Ancient Egypt Essay Research Paper The term

Ancient Egypt Essay, Research Paper

The term culture is one that can be defined

in many ways. Culture is defined as: the ideas, activities, and ways

of behaving that are special to a country, people, or region. Museums

such as the Field Museum attempt to give its visitors a sense of the culture

and history of different countries, as well as a sense of US culture and

history. In this quest however, museums often focus on one specific

nature of the culture [of a country] and lose sight of the whole picture

- the entire culture. After all, the US culture is primarily a capitalistic

one, and museums – in addition to their quest to educate the American public

- overemphasize what they feel is the most intriguing aspect of a specific

culture. In this manner, museum officials are looking to attract

more people and consequently bring in more money. Capitalistically

speaking, it is in their best interest to overstress the parts of an exhibit

to which the public will be attracted. In doing so, however, the

museum visitor does not get an objective view of the culture of a country.

The Field Museum’s approach to Ancient Egyptian culture attempts to cover

all bases of the culture, but falls seriously short of doing just this.

The Museum focuses too much on the Ancient Egyptian approach to death and

the afterlife in a serious, informative aspect. This is done by the

sheer location of the exhibit, providing numerous historical plaques, and

by the mysterious, alluring atmosphere of the pyramid exhibit that the

Museum gives to the visitor. Yet the Museum downplays the daily life

of the Ancient Egyptians by pushing this less intriguing exhibit behind

the afterlife exhibit, by providing few informative historical plaques,

and by filling the exhibit with cartoons of the everyday life of the Ancient

Egyptian, thereby simplifying the exhibit. Therefore, although the

Ancient Egypt exhibit preserves a good sense of the preparation of death

and afterlife aspect of the ancient Egyptian culture, it lacks in providing

such a sound exhibit for the daily life of the ancient Egyptians, thereby

portraying a false impression of Egyptian culture to the public.

Located on the first floor of the museum,

the Ancient Egyptian exhibit attracts visitors immediately; the ominous

immense pyramid creates a dark, mysterious presence, and invites visitors

to step inside. The first impression of the exhibit is of a focus

on death and the afterlife. This may lead to the false impression

that the Ancient Egyptian culture was driven around embalming and entombing

dead bodies. As one makes its way through the labyrinth of the pyramid,

one is surrounded by recovered organ jars, tombs, mummified Egyptians and

the artifacts that they were buried with. The walls of the pyramid

are authentic limestone taken from actual sites in Egypt. Large woven

tapestries hang from one of such walls and describe the afterlife and the

gods involved. Gods are all represented as having animal heads, and

bodies of humans. Wooden cases that would be placed inside the immense

stone tombs, stand upright and are open for public viewing: hieroglyphics

on the inside of the wooden encasing describe the procedure of the afterlife

for the person entombed inside. The pyramid houses many mummies,

some of whose wrappings have come undone and allow the visitor to see the

actual body of the mummy. The pyramid is a very captivating exhibit,

and it’s location – its proximity to the entrance of the museum creates

a false sense of the Ancient Egyptian culture. A visitor who knows

nothing about the culture is lead to assume that the majority of Egyptian

life was used to prepare for the after life.

At the end of the pyramid, the visitor

is lead to a small exhibit whose purpose is to portray a sense of the daily

life of the ancient Egyptian. The location of this exhibit, behind

the pyramid, gives the impression of being a less important and less frequent

aspect of Egyptian culture. The visitor is lead through a less cramped

exhibit of the every day live of an ancient Egyptian. There is a

display in which one can “envision himself as an Egyptian”: the visitor

can put his face up to a pane of glass, behind which is a model of an Egyptian

face. The visitor is shown how he would look as a typical ancient

Egyptian. This exhibit, while interesting and entertaining, has very

little to do with every day life of the ancient Egyptian. Through out the

exhibit, there are few artifacts, and even less information on the daily

events of an ancient Egyptian. Two to three small, five-foot tall

walls are painted with cartoon images of different scenarios that were

“typical” of ancient Egyptian culture. This exhibit pales in comparison

to the pyramid exhibit of ancient Egyptian life. In an attempt to

give a complete view of ancie

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