• DOI:10.1086/NEA41103940
• Corpus ID: 166450284

GENDER TRANSFORMATION IN DEATH: A Case Study of Coffins from Ramesside Period Egypt

@article{Cooney2010GENDERTI,
  title={GENDER TRANSFORMATION IN DEATH: A Case Study of Coffins from Ramesside Period Egypt},
  author={Kathlyn M. Cooney},
  journal={Near Eastern Archaeology},
  year={2010},
  volume={73},
  pages={224 - 237}
}

• K. Cooney
• Published 1 December 2010
• History
• Near Eastern Archaeology

thought to be responsible for offspring from a sexual union, not women (Roth 2000). Egyptian mythologies dealing with rebirth after death were also highly masculinized (Zandee 1992). In the ancient Egyptian mindset, only male divine beings such as Atum, Osiris, or Re had access to the powers of creation or resurrection (Bryan 1996; Roth 2000). Goddesses were believed to be protective vessels. Atum, who dwelled at Heliopolis, was thought by the ancient Egyptians to have created himself, and the entire world, through an act of sex with himself. Once this act was complete, he sneezed out a void, separating himself from the primeval matter of chaos. The most ancient colossal statuary from all of Egypt depicts a god in this act of masturbation, which for the ancient Egyptians represented the most sacred moment of the first creation. These statues come from a pre-Dynastic cult center, over five thousand years old, in the Egyptian city of Coptos (fig. 1). This male sexual act was thought to be so potent in generating new life that the Egyptians made it a practice to remove the hands and phalluses from their enemy dead, ^^^^^^^^^^^^" KathlynM.Cooney