Death in the Sumerian and Egyptian Cultures

From reading the Epic of Gilgamesh from the Sumerian culture and from both reading parts of Last Judgment of Hunefer, and looking at the pyramids of the Egyptian culture, I would say that the two culture’s outlook on death are very different from one another.  

In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is absolutely crushed when his best friend, Enkidu dies.  After his death, Gilgamesh is unable to stop grieving and can’t stop fixating on his own death.  He then decides to find Utnapishtim and ask him how he might have Eternal life.  After a series of events, Gilgamesh fails to achieve eternal life.

I think this epic says a lot about how the Sumerians felt uncertain and scared of death.  If they were more comfortable with it, I don’t think Gilgamesh would have grieved for Enkidu as he did, and I don’t think he would have sought out eternal life as he did.  

In The Last Judgement of Hunefer, Hunefer is led through the judgement hall and tested to see if he is worthy to pass through to the next life.  According to the Book of the Dead, there were 42 sins he needed to claim he was innocent of.  Some of the things on the list seem impossible to be innocent of, but Hunefer passed the test.  I think if the people of Ancient Egypt were more scared of death, the tale of Hunefer would be much more stressful and have more obstacles for the hero to overcome.  I think one of the reasons they don’t seem scared of death is because of all the preparations they make.  The Egyptian people are famous for their elaborate preservation of their bodies and for the pyramid burial chambers.  I think it made it easier for them to look at death with less fear because they knew the care their bodies would get post mortem.  

ALthough both The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Last Judgement of Hunefer deal a lot with death, I think their feelings towards death differ dramatically.  It’s interesting to see how things like how a culture deals with death can affect it’s literature so much.

Docutah: Road to the Globe

The documentary, "Road to the Globe" follows a theater company of Maori actors from New Zealand as they prepare to be a part of a Shakespeare festival involving 37 different companies from different countries all performing different plays at the Globe.  Making this documentary, the filmmaker was able to record a unique experience that not only can those actors treasure and share with their kids and grandkids and many generations to come, but also a great film to present to others so that we can have a peek into their culture.  

Throughout the film, the filmmaker would spend some time with a few different characters, interviewing them and allowing the audience to get to know them.  In a film like this, a documentary with plenty of great information, but not much action, it is important that the audience develops a kind of bond with the subjects of the film.  If the audience has an emotional attachment to the characters, they will feel more invested in the film and be much more intrigued to continue watching.

In making this film, the maker gets to show the hard work and long hours that the Maori people put into their production.  The theater company had their ups and downs and struggled to get to the Globe, but their efforts and teamwork paid off in the end.  As a filmmaker, showing the audience the struggles they had to overcome is a very effective tactic because whether we are watching a film, or play, or reading a book, we, as an audience, like to have someone to cheer for.  Having a goal that we want the characters to reach keeps us engaged throughout the film.  In this film we got to watch the actors overcome weaknesses as performers and also watch the whole company come together to meet their goals.  It made it more engaging to watch them work and struggle towards these things than it would have been if the filmmaker had simply showed their everyday work and just led us to believe that they would make it to the Globe without any hardships.   

I feel that this film’s subject was very interesting and it would have been a shame if this documentary was done poorly and did not express the amount of hard-work and dedication that went into the production that the Maori group took to the Globe.  Allowing character development, and showing the characters struggle, are to techniques that come together very effectively to convince the audience to care about the film.  This documentary will be a treasure for not only the people directly involved in the filming and play production, but also anyone interested in learning more about unique Shakespearean culture.

 

#1: Intro. to Self

My name is Sydney Haack, I’m nineteen years old, and this is my second semester here at Dixie State.  I am from Grants Pass, a town in southern Oregon.  I've lived there my whole life with my family, my mom, dad, brothers Joshua, Eli, and my sister Mason.  Grants Pass was a nice place to grow up, but there isn't much opportunity there once you graduate high school and I was getting a bit stir crazy and was ready for some change so I decided to move out of state for school.  My mom’s parents and five siblings all live in the Orem, UT area.  They’re a super close knit family, so I always wanted to move to Utah eventually and this seemed like a good opportunity.  Dixie State was a pretty random choice for which school to go to, I thought about going to Utah Valley University to be close to family, but something about Dixie really stood out to be and felt right so I decided to go with it.  I’m a pretty reserved person and was really nervous to be moving by myself to a new state, to a new city and school where I did not know one person, but after one semester I can say it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.  I’ve met great people and have been enjoying the independence and different perspectives that being on my own gives me.

As of right now, my major is Elementary Education, but I haven’t completely decided whether or not that’s what I want to do.  I’m also considering secondary education to be a high school English teacher, or maybe go into social work.I am excited for this course and don't have any concerns about it right now. I have always loved making and looking at art.  I recently took a painting class but I've never taken any art history type of classes so I look forward to getting to dig a bit deeper this semester.