Bears as Benefactors? Bear Veneration as Apicultural Risk Management in Roman Spain
Worship of bear deities in pre-Roman and Roman Spain seems to have occurred for rather pragmatic reasons having more to do with the activities of bears rather than bears themselves. I show that this reverence originated in an important mode of subsistence in Iron Age and Roman central Spain, beekeep...
| Publié dans: | Journal for the study of religion, nature and culture |
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| Autres titres: | Special issue: Bees and Honey in Religions |
| Auteur principal: | |
| Type de support: | Électronique Article |
| Langue: | Anglais |
| Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | En cours de chargement...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Publié: |
Equinox Publ.
2020
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| Dans: |
Journal for the study of religion, nature and culture
Année: 2020, Volume: 14, Numéro: 3, Pages: 324-350 |
| Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés: | B
Celtibères
/ Culte de l'ours
/ Honigproduktion
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| RelBib Classification: | BD Religions européennes anciennes KBH Péninsule Ibérique |
| Sujets non-standardisés: | B
beekeeping
B Onomastics B Roman Spain B Celtic deities B Bear worship B votive dedications |
| Accès en ligne: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Résumé: | Worship of bear deities in pre-Roman and Roman Spain seems to have occurred for rather pragmatic reasons having more to do with the activities of bears rather than bears themselves. I show that this reverence originated in an important mode of subsistence in Iron Age and Roman central Spain, beekeeping, upon which the predatory habits of the bear, common in the Peninsula until recent centuries, came increasingly to encroach. I demonstrate that Latin votive dedications made to a Celtiberian deity named Arco in the region of Segovia during the early Principate should ultimately be considered as a remection of the importance of indigenous honey production. By conceptualizing Arco, whose name in Celtiberian meant ‘bear’, as a rationalization of apicultural risk, we gain a powerful new tool in understanding both the importance of beekeeping in the Iberian Peninsula and how intimately connected in some areas it was with bears. |
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| ISSN: | 1749-4915 |
| Contient: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of religion, nature and culture
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/jsrnc.38579 |