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...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Ambasciano, Leonardo (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Equinox Publ. [2016]
Dans: Journal for the cognitive science of religion
Année: 2016, Volume: 4, Numéro: 2, Pages: 123-154
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B Bona Dea / Culte / Comportement sexuel / Relations hommes-femmes / Morale / Contamination / Pureté / Vin / Serpents
RelBib Classification:AD Sociologie des religions
AE Psychologie de la religion
AG Vie religieuse
BE Religion gréco-romaine
NCF Éthique sexuelle
Sujets non-standardisés:B Morality
B Afterlife
B Sexuality
B Roman Religion
B contamination
Accès en ligne: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Description
Résumé: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.
ISSN:2049-7563
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal for the cognitive science of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1558/jcsr.30673