ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the history of Maat as a spiritual practice and ideal. In this context, the power dynamics and political implications woven into the fabric of the field of Egyptology cannot be underestimated. Those first accounts, interpretations, and translations of the artifacts found in Kemet still resonate and inform the corpus of knowledge of Egyptology. European Egyptologists who inaugurated the field came from societies in which large-scale religious conflict marked some of the most important moments in their history. Thus, the idea that an advanced civilization could have made the sort of achievements Kemet produced without organized religion would’ve been almost unthinkable. Yet, that is exactly what not just in Kemet, but other advanced pre-colonial civilizations in Africa did. For a more accurate understanding of Maat, it is crucial to understand ancient African spirituality in its proper context and on its own terms. Although often grouped, there are qualitative differences between the concepts of religion and spirituality that merit examination. We take the necessary steps to understand the communicative dimensions of Maat in their proper cosmological and spiritual contexts by pointing to the groundedness of the Kemetic spiritual view and exploring the differences between contemporary religious practices and an ancient spirituality rooted in place and community among all cosmic substances. Ultimately, Kemet’s vigorous spirituality presented as a natural fit for ethicality.
