The ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts form the oldest body of religious texts in the world. This book weds traditional philology to linguistic anthropology to associate them with two spheres of ritual action, mortuary cult and personal preparation for the afterlife.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

List of Figures; List of Tables; Preface and Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Source Sigla and Citation Conventions; A. Source Sigla; B. Citation Conventions; Map of Egypt; Abridged Chronology; Introduction; A. Articulation of the Problem; 1. The Lack of Paratext; 2. Modern Typologies; 3. Previous Identifications of Settings in Life; B. Thesis; C. Dimensions of Evidence; D. Avenues of Analysis; Chapter One Performance Settings and Structures; A. Temple Sanctuary Ritual; 1. Collective Setting; 2. Sacerdotal Performance Structure; 3. Oracular Interventions versus Cultic Services.

4. SummaryB. The Book of the Dead; 1. Individual Setting; a. Iconic Representations; b. Rites Reframed for Personal Performance; c. Strictly Self-performed Texts; d. Interim Summary of Individual Setting; 2. The Use of Books of the Dead by the Living; 3. Performance Structures in an Individual Setting; a. Personal Performance Structure; b. Reframed Texts of Sacerdotal Structure; c. Texts Reframed from Proxy Performance; d. Third-person Texts in an Individual Setting; e. Texts Not Mentioning the Beneficiary; f. Personal Services for Gods; g. Summary; C. Exchanges between Settings.

D. Operative versus Non-performed, Monumental TextsChapter Two Groups and Series of Pyramid Texts; A. Groups of Pyramid Texts; 1. Group A. Offering Ritual; a. Fundamental Principles of the Disposition of Pyramid Texts; b. Identification; c. Contemporary Contextual Information; d. Middle Kingdom Designations; e. The Entextualization of Group A; 2. Group B. Transfiguration; a. Identification; b. Later Contextual Information; c. The Concept of 'Mortuary Liturgy'; 3. Group C. Perpetuation of Cult; 4. Group D. Horus Resurrects; 5. Group E. Nut Protects; 6. Group F. Isis and Nephthys Lament.

7. Group G. Anointing and Wrapping8. Group H. Provisioning; 9. Group I. Isis and Nephthys Summon; 10. Group J. Aggregation with the Gods; 11. Group K. Apotropaia; 12. Group L. Transformation; 13. Group M. Ascent to the Sky; 14. Group N. The Celestial Circuit; 15. Group O. Mixed; B. Order of Reading, Canonicity, and Heterogeneity; 1. Variable Order of Reading; 2. Non-canonical Composition; 3. Methodological Ramifications of Heterogeneity; C. Recurring Series: Sequences and Subsequences; Chapter Three Categories of Pyramid Texts; A. Methodology; B. The Core Set of Sacerdotal Texts.

1. Texts with the Beneficiary in the Second Person and Switching2. Vocatives to the Text Owner and Quotations; a. Unpreceded Vocatives and Quotations; b. Vocatives Preceded by Particles; 3. Imperatives to the Text Owner; C. The Editing of Grammatical Person; 1. Maintenance of the First Person Throughout; 2. Texts Edited away from the First Person; a. Recarving; b. Vacillation to First Person; c. Doubling of Pronouns and Nouns; d. Residual -y and -i with Third-weak Verbs; e. Exemplar Disagreement; f. Advanced Noun; 3. Summary of the Core Set of Personal Texts.

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