Senses, Cognition, and Ritual Experience in the Roman World

Blanka Misic, Abigail Graham

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2024
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009355568
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

How do the senses shape the way we perceive, understand, and remember ritual experiences? This book applies cognitive and sensory approaches to Roman rituals, reconnecting readers with religious experiences as members of an embodied audience. These approaches allow us to move beyond the literate elites to examine broader audiences of diverse individuals, who experienced rituals as participants and/or performers. Case studies of ritual experiences from a variety of places, spaces, and contexts across the Roman world, including polytheistic and Christian rituals, state rituals, private rituals, performances, and processions, demonstrate the dynamic and broad-scale application that cognitive approaches offer for ancient religion, paving the way for future interdisciplinary engagement. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: Experiencing Rituals
• Chapter 1 Remembering the Rites: Religious Learning Network Model and Transmission of Religious Rituals in the Worship of Nutrices Augustae (Poetovio, Pannonia Superior)
• Chapter 2 The Haptic Production of Religious Knowledge among the Vestal Virgins: A Hands-On Approach to Roman Ritual
• Chapter 3 Haptic Colour: Experiential Viewing in Graeco-Roman Sacred Spaces
• Chapter 4 Nobody Is Gonna Rain on My Parade: Experiencing Salutaris’s Procession As a Ritual Event
• Chapter 5 Objects and Ritual in Egeria’s Fourth-Century Pilgrimage: The Props of My Faith
• Conclusion: (Re)Creating Ritual Experiences
• Index