egypt/). When the article starts by directly calling out the reason I came to read it by saying ancient Egyptians weren’t “death-obsessed” but actually love life, I was shocked and then glad that I had actually gone out of my way to seek out another source. Also, a tad impressed by how well the author knows his audience. Going on in the article, I was surprised by how much of a wrong impression I had received from the documentaries. As opposed to a life of anxiety, in the article, the Egyptians are depicted living blissfully, with the afterlife being an extension of their already perfect lives. “Egyptian daily life was focused on enjoying the time one had as much as possible and trying to make other's lives equally memorable.” Not unlike how the Greeks viewed death, the pyramids the Egyptians erected were more seen as a way to make one’s life memorable and highlight the beauty and grandeur of their life as opposed to honoring them in death.

I think the vast difference between my initial perception of ancient Egyptians from the documentaries and my perception after reading this article serves to teach a lesson; a lesson of cross-referencing and seeking out multiple perspectives. Not to directly throw shade at National Geographic, but it is easy to play into what might seem to be the case in the same way it’s easy for a reader to assume what sounds true is true. And so I guess the next step is to realize that some sources may have reason to only show you part of the truth, whatever that reason may be, and as the audience, we must account for that and seek out other perspectives.