God the Anthropologist: Text, Material and Theory in the Study of Ancient Religion

The recognition that Roman religious practices were deeply enmeshed in social life has led to a host of recent work on the shifting dynamics of cult practices, places, and images across the Roman world that went hand-in-hand with the changing power structures of the empire. At the same time, greater focus on localized social frameworks has tessellated accounts of cult life, even in cults (like strains of Christianity) explicitly aiming for a sense of universalism.

The study of Greek religion in its various traditions has been informed by a variety of anthropological theories. For instance, Robert Parker’s Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion was inspired by Mary Douglas’ seminal book, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, or the so-called Paris School’s approach to Greek religion (e.g., Detienne, Marcel and Vernant, Jean-Pierre, La cuisine du sacrifice en pays grec) owes much to French anthropological studies.

Ancient history’s recent quantitative and social-scientific turn reflects a renewed and rising interest in adapting models from the “soft”—and occasionally the “hard”—sciences for the study of Greco-Roman antiquity. The turn is on full display in ancient religion, where interpretations of the material evidence for cultic observance and ritual practice have of late grappled with quantifying models and techniques.

Exploring the relationship between religion and social identity, my paper discusses cognitive aspects and reconsiders the socio-religious context of two texts concerning “magic”: the recently discovered invocation of omnipotentia numina by their self-styled “guardian,” Verius Sedatus (Autricum, Lugudunensis, late I^p/early II^p: AE 2010.950), and Apuleius’s Apology.

This paper discusses the effectiveness and limitations of approaches from economic anthropology and economic theory for the study of ancient Mediterranean religions, distinguishing three broad directions.