Kemet First Empire
Africa and Medicine
The practice of traditional medicine in Africa
- PMID: 525052
Abstract
PIP: Traditional medicine is a method of healing founded on its own concept of health and disease. Knowledge is passed on orally from father to son. Healing knowledge is jealously guarded in certain families. In Africa the popularity of traditional healers is attributed to the fact that they take full account of the socio-cultural background of the people. The components of traditional medicine include herbal medicine, therapeutic fasting and dieting, hydrotherapy, radiant healing therapy, venesection, surgery and bone-setting, spinal manipulation and massage, psychotherapy, therapeutic occultism, psychiatry and preventive medicine. In the African environment the therapeutic potential of traditional medicine is great and requires further indepth study to improve methods and training and to form a more effective organization within the ranks of traditional healers. In the physical medicine, vegetable, animal, and mineral substances may be used. In the metaphysical division of traditional medicine, prayers, invocations, or incantations are offered to some mysterious and powerful forces.
Great Pyramid of Kufu
The Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as the Pyramid of Khufu or the Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex bordering present-day Giza in Greater Cairo, Egypt.
It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact.
Based on a mark in an interior chamber naming the work gang and a reference to the Fourth Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu, Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb over a 10- to 20-year period concluding around 2560 BC. Initially standing at 146.5 metres (481 feet), the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years until Lincoln Cathedral was finished in 1311 AD.
Architecture in Kemet
King Djoser is a king of the third Dynasty, and the exact period of his reign is unclear, but it approximates to around 2668 BC. The third Dynasty marks the beginning of the Old Kingdom, which has also been called “The Age of the Pyramids”. And he is the one to have begun the pyramid-building that ancient Egypt is so famous for.
Quick Info
Name: Djoser, Zoser, Djeser
Dynasty: Third
Reign: Unclear, but around 2668 BC
Region: Upper and Lower Egypt
Consort: Hetephernebti
Children: Inetkawes, and possibly Sekhemkhet
Famous for: Building the Step Pyramid at Sakkara
Origin of Mathematics in Kemet (Egypt)
Mathematics of the Pharaohs: The Rhind Papyrus and Ancient Egyptian Math
Western civilization has always had a fascination with the civilization which grew up along the Nile River around 3,000 BC. Greek intellectuals, such as Thales, visited Egypt and were enamored by the design and mathematical exactness of the shape of the pyramids. For millennia, ancient Egypt has been considered synonymous with wisdom by the civilizations of the Mediterranean basin, but especially the West.
One text that reveals an example of that wisdom is the Rhind papyrus, a document that appears to be an otherwise mundane primer on mathematics. But much of what scholars know of Egyptian mathematics comes from this text.
Agriculture
Ploughing with a yoke of horned cattle in ancient Egypt. Painting from the burial chamber of Sennedjem, c. 1200 BC
The civilization of ancient Egypt was indebted to the Nile River and its dependable seasonal flooding. The river’s predictability and fertile soil allowed the Egyptians to build an empire on the basis of great agricultural wealth. Egyptians are credited as being one of the first groups of people to practice agriculture on a large scale. This was possible because of the ingenuity of the Egyptians as they developed basin irrigation.[1] Their farming practices allowed them to grow staple food crops, especially grains such as wheat and barley, and industrial crops, such as flax and papyrus.
Civil Society (Civilization)
The Pharaoh in Egyptian Society
During the third and fourth dynasties of the Old Kingdom, Egypt enjoyed tremendous economic prosperity and stability. Kings held a unique position in Egyptian society. Somewhere in between human and divine, they were believed to have been chosen by the gods themselves to serve as their mediators on earth. Because of this, it was in everyone’s interest to keep the king’s majesty intact even after his death, when he was believed to become Osiris, god of the dead. The new pharaoh, in turn, became Horus, the falcon-god who served as protector of the sun god, Ra.
Ancient Egyptians believed that when the king died, part of his spirit (known as “ka”) remained with his body. To properly care for his spirit, the corpse was mummified, and everything the king would need in the afterlife was buried with him, including gold vessels, food, furniture and other offerings. The pyramids became the focus of a cult of the dead king that was supposed to continue well after his death.
Government
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Religion
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