Brain beats heart: a cross-cultural reflection

Abstract

From the Egyptian Book of the Dead to the doctrine of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, ancient secular and religious cultures throughout the world often considered the heart — and not the brain — to be the home of the emotions, cognition and even the soul. Brandt and Huppert reflect on the reasons behind this belief.

Figure 1

Ancient Egypt Papyrus of ‘Weighing the Heart of Ani’ within the ‘Book of the Dead of Ani’ containing cursive hieroglyphs and colour illustrations (19th Dynasty, about 1250 BC, unknown artist, British Museum London). In the middle, Anubis weighs the heart of Ani against the feather of Maat. This is watched by the goddesses Renenutet and Meshkenet, the god Shay, and Ani’s own Ba. Ani and his wife Tutu (left) enter the assemblage of gods. The goddess Ammut (right) awaits the verdict on whether to either admit Ani to the afterlife or devour his soul, if he is unworthy. The god Toth will record this. The gods sitting at the top of the painting judge the process. The most impressive collection of Book of the Dead papyrus rolls can be found in the British Museum. Image: Egyptian Book of the Dead. (20 September 2017). New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved 24 February 2021 from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Egyptian_Book_of_the_Dead&oldid=1006850.

Figure 2

Separate burial of the heart and the body of Frédéric Chopin. The Polish composer and pianist was born in 1810 in Warsaw (Fryderyk Chopin) and died of tuberculosis in Paris in 1849. While his body was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris (grave on the right; photo: P. Poradisch, GNU Free Documentation License), his heart was secretly brought to Warsaw by his sister, in accordance with Chopin’s wishes (‘my heart belongs to Warsaw’). It is kept in an urn in the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw. The epitaph with Chopin’s heart contains the inscription (in Polish): ‘Where your treasure is, there is your heart too’ (epitaph on the left; photo: M.M. Szczepańcyk, GNU Free Documentation License).