rites of passage

Nemti and Gold: Religious Violence and the Semantics of Punishment in an Ancient Egyptian Tale

The article discusses the motif of bodily mutilation in connection with the punishment in an ancient Egyptian tale, in the story of the ferryman Nemti. This narrative is compared with similar Egyptian plots about the loss of body parts and their replacement/transformation into gold. Based on the works of Vladimir Propp, the author builds a model of the event which triggers the development of action in the fairy tale and in the myth.

Policing the Sublime: A Critique of the Sociology of Religion