scholarly journals MATER MATUTA, ‘FERTILITY CULTS’ AND THE INTEGRATION OF WOMEN IN RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ITALY IN THE FOURTH TO FIRST CENTURIES BC

2019 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 1-45
Author(s):  
Maureen Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Maternal Health ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Civic Identity ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Mother Goddess ◽  
Wide Range

This study explores social and gendered aspects of female fertility in popular religious practices in Italy in the last four centuries BC, and it investigates the role of supplication and votive dedications in promoting maternal health and family continuity. It tackles modern assumptions which have strongly aligned the religious activities of women in Republican Italy with their generative interests and specific ‘fertility cults’ or ‘women's goddesses’. Divinities associated with fertility are explored here, with particular emphasis on Mater Matuta who is often defined in modern research as a ‘mother goddess’. The study shows that cults purely concerned with fertility are unlikely to have existed. Fertility was only one of several fundamental personal concerns brought by women and men to the generalist and polyvalent deities of Republican Italy. Items associated with fertility, such as terracotta wombs, male and female genitals, and swaddled infants, always occur together with other anatomical ex-votos across a wide range of sites and were dedicated to many deities. Considering the archaeological and textual evidence, Mater Matuta can be shown to have occupied a more flexible and encompassing space in the pantheon, and her involvement in marriage, motherhood and childbearing was part of a wider repertoire of responsibilities. The study also focuses attention on a distinctive, but largely overlooked, votive assemblage from Capua which includes numerous tufa statues of women and babies. The paper proposes that they should be understood as votive objects offered to an unknown deity by Capuan women as thanks for support in the generative enterprise, personally and more broadly in the context of the city's religious and civic identity.

Populist Human-Computer Interface

2022 ◽  
pp. 165-182
Author(s):  
Emma Yann Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Computer Interface ◽  
Human Computer Interface ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Imitation Game ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Alan Turing ◽  
Computer Interfaces ◽  
Female Player ◽  
Wide Range

With advances in HCI and AI, and increasing prevalence of commercial social robots and chatbots, humans are communicating with computer interfaces for various applications in a wide range of settings. Kissenger is designed to bring HCI to the populist masses. In order to investigate the role of robotic kissing using the Kissenger device in HCI, the authors conducted a modified version of the imitation game described by Alan Turing by including the use of the kissing machine. Results show that robotic kissing has no effect on the winning rates of the male and female players during human-human communication, but it increases the winning rate of the female player when a chatbot is involved in the game.

Religious Practices at Court

2020 ◽  
pp. 108-123
Author(s):  
Hugh M. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Religious Activities

John oversaw a surprisingly active religious life at court that nonetheless failed to create an aura of pious kingship for him. Despite his reputation for impiety, recent work has shown that John carried out the religious practices expected of kings in his day, such as honouring saints’ relics, giving alms, and supporting religious houses. John’s religious activities were perforce generally court activities. Kingship was in part a religious office and religious activities at court were partly designed to project an image of sacral kingship. The chapter explores why the court’s many religious activities failed so miserably to improve John’s religious reputation and discusses the broader relationship between power, pleasure, and piety.

James C. Hanges, Paul, Founder of Churches: A Study in Light of the Evidence for the Role of “Founder-Figures” in the Hellenistic-Roman Period. A Review Essay

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 292-302
Author(s):  
Heidi Wendt
Keyword(s):  
Review Essay ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Religious Activity ◽  
Religious Activities

Abstract James C. Hanges’ new book raises a number of important questions about what it means to situate Paul’s religious activities within his own historical context, and also models one possible methodology for doing so. In this review, I interrogate some of the assumptions underpinning Hanges’ approach, namely, ones having to do with the cultural particularity of certain discourses and religious practices, as well as the utility of the concept “identity” as it pertains to the study of religion. I also attempt to draw the author’s conclusions into wider and ongoing efforts to theorize ancient Mediterranean religion by proposing that many of the actors whom he introduces as comparanda for Paul fall within a discrete class of religious activity, populated by varieties of freelance experts.

Die proklische Diotima

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 75-98
Author(s):  
Jana Schultz
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Joint Work ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
The Human Condition

Abstract Diotima, the priestess of Plato’s Symposium, is an important reference for Proclus’ thinking about the role of women in philosophical and religious practices. This character does not just offer Proclus an example for women’s ability to attain the same level of virtue than men, but she is also a model for the joint work of philosophical and religious practices. Thereby she stands for practices which are orientated on the human condition and therefore depend on intermediary entities as demons, and for practices which transcend both the human condition and the intermediary entities. Most interesting in Proclus’ presentation of Diotima as a priestess and a philosopher is that he does not present her to fulfill these roles by masculinizing her soul through a sole focus on the intelligible entities – as for example Porphyry advises his wife Marcella – but by using the female element in her soul, i.e. the circuit of the Different, as an intermediate through which she can get in touch with the demons and – through them – also with higher entities. The ideal which Diotima incorporates is therefore not becoming masculine (despite having a female body) but harmonizing the male and female elements within the soul.

Governed by Gods

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Human Activities ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Ecological Roles ◽  
Household Shrines

In this new account of Athenian demokratia, the most significant human activities in the polis were not political deliberations or economic transactions but ritual engagements with gods, the non-human agencies who ultimately controlled the very conditions of existence. To a point, offerings to gods were like taxes rendered to maintain the infrastructure of the cosmos. Ritual actions were thus performed more or less continually, at a wide range of locations, from household shrines to major sanctuaries, by all inhabitants of Attica, male and female, young and old, Athenian and non-Athenian alike. As the chapter stresses, these actions are best understood as ecological transactions, rather than as purely “religious” practices. Indeed, in such circumstances, where gods were potentially everywhere and anywhere in experience, the modern category “religion” has little or no valence or meaning. The chapter also highlights the ritual contributions to the life of the polis that were made by females, who played literally vital ecological roles through their involvements in numerous divine cults.

scholarly journals Faith in the Times of COVID-19: Integrating Religion in the Fight against COVID-19 in Tanzania

2021 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 117-134
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Ndaluka ◽  
◽  
Magolanga Shagembe ◽  
Jonas Kinanda ◽  
Vendelin Simon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practices ◽  
Intensity Level ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
The Times ◽  
Role Of Religion

When and where a crisis such as a pandemic arises, people turn to religion in pursuit/search of comfort, justifications, and explanations. This article describes the role of religion in Tanzania in the times of COVID-19. The data collected through a questionnaire from 258 participants asserts that COVID-19 increased the intensity level of religiosity in Tanzania. This was seen in peoples’ participation in religious activities, i.e., religious gatherings, frequent prayers, and other religious practices. This article has established that the process of de-secularization was strong, and religion became a provider of hope, unity, solace, and socialization. Moreover, COVID-19 has also facilitated the convergence of different religions and thus ecumenism and pluralism of faiths have been strengthened in the country.

scholarly journals IMPLIKASI PERAN ORANG TUA DALAM PEMERTAHANAN RELIGIUSITAS REMAJA HINDU DI KABUPATEN TULUNGAGUNG PROVINSI JAWA TIMUR

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Nur Agni Govinda Yogisvari
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Internal Constraints ◽  
Religious Attitudes ◽  
External Constraints ◽  
Adolescent Religiosity ◽  
The Family ◽  
Role Of Parents

<p><em>Parents have a very important and central role in the formation of religious attitudes and the defense of Hindu adolescent religiosity. The impacts caused by social interaction in different societies of different religious backgrounds, greatly affect the development of Hindu teenagers, especially in terms of psychic (mental). If the important role of parents can be applied optimally in the family, then the case of religious adolescent decline in religiosity will be suppressed.</em></p><p><em>This research was conducted in Tulungagung District, East Java Province. The purpose of this study is to know: (1) the background of the need for religious adolescent religiosity in Tulungagung regency; (2) obstacles that hinder the maintenance of the religiosity of Hindu adolescents in Tulungagung District; and (3) the efforts that parents need to make in the defense of Hindu adolescent religiosity in Tulungagung District.</em></p><p><em>The results showed that religious adolescent religious religiosity was perpetuated through religious activities. In addition, the role of parents and Hindu society is also very influential on the religiosity of Hindu adolescents. Constraints that hamper the defense of Hindu adolescent religiosity can be grouped into two, namely internal constraints and external constraints. Efforts that can be done by the parents as the most important party to maintain the religiosity of Hindu adolescents is to provide education about the teachings of Hinduism early in the child, provide an example of how to diligent teachings of Hinduism properly, and familiarize children perform religious practices. If the effort can be well implemented by the parents, then sraddha and bhakti adolescent Hindu will become very strong and not easily wavered by the influence that exists in the environment.</em></p><p><em> </em></p>

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