Formation of the Personality - Self-consciousness of the Individual in Pre-dynastic Egypt
Authors: Sherkova T. , Kuzina N. 
Published: March 2020

The question of the appropriateness of the use of the term and category of Personality in relation to studies of the model of the world and the model of I in predynastic Egypt is considered. Points of view are given on the scope and application of the concept, both from the point of view of various schools of psychological science, and researchers belonging to a number of humanitarian areas of science who consider the concept of identity in the context of historical development and historical memory. At the same time, it is taken into account that a personality is traditionally defined in psychology as a self-regulating dynamic functional system of continuously interacting properties, relationships and actions that take shape in the process of ontogenesis of a person. A person is considered as a phenomenon of social development, a specific living person with consciousness and self-awareness (capable of self-reflection). It is taken into account that in social sciences a person is considered as a special quality of a person acquired by him in a sociocultural environment in the process of joint activity and communication. The article considers the social role and hierarchy in predynastic Egypt, as well as funeral rituals in the context of individualizing practices or in the context of attributing it to a collective personality. Two of these arguments allow us to talk about the applicability of the concept of Personality to this historical period. The study suggests that in relation to the period under study, the level of formation of self-awareness Personality can be talked about in relation to social leaders (chief / regional kings). The study is based on the study of archaeological sites such as elite necropolis, a ritual center in Hierakonpolis, as well as artifacts originating from the tombs of an elite necropolis in Hierakonpolis, determining the development of a socially hierarchical society with an aristocratic clan to which the social leader (chief) — regional king) belonged. The study of the formation of the category Personality notes the special role of finds of funerary masks, which most likely represent the first ancestors in the developing form of the cult of the ancestors. The leader in the period under study in the history of Egypt is a collective person and he also leaves for the ancestors, who are also the incarnations of a collective person. Thus, for the preliterate period, there is no way to talk about specific personalities (including named personalities). But already at the initial stages of the development of the Early kingdom, when writing occurs, we can talk about the naming of each of the kings, since the name reflects the personality (its qualities that contain the names themselves). Nevertheless, the name of each king was also accompanied by the name of the ancestor — the deified legendary king Horus in Hierokonpolis, and later — in the royal title, his name as a name of the god was added to the names of the ruling pharaohs until the end of the era of ancient Egypt. The work, therefore, is debatable, since in psychological science the emergence of self-consciousness and personality as an entity is usually referred to the New Time. The question of the possibility of using modern psychological concepts (Personality), to a person of antiquity, in particular to representatives of preliterate culture, is investigated. The image of a person for an individual of a given era was reconstructed through the prism of the reflection of a person of a given period over the limitations of social stratification, ritual and death. Specific personality traits are described as an individual who performs various social roles and is buried according to his merit, both in terms of personal ethics and in the hierarchy of society.