Estableciendo relaciones entre el mundo y el yo en las prácticas socio-religiosas. Una mirada hacia la comunicación religiosa romana

Starting from the notion of religion as communication and resonance, this article analyses the details and varieties of religious communication in ancient Rome. Decentring the traditional focus on “sacrifice” by admitting that sacra facere was far more than “sacrifice”, allows us to use the rich evidence for the many facets, pragmatic relationships and cognitive associations of such rituals for an analysis focused on the self-world relations that were established in such performances. The article will model religious ritual as a triangular relationship between human agents (in active as well as passive roles), their “special” or “divine” addressees and animals or objects not just casually employed but constitutive for such communication. It will further argue that such religious practices have a specific relational quality which makes them particularly important for establishing relationships, foregrounding the reflexive, self-observing character of such “intensified” practices. Against this background, the body of this article follows the many conceptual and material associations and implications of Roman religious ritual, thus arguing for the individual and cultural malleability of ritual relations. It is construing a heuristic grid and on that basis plausibilizes the claim that self-world relations are established and habitualized in practices that are characterized by their inclusion of not unquestionably plausible addressees and hence more intensively mediatized and more self-reflexive than many other social practices.Partiendo de la noción de religión como comunicación y resonancia, este artículo analiza los detalles y las variedades de la comunicación religiosa en la antigua Roma. Ampliar el foco de atención tradicional en el “sacrificio” admitiendo que sacra facere era mucho más que “sacrificar” nos permite utilizar la abundante documentación que atestigua las múltiples facetas, relaciones pragmáticas y asociaciones cognitivas de los rituales para analizar las relaciones entre el mundo y el yo individual que se establecen en la ejecución de tales ceremonias. El artículo aborda el ritual religioso como una relación triangular entre los agentes humanos (tanto en papeles activos como pasivos), sus receptores “especiales” o “divinos” y los animales u objetos empleados en dicha comunicación no simplemente de manera casual, sino como elementos constitutivos de la misma. Sostiene, además, que las prácticas religiosas tienen una cualidad relacional específica que las hace particularmente importantes para establecer relaciones, poniendo en primer plano el carácter reflexivo y auto-observante de estas prácticas “intensificadas”. Con este telón de fondo, el cuerpo del estudio investiga las numerosas asociaciones e implicaciones conceptuales y materiales del ritual religioso romano, defendiendo así la maleabilidad individual y cultural de las relaciones rituales. Se construye un marco heurístico dentro del cual es posible afirmar que las relaciones entre el mundo y el yo se establecen y se vuelven habituales en prácticas que se caracterizan por incluir destinatarios no incuestionablemente plausibles y, en consecuencia, por ser más intensamente mediatizadas y más autorreflexivas que muchas otras prácticas sociales

Une méthodologie pour l’historiographie de la religion ancienne

Starting from a discussion about the usefulness of a historical approach to ancient religion, I propose basing the historiography of ancient religion on a set of three concepts, replacing three others that have been widely used. First, I contend that we need to shift our focus from questions of identity to questions of agency, not least in the face of earlier traditions of historiography of regions outside the imperial capitals. The application of an agentic perspective entails a further unavoidable consequence. The concept of “religions” must be replaced by that of “lived religion”, even for the past, once again shifting the focus to the local and the entire range of social agents and their cultural production. This agentic and material focus is further supplemented by a spatial one. Thus, I propose moving away from the widespread focus on civic religion in cities to embrace the perspective of urban religion. Lastly, I briefly touch upon the problem of the selection of forms of contemporary historiography of religion.Partant d’une discussion sur l’utilité d’une aproche historique de la religion ancienne, l’article propose de fonder une étude historique de la religion ancienne sur un ensemble de trois concepts, qui en remplacent trois autres qui ont été abondamment utilisés. Tout d’abord, il propose de déplacer l’accent des questions d’identité vers les questions d’agentivité, notamment face aux traditions précédentes de l’historiographie des régions situées en dehors des capitales impériales. Dans cette perspective d’agentivité, une conséquence s’impose. Le concept de «religions» doit être remplacé par celui de «religion vécue», même pour le passé, en mettant à nouveau l’accent sur le local et sur l’ensemble des agents sociaux et leur production culturelle. L’accent mis sur l’agentivité et le matériel est enfin complété par un facteur spatial. L’article propose de remplacer l’accent largement répandu sur la religion civique des villes par une perspective axée sur la «religion urbaine». Enfin, il aborde brièvement le problème de la sélection des formes d’historiographie actuelles de la religion

RELIGIOUS AGENCY, SACRALISATION AND TRADITION IN THE ANCIENT CITY

Starting from a discussion against the notions of a unified ‘public religion’ my focus during the past decade has been on ‘religious individualization’ and the fluidity of religion captured by the concepts of ‘lived ancient religion’ and ‘religion in the making’. These concepts focus on the inherent dynamic qualities of those cultural products that I identify as religion in the course of historical analyses. And yet, the undeniable presence of traditions and even canones can be conceptualized beyond a world of individually fragmented religious practices and beliefs and incipient, ever-changing and also dissolving institutions that would be clustered together only in the form of narrative shorthand terms by historians. The paper offers a theoretical reflection on a concept of religion useful for the question of tradition and canonization, building on earlier proposals and developing those further by developing the notion of sacralisation. This will be framed by an historical assumption, namely that the processes of interest here are pushed in urban contexts. Here, my focus will be on the ancient Mediterranean

Imperial Religion? Considerations on the History of Religion of the Mediterranean during the Imperium Romanum

Zusammenfassung Dieser Aufsatz faßt wichtige Ergebnisse des Forschungsprogramms "Römische Reichsreligion und Provinzialreligion: Globalisierungs- und Regionalisierungsprozesse in der antiken Religionsgeschichte" (DFG, SPP 1080) zusammen und versucht Konsequenzen daraus zu ziehen. Zugespitzt wird dieser Versuch auf die These, daß die entscheidende Veränderung der untersuchten Epoche nicht der Wechsel oder die Zunahme der Zahl von Religionen gewesen seien, sondern eine Veränderung des Phänomens und gesellschaftlichen Stellenwertes von "Religion" überhaupt: Aus einem Medium der individuellen Thematisierung menschlicher Kontingenzen (Krankheit, Unsicherheit, Tod) und öffentlicher politischer Identitätsbildung ist sie zu einem umfassenden Zusammenhang menschlicher Lebensführung geworden, der die Formulierung von Gruppenidentitäten wie die Verwendung für politische Legitimation erlaubt. Der Blick richtet sich daher auf die Medien, in denen Religion realisiert und verbreitet wurde (Institutionen, Texte, Recht). Der Aufsatz fragt vor allem danach, wie sich Religion in Diffusions- und Immigrationsprozessen veränderte, in welcher Geschwindigkeit Praktiken und Institutionsformen übernommen oder verändert wurden. So wird deutlich, daß im Imperium Romanum nicht "Religionen“ oder "Kulte“ miteinander in Wettbewerb traten, sondern in einem kulturellen Großraum Symbole immer wieder neu verknüpft wurden und Professionelle mit großem Aufwand Gruppengrenzen errichteten und zu sichern versuchten.Abstract This paper summarizes important results of a large program of research on "Roman religion of Empire and provincial religion: Processes of globalisation and regionalisation in the history of ancient religion" It is an attempts to formulate consequences of these results, focusing on a central thesis: The most decisive change in the area of religion during the imperial period was not a change in the number of religions present or in the replacement of one religion by an other. Instead, the concept of "religion" itself, and its position in society changed. A manner of dealing with individual contingencies such as illnesses, insecurities, and death and of dealing with public political identity developed into a comprehensive form of life style. Such a form of "Lebensführung" allowed the formulation of distinctive group identities as an employment for the purposes of political legitimisation. Thus, the analysis will concentrate on media for the employment and diffusion of religion (institutions, texts, laws). The problem of how religion was modified in the processes of diffusion and immigration and of how quickly religious practices and institutions were acquired or modified will be central. It is claimed that the Imperium Romanum did not witness a competition of "religions" or "cults", but a process by which religious symbols were connected to ever-changing nets within a culturally homogeneous space. It was a conscious task, often performed by professionals, to perform "boundary work" which created and continued boundaries between different groups

Starting sacrifice in the beyond Flavian innovations in the concept of priesthood and their repercussions in the treatise “To the Hebrews”

The paper accepts the thesis of a Roman origin of “Hebrews” around the end of the first century AD. This implies an educated audience raised in late Neronian or Flavian times and informed by Roman culture as expressed in public buildings, images and even—if we think about a Jewish family background—rituals. The text is thus analyzed in terms of contemporary urban culture and religion. Special attention is given to the priestly roles discussed. These are compared to the prominent role of pontifex maximus of the Roman emperors and to the developments of major public priesthoods during the second half of the first century AD.Cette étude accepte la thèse d’une origine romaine de l’« Épître aux Hébreux » à la fin du premier siècle de l’ère chrétienne. Cela suppose un auditoire instruit, apparu la fin de l’époque néronienne ou flavienne et rompu à la culture romaine, telle qu’elle s’exprime dans les édifices publics, les images et même – si l’on songe à un contexte familial juif – les rituels. Le texte est ainsi analysé en termes de culture et de religion urbaines contemporaines. Une attention spéciale est accordée aux rôles des prêtres, rôles qui sont comparés à celui, central, de pontifex maximus, assuré par les empereurs romains, et aux développements des principaux sacerdoces publics dans la seconde moitié du premier siècle de notre ère

Urban religion beyond the city: theory and practice of a specific constellation of religious geography-making, Religion, DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2023.2174913

The concept of urban religion demands us to start operationally with analyzing characteristics of urban environments and their impact on religious forms of communication. Yet this notion was not necessarily designed to apply only to the city and related phenomena exclusively observed in city spaces. Practices, beliefs, even institutions developing as urban religion spread out beyond the city. Thus, the geography of lived urban religion and of agents of urbanity is different from what the same people imagine and geographically locate as city space. This article intends to develop the conceptual tools for analyzing this blurring of boundaries produced by religious semantics, discourses and practices interacting with implicit and explicit border-constructions linked to practices of ‘urbanity’. The highly debated ‘urban’ or ‘anti-urban’ character of ancient Christianities serves as our point of departure for developing comparative tools

La religión “vivida” frente a la "religión cívica" en la Antigüedad : Un cambio de perspectiva

En contra de un concepto de “creencia” que parece demasiado cristiano, la religión antigua ha sido entendida en las últimas décadas principalmente como parte de la identidad y de las estrategias políticas. Así se ha definido como un sistema de reglas que regula los deberes de las personas hacia los dioses y, al mismo tiempo, las vincula a su ciudad: una “religión cívica”. El “votum” o el “don de la consagración” parecen confirmar este hallazgo incluso para la acción religiosa individual. Este estudio propone un cambio de perspectiva: especialmente el ejemplo del uso de objetos en la comunicación entre humanos y dioses muestra que la antigua práctica religiosa era sobre todo una “religión vivida”, que cambiaba una y otra vez.Contrary to a concept of “belief” that seems too Christian, ancient religion has been understood in recent decades mainly as part of political identity and political strategies: a system of rules that regulates people's duties towards the gods and, at the same time, links them to their polity: “civic religion”. The “votive”, the “gift of consecration”, seems to confirm this finding even for individual religious action. The article proposes a change of perspective: Focusing on the use of objects in communication between humans and gods shows that even ancient religious practice was above all “lived religion”, which changed again and again.Editado por Guillermina BogdanFacultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Modes of crustal accretion and their implications for hydrothermal circulation

Hydrothermal convection at mid-ocean ridges links the ocean's long-term chemical evolution to solid earth processes, forms hydrothermal ore deposits, and sustains the unique chemosynthetic vent fauna. Yet the depth extent of hydrothermal cooling and the inseparably connected question of how the lower crust accretes remain poorly constrained. Here based on coupled models of crustal accretion and hydrothermal circulation, we provide new insights into which modes of lower crust formation and hydrothermal cooling are thermally viable and most consistent with observations at fast-spreading ridges. We integrate numerical models with observations of melt lens depth, thermal structure, and melt fraction. Models matching all these observations always require a deep crustal-scale hydrothermal flow component and less than 50% of the lower crust crystallizing in situ

The experience of pilgrimage in the Roman Empire: communitas, paideiā, and piety-signaling

Pilgrimage of various types is well attested in the pre-Christian religions of the Roman Empire, but there is comparatively little evidence for the personal experiences of pilgrims. Some recent studies have argued that typical pilgrims of this period were members of the intellectual elite highly versed in literary culture (paideia) who saw sacred places as museums of Greek culture. In this paper, I try to reconstruct what we can about the experience of pilgrimage in early Roman Empire, looking at three cases studies: a. Philo’s somewhat idealized account of Jewish pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which stresses intense common feeling (or communitas, to use Victor Turner’s term) between participants; b. Pilgrimage to the oracle of Apollo at Claros, to which cities of Asia Minor and elsewhere sent sacred delegations, largely made up choirs of children who performed hymns at the sanctuary. It may be suggested that the experience of the pilgrimage was in large part an educative one - learning about Greek culture and learning how to behave in public; itmight even be seen as a sort of rite of passage. c. The healing-pilgrimages of Aelius Aristides to Pergamum and elsewhere. Aristides’ experience at Pergamum is full of paideia, though that was not the primary motivation, and it sometimes approaches communitas, though in the end the presence of other people tends to serve the purpose of an audience and foil for his own brilliance. Key aspects of his experience seem to be: a) suffering and b) a feeling of closeness to the god, sometimes bordering on identification with him