Ensino e memória: uma perspectiva a partir de textos literários egípcios do Reino Médio

Abstract

In this research, we relate the concepts of cultural memory (Jan Assmann) and historical consciousness (Jörn Rüsen), focusing on two aspects of the study of Ancient Egypt, namely, the academic investigation and the Teaching of History of that civilization. From Rüsen’s observation, the lack of human orientation in time is the starting point for the questions which culminate both in academic research and in historical consciousness arising from scientific historiography and in the historical consciousness of ordinary, nonspecialist citizens. Thus, we argue that the Teaching and the Research on Ancient Egypt play an essential role in the formation of a critical historical awareness of the Brazilian – and Western – citizen. In this regard, at first we seek to understand how the Egyptians built their cultural memory after the end of the political crisis called by the Egyptologists the First Intermediate Period (c. 2134 - 2040 BC), based on four Egyptian literary texts traditionally dated in Middle Kingdom (c. 2040 – 1640 BC): the Prophecies of Neferty, the Complaints of Khakheperréseneb, the Debate between a Man and his Soul and the Admonitions of Ipu-wer. We analyzed these sources through content analysis methodology (Laurence Bardin) looking for references a contrario to the Egyptian concept of maet. In a second step, we reflect on the relationship between the Brazilian historical consciousness and the country’s cultural memory in relation to Ancient Egypt. For this purpose, we discussed the results of a questionnaire applied with some teachers from the basic education of João Pessoa – PB and metropolitan region – approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Universidade Federal da Paraíba (CEP/UFPB). From the findings of these questionnaires, it was possible to reflect on the limits of the role of history textbooks in consolidating a Brazilian historical consciousness, more specifically on Ancient Egypt – the object of our investigation –, finally examining the role of the Teaching of History in maintaining of an exotic and quite divergent view of Egyptology and historiography about Ancient Egypt, while considering that it is not the aim of the Teaching of History to “transmit” rigorous academic knowledge beyond the walls of the Academy.