О базовых мотивациях египетской религии: страх смерти и/или стремление к порядку

Шаги/Steps. 2024. Т. 10. № 2. С. 34–53.

Alexandrova E. V.

The idea that fear of death forms the basic motivation for cultural and religious practices gained attention of cognitive science and was experimentally tested in recent decades. It is now known as the terror management theory (TMT). However the idea itself was influential in scholarship at least since 19th century and has had a significant impact on Egyptology throughout its history. In this article classical and modern works on ancient Egyptian religion and funeral practices are analyzed in order to highlight peculiarities of Egyptological reliance on the topos of the fear of death. It can be noted, that usage of the category of beneficiary for the analysis of funerary literature and ritual is connected the notion of benefit as relief from fear of death. This perspective on benefits play its the role in the formulation of the “democratization of the Afterlife” theory. Model centered on the idea of the orderliness of the world proposed by J. Assmann proposed as an alternative approach. It can be further developed in the light of the compensatory control theory (CCT). Assmann limited himself to the study of religion as communication with gods. This work explores funerary practices in the framework of ‘religion as propagation of maat’. Finally such specific traits of Egyptian funerary practices as threat-formulae, letters to the dead and heart amulets analyzed as modes of execution of personal and compensatory control.

Keywords: религия, Древний Египет, religion, Ancient Egypt, когнитивное религиоведение, oriental despotism, terror management theory, теория управления страхом смерти, Тексты Пирамид, деспотия, история египтологии, Pyramid Texts, democratization of the Afterlife, compensatory control theory, cognitive science of religion, history of Egyptology, funerary practices, теория демократизации заупокойного культа, теория компенсационного контроля, погребальные практики

Publication based on the results of: Traditional Foundations of Modern Oriental Societies: Institutions, Narratives, Practices (2023)