Motherhood(s) and Polytheisms: Epistemological and Methodological Reflections on the Study of Religions, Gender, and Women

Numen ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florence Pasche Guignard ◽  
Giulia Pedrucci
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
Concrete Case ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mother Daughter Relationship ◽  
Greek World ◽  
Academic Study

AbstractThrough an approach that combines the academic study of religions with motherhood studies, this article examines rarely considered maternal aspects of Demeter, a goddess of the pantheon of ancient Greek religion. We first discuss theoretical input and concepts drawn from maternal theory that are relevant to uncover innovative lines of research on religious representations and practices in polytheistic systems of the past. In this way we also contribute to broader epistemological reflections in the history and study of religions. Then, considering theHomeric Hymnas well as key ritual elements of theThesmophoriafestival through the lenses of maternal theory, we examine the mother-daughter relationship and the role of the mother as maternal trainer. This concrete case study from the ancient Greek world demonstrates the relevance for historians of religions of considering past polytheistic systems while harnessing the fruitful interdisciplinary potential of maternal theory.

scholarly journals Divination and the ‘Real Presence’ of the Divine in Ancient Greece

2019 ◽  
pp. 203-225
Author(s):  
Michael A. Flower
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Presence ◽  
Lakota Sioux ◽  
Wounded Knee ◽  
Collective Belief

This chapter applies Robert Orsi’s concepts of ‘real presence’ and ‘abundant history’ to the study of ancient Greek religion, using divination as a case study. It proposes that we should take real presence seriously as something that most Greeks took for granted. Although investigating religious experience is extraordinarily difficult, one of the best places to look is in the ubiquitous practice of divination. For it is in the context of the divinatory ritual that the real presence of the divine was commonly to be experienced. Case studies include the epiphany of Asklepios to Isyllos of Epidauros, the lead oracular tablets from Dodona, and the role of divination in the Athenian expedition to Sicily in 415 BCE. The latter event is compared to the belief of the Lakota Sioux that their ghost shirts would protect them from bullets at the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890. In both cases, a collective belief in prophecy and in the real presence of supernatural forces instilled an assurance of victory, and this assurance was then followed by a rejection of the religious specialists who had promoted a positive interpretation of the message and the outcome.

scholarly journals Bodies Out of Time: Sculpting Queer Poetics and Queering Classical Sculpture in the Poetry of C. P. Cavafy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Watson
Keyword(s):  
Raw Material ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Poetry ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
The Past ◽  
Greek World

AbstractTwo major themes dominate the poetry of the Alexandrian poet, C. P. Cavafy: homosexual desire and Greekness, broadly defined. This paper explores the interconnectivity of these motifs, showing how Cavafy’s poetic queerness is expressed through his relationship with the ancient Greek world, especially Hellenistic Alexandria. I focus on Cavafy’s incorporation of ancient sculpture into his poetry and the ways that sculpture, for Cavafy, is a vehicle for expressing forbidden desires in an acceptable way. In this, I draw on the works of Liana Giannakopoulou on statuary in modern Greek poetry and Dimitris Papanikolaou on Cavafy’s homosexuality and its presentation in the poetry. Sculpture features in around a third of Cavafy’s poems and pervades it in various ways: the inclusion of physical statues as focuses of ecphrastic description, the use of sculptural language and metaphor, and the likening of Cavafy’s beloveds to Greek marbles of the past, to name but three. This article argues that Cavafy utilizes the statuary of the ancient Greek world as raw material, from which he sculpts his modern Greek queerness, variously desiring the statuesque bodies of contemporary Alexandrian youths and constructing eroticized depictions of ancient Greek marbles. The very ontology of queerness is, for Cavafy, ‘created’ using explicitly sculptural metaphors (e.g. the repeated uses of the verb κάνω [‘to make’] in descriptions of ‘those made like me’) and he employs Hellenistic statues as a productive link between his desires and so-called ‘Greek desire’, placing himself within a continuum of queer, Greek men.

scholarly journals Working together: A methodological case study of 'engaged scholarship'

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 20-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Cuthill
Keyword(s):  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Participatory Approach ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
The Past ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Introductory Discussion

The concept of engaged scholarship, as a 'new' and participatory approach to knowledge production, has received much attention over the past decade. However, the term is clouded in ambiguity. This paper presents some introductory discussion around concepts of engaged scholarship, and then focuses in detail on a methodological case study of participatory action research as an example of engaged scholarship in practice. Discussion revolves around reflections on practice, drawing largely from recent reports on participatory democracy and the role of unversities in society.

scholarly journals El archivo de la “Fundación Rodríguez”. Análisis, potencia y gestión del legado

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 36-57
Author(s):  
Iker Fidalgo Alday
Keyword(s):  
Research Process ◽  
Digital Content ◽  
Concrete Case ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Collective Work ◽  
Artistic Work ◽  
Do So

El presente artículo parte de un caso de estudio concreto que es la investigación en torno al archivo del colectivo artístico “Fundación Rodríguez” (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1994-2012). El proceso de investigación estará marcado por todo lo que conlleva enfrentarse a un archivo compuesto por contenido digital y con formatos a punto de la obsolescencia, así como las dificultades para su conservación y mantenimiento. Partiendo de esto, se contextualizará la práctica de “Fundación Rodríguez” y el papel que juega el concepto de archivo en varias de las fases de su producción artística. Para ello analizaremos su posición desde el trabajo colectivo, la disolución del rol del artista y la desmaterialización de la obra artística como los tres frentes principales desde los que se erige su producción. Con todo, podremos valorar desde la actualidad la vigencia y relevancia de su legado, así como la potencia del mismo en el contexto artístico al que pertenece. This article starts from a concrete case study that is the research around the archive of the artistic collective “Fundación Rodríguez” (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1994-2012). The research process will be marked by all that is involved in dealing with an archive composed of digital content and formats on the verge of obsolescence, as well as the difficulties of preserving and maintaining them. Starting from this, the practice of “Fundación Rodríguez” and the role played by the concept of archive in several of the phases of its artistic production will be contextualized. To do so, we will analyze its position from the perspective of collective work, the dissolution of the role of the artist and the dematerialization of the artistic work as the three main fronts from which its production is built.With all this, we will be able to evaluate from the present time the validity and relevance of his legacy as well as its power in the artistic context to which it belongs.

scholarly journals The feminist critique

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-161
Author(s):  
Fernanda Neubauer ◽  
Michael J. Schaefer
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Amazon ◽  
Individual Identity ◽  
Feminist Critique ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
The Past ◽  
Marajó Island ◽  
And Gender

We discuss the important role of the feminist critique in bringing awareness to gender, childhood, and identity research, and in giving voice to the perspectives of underrepresented groups. As a case study of ancient social lives and gender, we discuss a range of Marajoara identity markers interpreted through the study of ceramic tangas (female pubic coverings) from Marajó Island in the Brazilian Amazon (A.D. 400-1400). There, tangas were made and used by women as a material representation of social position, gender, and individual identity. We argue that identity constitutes a fundamentally important aspect of archaeological research, and that the strongest case studies in identity are those that encompass a variety of gendered inferences to understand social lives of the past.

National Museums, National Narratives, and Identity Politics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Lleras
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Resistance To Change ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
National Narratives ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Museums ◽  
Insight Into

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the surge of identity politics and the diversification of heritage and the tensions that arise with the traditional role of national museums that are expected to support the model of a unitary national identity through their narratives and collections. Engaging with distinct patrimonies and transformations in museums checkmates stagnant notions of heritage, but in turn, these actions might also instigate resistance to change. A case study at the National Museum of Colombia will provide an insight into competing notions of heritage, which can be understood as the relics of a material past, but may also be seen as the meanings created about the past. This analysis instigates thoughts about the role that history and historians might play in the elaboration of narratives of identity.

The role of the officers’ mess in inclusive military leader social identity construction

Leadership ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 174271502110636
Author(s):  
Edward Gosling
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Military Leader ◽  
Leadership Identity ◽  
Leader Identity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
Shared History ◽  
Integral Feature

Leadership is fundamentally a social phenomenon, and a leader’s legitimacy in personal and social terms is determined partly by how effectively they incorporate the prototypical leader identity. Using the historical British officers’ mess as a case study, this article presents a conceptual examination of the function place can perform in the construction of collective leader identities and the interconnected influence shared history, materiality and social interaction can have in encouraging inclusivity in leadership. Leadership identity is an integral feature of military life which has historically drawn on complex cultural and legal traditions to underwrite the individual’s right to command. This article will argue that social places such as the officers’ mess have been utilised as a means of cultivating cohesion in the past and that they may have an application in furthering inclusive collective leader identities in the future.

Writing Experiments

2018 ◽  
pp. 64-109
Author(s):  
Maria Michela Sassi
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
Writing Technologies ◽  
Philosophical Writing ◽  
Integral Component ◽  
Literacy And Writing ◽  
Greek World

This chapter examines the role that writing in the modalities of philosophical formulation in ancient Greece. It first considers how the rise of the polis intertwined with the beginnings of Greek philosophy, taking into account the theses of Jean-Pierre Vernant and Geoffrey Lloyd, before discussing the range of interactive elements that may have contributed to the development of that particular critical life that characterizes the first expressions of philosophical rationality. One such element is the particular character of Greek religion. The chapter goes on to analyze the combination of egotism and innovation as an integral component of Greek cultural style, and the role of writing technologies in this regard, as well as how literacy and writing contributed to the development of critical thinking in the Greek world. Finally, it explores three different approaches to philosophical writing attributed to Anaximander, Xenophanes, and Heraclitus.

Gilding American History through Song Culture in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

2018 ◽  
pp. 65-82
Author(s):  
Ryan Platte
Keyword(s):  
Technological Change ◽  
American History ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
American South ◽  
Folk Song ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
The Past ◽  
Epochal Change ◽  
Depression Era

In the first of two chapters investigating the role of Homeric epic in fabricating golden ages, Platte reveals how Joel and Ethan Coen’s O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which proclaims its debt to Homer’s Odyssey in the opening credits, also re-enacts Homeric epic’s creation of a golden age. Platte focuses on the role of song in generating ancient and modern societies’ gilded memories of the past, including the nostalgia-laden misremembering of the Depression-era American South in which the film is set. Platte emphasizes how technological change affected the American folk-song tradition through recording – a phenomenon similar to that which changed Greek song culture into “Homeric” epic. By focusing on a moment of epochal change, the filmmakers undercut the notion that folk music is a simple and genuine artefact of the past. Instead, invoking nostalgia through song exposes the artificiality of the traffic in nostalgia, which has shaped attitudes toward the ancient Greek and modern American pasts. Through the protagonist’s encounter with two Homer avatars, the Coens dramatize both the process of nostalgia-creation for such a golden age and the rejection of attempts to politically weaponize it: in this case, by obscuring racism in romantic depictions of the “Old South.”

scholarly journals The Role of Archaeology in Forming Greek National Identity and its Embodiment in European Identity

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 448-458
Author(s):  
Olga Katsiardi-Hering
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Roman Antiquity ◽  
Europe Today ◽  
Greek World ◽  
Of Greece

The murder of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, for many the ‘founder of archaeology’, in 1768 in a Trieste inn, did not mean the end for his work, which could be said to have been the key to understanding ancient Greece, which Europe was re-discovering at the time. In the late Enlightenment, Neoclassicism, followed by Romanticism, elevated classical, Hellenistic and Roman antiquity, and archaeological research, to the centre of academic quests, while the inclusion of archaeological sites in the era’s Grand Tours fed into a belief in the ‘Regeneration’/‘Wiedergeburt’ of Greece. The Modern Greek Enlightenment flourished during this same period, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with a concomitant classicizing turn. Ancient Greek texts were republished by Greek scholars, especially in the European centres of the Greek diaspora. An admiration for antiquity was intertwined into the Neohellenic national identity, and the first rulers of the free Greek State undertook to take care of the nation’s archaeological monuments. In 1837, under ‘Bavarian rule’, the first Greek University and the ‘Archaeological Society of Greece in Athens’ were set up. Archaeologists flocked to Greece and those parts of the ancient Greek world that were still part of the Ottoman Empire. The showcasing of classical monuments, at the expense of the Byzantine past, would remain the rule until the latter half of the nineteenth century. Modern Greek national identity was primarily underpinned by admiration for antiquity, which was viewed as a source of modern Hellenism, and for ‘enlightened, savant, good-governed Europe’. Today, the ‘new archaeology’ is striving to call these foundations into question.

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