#merit

Respect is earned through relentless competence, not demanded by the fragile and insecure. If you find yourself desperately begging for validation, you have already forfeited your dignity. Your pathetic insistence on being honored only highlights your fundamental lack of merit.

We obligate others through social pressure, through appeals to rights, and through the application of laws. While we are also obligated in the same way, we see the trade-off as worthwhile, since we generally have no problem with treating others well. After all, the obligation is not usually binding. We see others as similar to ourselves, so we automatically treat them well out of compassion and not because of any obligation.

But a problem arises when we encounter someone for whom we do not feel compassion. Now we are obligated to act in way that goes again our intuitive sense of right and wrong. We are forced to treat this person well when we do not believe they deserve it. Having to do this repeatedly can lead to resentment.

Merit’s Wig

New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1425-1353 B.C. From the Tomb of Kha and Merit (TT8), Deir el-Medina. Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy. Suppl. 8499

▫ Merit was the wife of the foreman Kha, and the couple both resided in the Worker’s Village of Deir el-Medina (Set Ma’at) and were buried together in the local necropolis within Theban Tomb 8 (TT8). Made of human hair that has been curled and/or tousled into a thick headdress of dark brown to black hair with lighter hair at the parting, the wig is held together by sewing the hair into a mesh which would rest upon the wearers scalp, the mesh is still visible through the middle part of the wig’s hairstyle.

The tresses of curls come to a tightly twisted or curled end around the sides and looser curls upon the back, this could be due to the passage of time untwining the curls and/or plaits, or simply the intended style. Also, still intact are a set of larger plaits or braids falling down the back of the wig. While being worn, one could assume the hair would have been slightly past shoulder-length, caressing the bust.

The wig could have been worn in daily life, or special events and religious rituals. The wig could also have been adorned with decorations such as real floral garlands, diadems of varied materials, individual hair jewels, and a perfume cone atop of the head, which is thought to have caused a delicious scent upon the wig. It is not documented if the piece is scented or not, but tests showed that the tips of the hair are coated in plant oil/balsam.