Dreams and the construction of reality symbolic transformations of the seen and the unseen in the egyptian imagination

El Sayed El-Aswad

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    7 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in urban and rural communities in Egypt's Nile Delta, this research explicates, within a broad perspective, the significance of dreams to Egyptians encompassing their relationship to the world with its seen and unseen dimensions. It also demonstrates the socioculturel and cosmological conditions that bring about moral and social support to certain dreams for constructing and reconstructing reality. There is a mutual substantiation between the dreamworld and Egyptian cosmology in the sense that certain dream visions are justified or sanctified by religious worldviews, while some significant aspects of worldviews, especially those related to invisible domains, are validated and substantiated by dreams.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)441-453
    Number of pages13
    JournalAnthropos
    Volume105
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2010

    Keywords

    • Cosmology
    • Dreams
    • Egypt
    • Islam
    • Middle east
    • Worldviews

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Anthropology
    • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

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