The Profane Egyptologist E5. Dr Harrison & the Temple of Ra - Part 2

Today we re-join the Temple of Ra and Kemetic Temple of San José for the second part of this interview with key figures and authors of the contemporary Kemetic Reconstructionist movement in the West. Be sure to check out part 1 if you haven’t yet.

A very valuable point is raised in this interview regarding phenomenological and performative archaeology – given a reliance of shared resources, and given the focus on academic resources in Kemeticism, why is it not valued in the same was as corresponding fields of archaeology which use the same techniques to reconstruct ancient worlds? I have my own theories on this (as expressed in my book, Profane Egyptologists), and we explore this a little in conversation. A lot of it has to do with perceptions, status, and fear of ‘infection’ from the ‘fringe/other’ which has been a stifling factor in building bridges and having conversations. And that, dear listeners, lays at the very heart of the premise of this show!

This episode was recorded on location in San Francisco back in spring 2018. I first encountered the Temple of Ra through one of its founders, Richard Reidy, who was a participant in my phd ethnography, and so generous with his time and knowledge that we later became friends.

Sadly, Richard passed away in 2015 but his legacy lives on in the form of a number of Egyptian Kemetic Temples in the USA and two books on Ancient Egyptian Ritual practices.

Here’s part two I hope you enjoy it. As ever, references from the show can be found in the show notes. Be sure to like, review and subscribe.  

 

Richard Reidy’s Eternal Egypt 

https://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?Book=172324

Everlasting Egypt (Published posthumously by temple members) 

https://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-001114114

 

 

Kemetic Orthodoxy (“KO”) /House of Netjer

http://www.kemet.org/

https://www.netjer.org/forums/

 

Performative Archaeology (Tale of Sinuhé) at the British Museum

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/all_current_projects/the_ramesseum_papyri/performance_tale_of_sinuhe.aspx

 

 Erik Hornung The One and the Many

 

Geraldine Pinch

 

Wisdom Literature – Instructions/Teaching of Ptahhotep

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/literature/ptahhotep.html

 

Lichtheim

Lichtheim, Miriam 1996. Didactic literature. In Loprieno, Antonio (ed.), Ancient Egyptian Literature, 243-262. Leiden; New York; Köln: E. J. Brill

Simpson, William Kelly. The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry.