# What Would an Ancient Egyptian Think of Today? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 12, 2008, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888 "2008-12-12T15:47:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888/21 "2008-12-13T14:00:32Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > The Ancient Egyptians were Pagan. > > Modern ones practice Islam. > > Wait until he gets a load of _that!_ Egyptians, practicing an Abrahamic faith? > > He’d try to put a stop to _that_, right away! > > We’d have to call out the cops to rescue him. From his perspective, modern Egyptians would be the Pagans. And I suspect that Tut returning from the dead would likely be more trouble for Islam than the reverse. Technology that enables the resurrection of religous figures would likely be fairly bad news for modern established religions in general. He’d probably be somewhat baffled that eyeliner among males has fallen out of fashion. “Pretentious? But it’s a timeless look!” ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888/22 "2008-12-13T14:11:08Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > From his perspective, modern Egyptians would be the Pagans. And I suspect that Tut returning from the dead would likely be more trouble for Islam than the reverse. Technology that enables the resurrection of religous figures would likely be fairly bad news for modern established religions in general. > > He’d probably be somewhat baffled that eyeliner among males has fallen out of fashion. “Pretentious? But it’s a timeless look!” \ “Pagan” **is not** a perjorative. > **[Paganism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism)** > > In early Christianity, paganism (from Latin: paganus, lit. 'rustic') collectively referred to the diverse religious practices of all people who were polytheists. More specifically, it denoted anyone who did not adhere to an Abrahamic religion in the Roman Empire. Individuals fell into the pagan class either because they were increasingly rural and provincial relative to the Christian population or because they were not a soldier of Christ (miles Christi). Terms synonymously used in Chris During... > [@](#): > > Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning “country dweller, rustic”)[1] is a word used to refer to various religions and religious beliefs from across the world. The term has various different meanings, though, from a Western perspective, it has modern connotations of a faith that has polytheistic,[2] spiritualist, animistic or shamanic practices, such as a folk religion, historical polytheistic or neopagan religion. > > The term has been defined broadly, to encompass all of the religions outside the Abrahamic monotheistic group of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.[2] The group so defined includes most of the Eastern religions, Native American religions and mythologies, as well as non-Abrahamic ethnic religions in general. More narrow definitions will not include any of the world religions and restrict the term to local or rural currents not organized as civil religions. Characteristic of pagan traditions is the absence of proselytism and the presence of a living mythology which explains religious practice.[3] ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888/23 "2008-12-13T14:29:24Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > The Ancient Egyptians were Pagan. > > Modern ones practice Islam. > > Wait until he gets a load of _that!_ Egyptians, practicing an Abrahamic faith? > > He’d try to put a stop to _that_, right away! > > We’d have to call out the cops to rescue him. “What, everyone’s a monotheist now? Well, sonofabitch, [I guess Dad was right](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akenhaten).” ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888/24 "2008-12-13T14:46:33Z")
> [@Jolly\_Roger](#): > > Not to hijack, but I’ve often wondered what George Washington would think if he could somehow be revived today. “Let me out of this box!” ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888/25 "2008-12-13T15:07:02Z")
I think he’d get the hang of things pretty quickly. In my town in Cameroon, people didn’t wear clothes as late as the 1950s. In more remote villages life is still pretty much like it was, say, 800 years ago. But the old people didn’t freak out or anything. Cell phones are popular items even in villages where you have to walk to get reception. People understood what I meant whenever I was washing my clothes or whatever and exclaimed “In America, we have machines that do this for us!” Villages with no electricity would sprout generators and satellite dishes when important soccer games came on eve though most people had no idea what a satellite was or even that the Earth revolves around the sun. It seems like people are pretty willing to accept that there is a lot out there they don’t quite understand, and they are also pretty ready to use it when it becomes useful. A lot of technology was vaguely defined as magic. I was told that white people are feared worldwide because of the might of our magic- as evidenced by cell phones and airplanes. But “magic” in Cameroon was a looser term in America, and you can kind of see how things like electricity could count as magic. But none of this really diminished belief in local dieties, because after all your god is _your_ god, for better or for worse. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888/26 "2008-12-13T15:18:48Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > \ > “Pagan” **is not** a perjorative. > [Paganism - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism) \ back at you. Firstly: it’s spelled “pejorative.” Secondly: your own cite says that it has various different meanings, then goes on to explain what it signifies from a modern Western perspective. Now, read the first three words of my earlier post again. ETA: on re-reading, perhaps I capitalized “Pagan” in error. Alas I can’t view Wikipedia directly to make sure. Nonetheless, Tut would definitely have viewed Islam as “pagan” in the pejorative, desert cult, hicks-from-the-sticks sense. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888/27 "2008-12-13T16:11:37Z")
Ancient people would be pretty conformable up to about the time of George Washington. Up to about (say) 1800, the big changes would have been gunpowder, movable type and large sailing ships. These three could be grasped fairly easily by an ancient. Of course the changes these three caused are widespread, but explainable. With the rise of steam power, things got more exciting. Then came the mysteries of more advanced chemistry. ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888/28 "2008-12-13T20:50:06Z")
I read an anecdote in one of my textbooks once (it might have been in _The Nurture Assumption_, but I’m not sure). In one encounter between western explorers and a “discovered” tribe in New Guinea, the tribesmen saw the explorers as gods because of their bizarre appearance, clothing, technology, etc. This lasted until one of the tribesmen caught an explorer taking a dump, and realized that their visitors were human too. Violence may or may not have followed. So I think that Tut would be inclined to think something supernatural was afoot, right until he figured out something to which he could intimately relate with us. After that, I’d agree with **even sven** on what he’d think of our machines. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888/29 "2008-12-14T00:30:32Z")
> [@Khan](#): > > I read an anecdote in one of my textbooks once (it might have been in _The Nurture Assumption_, but I’m not sure). In one encounter between western explorers and a “discovered” tribe in New Guinea, the tribesmen saw the explorers as gods because of their bizarre appearance, clothing, technology, etc. This lasted until one of the tribesmen caught an explorer taking a dump, and realized that their visitors were human too. Violence may or may not have followed. This same story is told in Steven Pinker’s _The Language Instinct_, which I am currently re-reading. It took place in 1930, and the Australian prospector/explorer leading the expedition was one [Mick Leahy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Leahy). The New Guinea highlanders thought the white men were supernatural, but there wasn’t consensus on exactly what they were. The leading theory was that they were some sort of ghost or reanimated corpses, probably because of their pale skin. They decided to settle the matter by watching the white men at night, and saw one going off to do his business. Upon inspection, they concluded that their visitors were ordinary humans after all: “Their skin might be different, but their shit smells bad like ours”. Violence did not follow, the locals were apparently just curious about the strange people. But the Internet tells me that Leahy was attacked by members of a different tribe on a later expedition to the Watut Valley, so that may be what you’re remembering. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888/30 "2008-12-14T01:14:19Z")
> [@Khan](#): > > I read an anecdote in one of my textbooks once (it might have been in _The Nurture Assumption_, but I’m not sure). In one encounter between western explorers and a “discovered” tribe in New Guinea, the tribesmen saw the explorers as gods because of their bizarre appearance, clothing, technology, etc. This lasted until one of the tribesmen caught an explorer taking a dump, and realized that their visitors were human too. Violence may or may not have followed. > > So I think that Tut would be inclined to think something supernatural was afoot, right until he figured out something to which he could intimately relate with us. After that, I’d agree with **even sven** on what he’d think of our machines. Remember that Star Trek (NG) episode where Picard yet again violated the Prime Directive and faced the dilemma of a bunch of proto-Vulcans thinking he was a god? Easy way to solve it . . . ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888/31 "2008-12-14T04:20:33Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Remember that Star Trek (NG) episode where Picard yet again violated the Prime Directive and faced the dilemma of a bunch of proto-Vulcans thinking he was a god? Easy way to solve it . . . And you don’t even have to get shot with an arrow. [insert your choice of puerile ‘captain’s log’ joke here] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-an-ancient-egyptian-think-of-today/476888.md?page=1)