Culture & Society

Although we look these days at everything in isolation, for the Ancient Egyptians this would have been unthinkable. What we now term as a holistic approach to life was normal for the Egyptians.

In fact, the holistic approach was very common in our own Western culture until the Industrial Revolution. At the end of the Eighteenth Century, life became fragmented into production and consumption, supply and demand. Many people whose life was on the land, and who were intimately acquainted with every aspect of life as a cohesive and living whole (hence holistic) were made redundant by the new machines.

The only work, and life, available to them meant going from the land to the towns and cities. Instead of producing to meet their own needs, and then either bartering or selling their surplus from a good year's harvest, they were forced into wage slavery -- to total dependence upon those who controlled the means of production.

In Ancient Egyptian times there was no wage slavery, rather a communal approach to life, and a very stable society. Everyone had their place, their tasks, and co-operated with others to ensure survival, peace and prosperity. The Biblical notion of enforced slavery to the Pharaohs seems to be exaggerated, testified by the meteoric rise in status of the Prophet Yusuf (Joseph) and his clan.

Knowledge of the logistics of building a pyramid like those at the Memphite Necropolis at Giza put paid to the idea that they were built by ill-treated slave labour. The craftsmanship is of the highest degree -- it is still a mystery to this day how the pyramids were built.

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