Processions and the Construction of Communities in Antiquity

History and Comparative Perspectives

Elena Muñiz-Grijalvo, Alberto del Campo Tejedor, Elena Muñiz-Grijalvo, Alberto del Campo Tejedor, Alberto del Campo Tejedor, Elena Muñiz Grijalvo

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781032294490
• eBook ISBN: 9781000892604
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Altertum

This volume elucidates how processions, from antiquity to the present, contribute to creating consensus with regards to both political power and communitarian experiences.

Many classical sources often only tangentially allude to processions, focusing instead on other ritual moments, such as sacrifice. This book adopts a comparative approach, bringing together historians of antiquity and later periods as well as social anthropologists working on contemporary societies, analysing both ancient and modern examples of how rituals, symbols, actors, and spectators interact in the construction of communities. The different examples explored in this study illustrate the performative capacity of processions to construct reality: the protagonism of image and movement, the design of cultic itineraries, and the active participation of members of the public. In studying these examples, readers develop an understanding of how power is exercised and perceived, the extent of its legitimacy, and the limits of community in a variety of case studies.

Processions and the Construction of Communities in Antiquity is of interest to students and scholars of the classical and early Christian worlds, especially those working on cult, religion, and community formation. The volume also appeals to social anthropologists interested in these issues across a broader chronology.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• 1 Introduction: Processions and the construction of communities
• 2 Peisistratus’ processional performance: Between ritual, symbolic action, and strategy
• 3 Processing women and maidens in Greece: Appearances and appurtenances
• 4 The women of the domus Augusta in processions and ceremonies (first to third century CE)
• 5 Pompa funebris: Collective experience and political power in the shadow of death
• 6 Long and winding roads: Imperial funeral processions to the city of Rome under Augustus and Tiberius
• 7 Toward the imperial cult: The Hellenistic processions as forerunners?
• 8 Processions and the construction of Roman imperial power
• 9 Rituals and processions in the Empress Irene's justification of power (780–802)
• 10 The processions in honour of the Mater Magna and the construction of Roman identity (third century BC to fourth century CE)
• 11 Ritual-feast mockery and humiliation during Roman triumphs: Functions and meanings of ioci militares from a cultural-historical perspective
• 12 The first Christian processions in Milan
• 13 Holy Week in Huelva: An urban ritual drama
• 14 A comparative study of processions: The Baroque feast of Corpus Christi, Islamic Morocco, and historicist Rome
• 15 Ancient and modern processions at the limits of Isaac Casaubon's patience
• Index