User:Sashaalexa/Maat

SASHAALEXA'S CONTRIBUTIONS
Writing was an important part of citizens' lives in Ancient Egypt. Since everyone was taxed, their contributions were recorded by scribes. During some natural disasters periods, scribes worked on distant assignments, which were often in the form of letters. These letters were written and read by scribes for those who were not literate and it enabled communication with superiors and families. Sashaalexa (talk) 13:23, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

Written texts were often read aloud in public by scribes, who also wrote most of the letters, regardless of how literate the sender was. Thus, scribers were involved in both writing and reading the letters. Sashaalexa (talk) 15:16, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

Since scribes read the letters out loud in public, they could not use 'first person' to present the king's voice. Thus, the texts were presented in the 'third person'. Sashaalexa (talk) 15:16, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

However, much of ancient Egyptian writing was symbolic and operated on a much deeper level than narratives might suggest. Sashaalexa (talk) 17:01, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

Religious concerns, as well as the oligarchical nature of Ancient Egyptian society, created important distinctions between elite classes and everyone else. The political and ideological interests of the elite dominated and directed the majority of social and cultural life in Ancient Egypt. Rhetoric has also been acknowledged as playing a role in the maintenance of social hierarchies, with its priorities of maintaining harmony and social order. Sashaalexa (talk) 15:43, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

Illiterate people had a priority to get scribes to their villages because this procedure allowed the government to limit excessive abuses by pointing out the importance of the complaints of the poor. Although this procedure was regulated by the local government, it helped provide the poor with the feeling that their petitions were put before higher officials' requests. Sashaalexa (talk) 17:28, 9 March 2021 (UTC)

Although the main responsibility of scribes was to compose the work, transfer it or communicate, some scribes added additional commentary. The scribe's role in judicial system should also be taken into consideration. Local and insignificant crimes were usually led by a scribe or a foreman during the trial. Sashaalexa (talk) 17:28, 9 March 2021 (UTC)

Dear Dr.Vetter, I suppose my draft is ready. Looking forward to your comments. Alex

Dear Dr. Vetter, I added the changes you suggested and some more information. Could you please have a look and let me know if it is appropriate for transferring to the actual Maat article? Alex

Second round of feedback from Dr. Vetter
Hi Great job with these revisions! Here are a few more small suggestions:

In the first sentence, beginning, "In ancient Egypt, writing became an important part of citizens' lives. " - it you're going to use the verb became instead of "was," this suggest a particular shift. So I would either recommend specifying the particular period of Ancient Egypt during which writing became an important part of citizens' lives OR stating more simply and completely that "Writing was an important part of citizens' lives in Ancient Egypt."

Rephrase this sentence "The written texts were read aloud in public by scribes and the scribe wrote the most of the letters regardless the fact how literate the sender was." to read "Written texts were often read aloud in public by scribes, who also wrote most of the letters, regardless of how literate the sender was."

Otherwise, great work!

- Dr. Vetter

Dear Dr. Vetter, Thank you for your feedback. I am moving my contributions to the main space then. Alex

Dr. Vetter's Feedback for
Hello! Good work on these contributions. I have a few suggestions for improvement, and I will begin with the minor issue of formatting. Remember that the footnote/citation should always be placed immediately after the end punctuation (period) with no space between.

For the edit beginning "Although, it is worth saying" - Try to rephrase this to avoid your original interpretation or emphasis. try something like "However, much of ancient Egyptian writing was symbolic and operated on a deeper level than narratives might suggest."

For the edit beginning: "There were some distinctions in the ancient Egyptian society" -- I think this could be rephrased to be clearer. Religious concerns, as well as the oligarchical nature of Ancient Egyptian society, created important distinctions between elite classes and everyone else. The political and ideological interests of the elite dominated and directed the majority of social and cultural life in Ancient Egypt. Rhetoric has also been acknowledged as playing a role in the maintenance of social hierarchies, with its priorities of maintaining harmony and social order.

For the edit beginning, "Although the main responsibility..." - I recommend you change "some scribes added extra comments" to "some scribes added additional commentary. This demonstrates how scribes played an active rhetorical role in the communication process."

I don't quite understand your discussion of Thoth and Maat. How does this connect to the other content?

Those are my comments! Good work so far! - DarthVetter (talk) 16:16, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

Scribes and Scribal Schools
Ethical aspect of Maat gave rise to the formation of Elite individuals called sesh referring to intellectuals, scribes, or bureaucrats. Beside serving as the civil servant of the kingdom, the sesh had a central role in the society since the ethical and moral concepts of Maat were further formulated, promoted, and maintained by these elite people.

Scribal schools emerged during the Middle Kingdom era (2060 – 1700 B.C). Although the scribal practices had long been implemented before this period, there was no evidence of ‘systematic schooling’ occurring in a materialized institution during the Old Kingdom (2635-2155 B.C.) (Ezzamel, p. 228). Scribal schools were designed to transform people to the literate sesh or scribes who could function for society and bureaucracy. Therefore, literacy among ancient Egyptians revolved around the mastery of writing and reading in their specific purposes of conducting administration. In scribal schools, students were selectively chosen based on the same date of birth around Egypt. Most of the apprentice scribes were boys, but some privileged girls received similar instruction as the boys in the scribal schools. They could either live at school with their peers or stay with their parents, depending on geographical adjacency. The students were taught two types of writing by their teachers who were priests: sacred writing and instructive writing. Sacred writing was about Maat and its moral as well as ethical values and instructions, while instructive writing covered specific discussion about land-measurement and arithmetic for evaluating the annual changes of river and land configurations ; as well as for calculating tax, logging commercial business, and distributing supply.

Learning instructions in scribal schools were available for a very young prospective students (5-10 years old students). This elementary instruction took 4 years to complete, and then, they could become apprentices of a tutor in which this advanced level of education elevated their scribal carriers. In the elementary level, pupils received instructions from the tutors while sitting in circle around the tutors. The lessons were implemented in different fashions: reading was recited aloud chantedly, arithmetic was studied mutely, and writing was practiced by copying classical short literacy and the Miscellanies, a short composition specifically aimed to teach writing.

When learning writing, scribal apprentice required to go over sequential steps. They firstly had to memorize brief passage by chanted recital after the teachers. Later on, they were asked to copy some paragraphs to train their writing abilities, either on ostraca or wooden tablets. Once the instructors deemed the pupil had made some progress, they would assign the same first-two steps toward Middle Egyptian manuscripts comprising of classical work and instructions. After that, the same methods were implemented to Middle Egyptian texts, in which grammar and vocabulary took the most part (Ezzamel, p. 232).

Beside honing reading, writing, and arithmetic skills, students of scribal schools also learned other skills. Male students were involved in physical training, while female students were asked to practice singing, dancing, and musical instrument.

Dr.V, here is my draft.

Feedback from Dr. Vetter
Hello

Great work on this draft. I have a few important suggestions and recommendations below:

DarthVetter (talk) 17:38, 15 March 2021 (UTC)
 * First, remember that you do not need the traditional APA in-text reference (e.g. "(Simpson et al.,)") - rather the footnote is used in place of this in-text citation. Please be sure to remove all of those. Page numbers should also be in the footnote reference.
 * Make sure you are sufficiently summarizing the sources in your own words.
 * Those are my only two concerns, it reads very well, and will make a great contribution.
 * In class I will go over how to make changes to the actual article and add wikilinks. But it looks like you already have some wikilinks added

Thanks for you feedback Dr. . Sure, I will remove the in-text reference right after knowing how to insert correct Wiki citation. As I mentioned on my email last week, I deliberately put the reference traditionally to make it easier for me locating the source (especially the page numbers). But overall, glad to know that I am on the right track :)

PROFESSORBRIAN'S CONTRIBUTIONS
 Rhetorical Concept 

Although little mythology exists concerning the goddess Maat, she was the daughter of the Egyptian Sun God, Ra; and the wife to Thoth, the God of Wisdom who invented writing, which directly connects Maat to ancient Egyptian rhetoric. Maat (which is associated with solar, lunar, astral, and the river Nile's movements) is a concept based on man's attempt to live in a natural harmonic state. Maat is associated with the judgment of the deceased and whether a person has done what is right in his/her life. ; thus, to do Maat was to act in a manner unreproachable or inculpable. So revered was the concept of Maat that Egyptian kings would often pay tribute to gods, offering small statues of Maat, indicating that they were successfully upholding the universal order - the interconnection among the cosmic, divine, natural, and human realms. When rhetors are attempting to achieve balance in their arguments, they are, in fact, practicing Maat.

George Kennedy, a history of rhetoric scholar, defines rhetoric as the transmission of emotion and thought through a system of symbols, including words, to influence the emotions and thoughts of others. Maat sought to influence its audience to action as well. Scholars have closely examined this relationship between ancient Egyptian rhetoric and the concept of Maat, using three specific areas: 1) ancient Egyptian texts that actually taught Maat; 2) ancient Egyptian letter writing that embodied the performance of Maat; 3) ancient Egyptian letter wiring that used Maat as persuasion

1) Maat in ancient Egyptian texts

The Egyptian elite learned how to be part of the elite class through instructions text, such as The Instructions of Ptahhotep, that used Maat as the basis of concrete principles and guidelines for effective rhetoric. Below is an excerpt from Ptahhotep that illustrates these instructions:

Be generous as long as you live

What leaves the storehouse does not return;

It is the food to be shared which is coveted,

One whose belly is empty is an accuser;

One deprived becomes an opponent,

Don’t have him for a neighbor.

Kindness is a man’s memorial

For the years after the function. (p. 72)

The lesson learned through Maat here is beneficence: the reader is advised to be benevolent and kind. An even stronger argument is being made - if you do not feed people, they will become unruly; on the other hand, if you take care of your people, they will take care of your memorial or tomb The excerpt from Phahhotep employs Maat to teach the reader how to be a more effective king.

2) Performance of Maat in ancient Egyptian letters

According to Jan Assmann, writing became a significant part of the daily function of ancient Egyptian citizens  Letter writing became the means of communication between superiors and families; according to Barry Kemp, Egyptians became incessant letter writers ; yet, letters were not merely "mailed" to their recipients. Letters were often read aloud and thus performed by scribes who often wrote them on behalf of a king. Since language is the basis by which a community identifies itself and others, the scribes would perform Maat to build upon a community's language to become more persuasive.

3) Persuasion of Maat in ancient Egyptian letters

James Herrick states that the major objective of rhetoric is for a rhetor to persuade (to alter) an audience's view to that of the rhetor; for example, an attorney uses rhetoric to persuade a jury that his/her client is innocent of a crime. Egyptian superiors would evoke Maat in letters written to subordinates to persuade allegiance to them and the pharaoh; subordinates would evoke Maat to illustrate a desire to please. To directly disagree with a superior was considered highly inappropriate; instead, inferior citizens would indirectly evoke Maat to assuage a superior's ego to achieve the desired outcome.

Feedback from Dr. Vetter
Hi Great draft here. I'm glad you're going to be able to include the excerpts and that we got a chance to talk about that a few weeks ago. I have a few suggestions to improve your planned edits/contributions.

~ I made many of the suggestions that you provided. Please let me know your thoughts!
 * Remember that you need to maintain what Wikipedia calls a neutral point of view - so your writing should not make an original argument or interpretation. So instead of writing "Maat should also be considered..." (which sounds like an argumentative or opinionated point of view) - write something about how scholars have considered Maat as a rhetorical concept. Does that make sense?
 * It looks like you still need to do some more research to find additional sources. You need a minimum of five different sources. Let me know how I can help with this.

Discussion (Here or on Talk Page)
I am going to edit this article as part of my course.
 * Same here! I'm going to focus on Scribal, btw.--Inahong (talk) 01:56, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

Perfect! We're on the same team! Sashaalexa (talk) 16:01, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

Sashaalexa! I am planning on adding to this article as well. I think it needs a whole entire section dedicated to RHETORIC. What do you think? -Brian S.

Brian, I agree! Alex

Sashaalexa! I think that is a wonderful idea. I have already extrapolated a lot of good quotes from Lipson's article. Please take a look in my Sandbox. We

should all definitely plan a time to talk and discuss how we move forward with our Maat!

so we're gonna use your sandbox to work on?--Inahong (talk) 13:52, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

Yes, we are! You are very welcome here :)"I arranged this page, hope you guys don't mind :) Inahong (talk) 17:40, 21 February 2021 (UTC)"