Wine, Brains, and Snakes: An Ancient Roman Cult between Gendered Contaminants, Sexuality, and Pollution Beliefs
The present contribution, concerning the ancient Roman cult of Bona Dea, explores the interplay between intuitive healing beliefs, morality, disgust, and coercive control of sexual behaviours. In order to preliminarily investigate cultural variations concerning sex and gender issues in past societie...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Equinox Publ.
[2016]
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| In: |
Journal for the cognitive science of religion
Year: 2016, Volume: 4, Issue: 2, Pages: 123-154 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Bona Dea
/ Cult
/ Sexual behavior
/ Gender composition
/ Morals
/ Contamination (Technology)
/ Purity
/ Wine
/ Serpents
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AE Psychology of religion AG Religious life; material religion BE Greco-Roman religions NCF Sexual ethics |
| Further subjects: | B
Morality
B Afterlife B Sexuality B Roman Religion B contamination |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The present contribution, concerning the ancient Roman cult of Bona Dea, explores the interplay between intuitive healing beliefs, morality, disgust, and coercive control of sexual behaviours. In order to preliminarily investigate cultural variations concerning sex and gender issues in past societies (a somewhat neglected topic in current cognitive studies), this article engages the socio-sexual organization of Roman culture which underpinned the cult devotion, explaining the evolutionary rationale of the underlying mythography as a mate-guarding strategy and the cult itself as a relief valve and a temporary compensation for subordinate women. The essential components of the cult (i.e., wine and snakes) are further analysed via evolutionary psychology and the cognitive science of religion. The final paragraph tackles the problematic scholarly reconstruction of the cult's promise of an afterlife for its worshippers, arguing that a phylogenetic analysis of Graeco-Roman mythographies might help contextualizing this issue. |
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| ISSN: | 2049-7563 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the cognitive science of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/jcsr.30673 |