Editing Kidney (section)

==Society and culture==

===Significance===

====Egyptian====
In [[ancient Egypt]], the kidneys, like the heart, were left inside the mummified bodies, unlike other organs which were removed. Comparing this to the biblical statements, and to drawings of human body with the heart and two kidneys portraying a set of scales for weighing justice, it seems that the Egyptian beliefs had also connected the kidneys with judgement and perhaps with moral decisions.<ref name="zzz">{{cite journal | vauthors = Salem ME, Eknoyan G | title = The kidney in ancient Egyptian medicine: where does it stand? | journal = American Journal of Nephrology | volume = 19 | issue = 2 | pages = 140–147 | year = 1999 | pmid = 10213808 | doi = 10.1159/000013440 | s2cid = 35305403 }}</ref>

====Hebrew====
According to studies in modern and ancient Hebrew, various body organs in humans and animals served also an emotional or logical role, today mostly attributed to the [[brain]] and the [[endocrine system]]. The kidney is mentioned in several biblical verses in conjunction with the heart, much as the [[bowels]] were understood to be the "seat" of emotion – grief, joy and pain.<ref name="adath">{{Cite web|url=http://www.adath-shalom.ca/body_metaphors_bib_hebrew.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030322082801/http://www.adath-shalom.ca/body_metaphors_bib_hebrew.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 22, 2003|title=Body Part Metaphors in Biblical Hebrew by David Steinberg|date=March 22, 2003|access-date=July 21, 2019}}</ref> Similarly, the [[Talmud]] (''Berakhoth'' 61.a) states that one of the two kidneys counsels what is good, and the other evil.

In the sacrifices offered at the biblical [[Tabernacle]] and later on at the temple in [[Jerusalem]], the priests were instructed<ref>Leviticus 3: 4, 10 and 15</ref> to remove the kidneys and the adrenal gland covering the kidneys of the sheep, goat and cattle offerings, and to burn them on the altar, as the holy part of the "offering for God" never to be eaten.<ref>ie Deut 3:4,9,10,15... or the Babylonian Talmud, Bechorot (39a) Ch6:Tr2...</ref>

====India: Ayurvedic system====
In ancient India, according to the [[Ayurveda|Ayurvedic medical systems]], the kidneys were considered the beginning of the excursion channels system, the 'head' of the ''Mutra Srota''s, receiving from all other systems, and therefore important in determining a person's health balance and temperament by the balance and mixture of the three 'Dosha's – the three health elements: Vatha (or Vata) – air, Pitta – [[bile]], and Kapha – [[mucus]]. The temperament and health of a person can then be seen in the resulting color of the urine.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ayurvedacollege.com/articles/drhalpern/Vata_Doshas|title=What is Vata Dosha? Tips and diet for balancing vata &#124; CA College of Ayurveda|website=www.ayurvedacollege.com|date=7 April 2010|access-date=July 21, 2019|archive-date=9 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109092730/http://www.ayurvedacollege.com/articles/drhalpern/Vata_Doshas|url-status=live}}</ref>

Modern Ayurveda practitioners, a practice which is characterized as pseudoscience,<ref>[[List of topics characterized as pseudoscience]], according to the [[American Medical Association]]'s Report 12 of the Council of Scientific Affairs (A-97) and [http://www.skepdic.com/ayurvedic.html claims by skeptics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160810061129/http://skepdic.com/ayurvedic.html |date=2016-08-10 }} ('The Skeptics Dictionary' website)</ref> have attempted to revive these methods in medical procedures as part of Ayurveda [[Urine therapy]].<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Sangu PK, Kumar VM, Shekhar MS, Chagam MK, Goli PP, Tirupati PK | title = A study on Tailabindu pariksha – An ancient Ayurvedic method of urine examination as a diagnostic and prognostic tool | journal = AYU | volume = 32 | issue = 1 | pages = 76–81 | date = January 2011 | pmid = 22131762 | pmc = 3215423 | doi = 10.4103/0974-8520.85735 | doi-access = free }}</ref> These procedures have been called "nonsensical" by skeptics.<ref>{{cite web | title = A Few Thoughts on Ayurvedic Mumbo-Jumbo | vauthors = Barrett S | author-link = Stephen Barrett | url = https://www.old.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/chopra.html | access-date = 2022-05-22 | archive-date = 2020-09-29 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200929051141/https://www.old.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/chopra.html | url-status = live }} M.D, head of the [[National Council Against Health Fraud]] NGO and owner of the QuackWatch website.</ref>

====Medieval Christianity====
The Latin term ''renes'' is related to the English word "reins", a synonym for the kidneys in [[Shakespearean English]] (e.g. ''[[Merry Wives of Windsor]]'' 3.5), which was also the time when the [[King James Version]] of the [[Bible]] was translated. Kidneys were once popularly regarded as the seat of the [[conscience]] and reflection,<ref>{{cite book |author3-link=William F. May (ethicist) | vauthors = Ramsey P, Jonsen AR, May WF |title=The Patient as Person: Explorations in Medical Ethics |date=2002 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=978-0-300-09396-4 |page=60 |edition=Second}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=History of Nephrology 2 |date=January 1997 |publisher=Karger Medical and Scientific Publishers |isbn=978-3-8055-6499-1 | page = 235 | veditors = Eknoyan G, Marketos SG, De Santo NG }} International Association for the History of Nephrology Congress, Reprint of ''American Journal of Nephrology''; v. 14, no. 4–6, 1994.</ref> and a number of verses in the Bible (e.g. Ps. 7:9, Rev. 2:23) state that God searches out and inspects the kidneys, or "reins", of humans, together with the heart.<ref>{{citation |url=https://intertextual.bible/text/revelation-2.23-berakhot-119.29 |title=intertextual.bible/text/revelation-2.23-berakhot-119.29 |access-date=2022-12-15 |archive-date=2022-12-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221215081525/https://intertextual.bible/text/revelation-2.23-berakhot-119.29 |url-status=live }}</ref>