The migrations of early culture: A study of the significance of the geographical distribution of the practice of mummification as evidence of the migrations of peoples and the spread of certain customs and beliefsSmith, Grafton Elliot
History
The migrations of early culture: A study of the significance of the geographical distribution of the practice of mummification as evidence of the migrations of peoples and the spread of certain customs and beliefs
Smith, Grafton Elliot
Ethnology; Human beings -- Migrations; Mummies
Roscoe (=72=, p. 105), in his book on the Baganda, describes the process
of embalming the king’s body. As in Egypt, the body was disembowelled;
and the bowels were washed in beer, just as the Egyptians, according to
Herodotus and Diodorus, are said to have done with palm-wine. The viscera
were spread out in the sun to dry and were then returned to the body, as
was done in Egypt at the time of the XXIst Dynasty. The body was then
dried and washed with beer.
So far as we are aware, the Egyptians never sacrificed any human beings
at their funerals, although they often placed in the _serdab_ of the
_mastaba_ statues of the deceased’s wife, family and servants, to
ensure him their presence and the comforts of a home in his new form of
existence.
In the quotations from Reisner’s report, it has just been seen that he
found some burials made about 1800 B.C., in which servants appear to have
been sacrificed.
In the case of the Baganda, Roscoe describes the killing of the king’s
wives and attendants at his funeral.
Roscoe further describes (in his book) the body of the chief as being
laid on a bed or framework of plantain trees (p. 117).
At the end of five months the head was removed from the mummy and the
jaw-bone was removed, cleaned, and then buried, and a large conical
thatched temple was built over the jaw. [In the islands of the Torres
Straits the same curious custom of rescuing the head after about six
months is also found; but it was the tongue and not the jaw which
received special attention (=25= and =27=)].
In Egypt, where the practice of mummification was most successful,
special treatment of the head was not necessary, except occasionally in
Ptolemaic times (=39=), when carelessness on the part of the embalmer
led to disastrous results and it became necessary to “fake” a body for
attachment to the separated head. But as the Baganda were unable to make
a mummy which would last, they adopted these special measures with regard
to the skull. Originally special importance was attached to the head,
primarily (_vide supra_) as a means of identifying the deceased. But when
the practice of preservation spread to uncultured people, whose efforts
at embalming were ineffectual, the idea was transferred to the skull, the
reason for the special treatment of the head probably being forgotten.
Why such peculiar honour should be devoted to the jaw can only be
surmised from our knowledge of the belief that the deceased was supposed
to be able to talk and communicate with the living (=21=).
In his article in the _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_ (=72=,
p. 44) Roscoe give some further particulars. Four men and four women were
clubbed to death at the funeral ceremony of the king.
The body was wrapped in strips of bark cloth and each finger and toe was
wrapped separately.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account