The Book of the Dead was something very interesting to read about. Who would have thought that so much is required of a person to enter the afterlife. Egyptians had very strict rules to enter the afterlife because they believed that the afterlife was sacred, just like their gods. The Egyptians developed their family units, hierarchy, and community on how the gods were known to lead life which is why it was important to be as pure as the gods in order to be prosperous in the afterlife. Not only was purity an aspect of the Book of Death, but the concept of being a good person to yourself and those in your community and always respecting the gods was also of great importance. All of the guidelines for the Book of the Dead are listed in a manor that applies to each individual about their actions that they have done throughout their lives and each one is based on god or community showing the importance of the community as a whole. 

Even though they had a hierarchy, the value of each person was similar because the Book of Dead didn't judge the rank of the person within the community but rather the type of person they were to their community. This expressed that Egypt had a very tight knit community that functioned well with the different ranks and this was a possible reason for their success as a community. Also the fact that the Book of the Dead was written on papyrus, it showed a growth of technologies such as language, art, and other developments. They were able to document their traditions and rituals on the papyrus to be later translated into what we now read as their Book of the Dead. Overall, the Book of the Dead was an interesting primary source that exposed a lot of valuable information to evaluate the Egyptian culture and community. 

Mesopotamians with Their Language and Attempts to Civilize

It’s amazing how advanced the Mesopotamian people were. They were advancing their own forms of technologies without even realizing it. The fact that technologies used for communication started with pictures and cave paintings into a written language. A language was a development that makes a community whole because by having a universal language it allows the people of that community to relay messages and conduct conversations amongst one another. As we can see through the story of Gilgamesh, the Mesopotamian people created stories about their own advancements as human beings. The Mesopotamians created their own form of a language that allowed historians of today to unravel some secrets about the lifestyle a Mesopotamian. Language is a large advancement for human beings and it coincides with the concept of civilizing people. The Mesopotamians were a group of people who made it possible to see that there was an understanding in the ways to civilize a “creature” into a human being. However, that didn’t mean that they were viewing the gender roles in an egalitarian point of view anymore. Women could be known as civilized but they were also in a sense weaker than the male. The egalitarian points of view in communities didn’t exist because they adapted to the ideas of having a hierarchy. In doing so, they segregated the ones who had power and wealth from those who didn’t have power and wealth. This also included the gender segregation within the family units created throughout the community because males had specific roles that gave them the provider title while the women held a caretaker title. As we can see, this concept still exists at times in this day and age, but now we try our hardest to create an equal role in society amongst the males and females.

Yay- I'm done!