Religious Agency and Time Regimes in the Roman Empire: The Cult of Anubis as a Case Study

Abstract This article analyzes three different case studies related to the Graeco-Roman cult of Anubis, located in different historical periods (Early, Middle, and Late Roman Empire) and approached by the study of different types of material (namely literary, epigraphic/archaeological, and iconograp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Numen
Main Author: Gasparini, Valentino 1979- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2021
In: Numen
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Roman Empire / Religion / Anubis / Cult
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AG Religious life; material religion
BC Ancient Orient; religion
BE Greco-Roman religions
Further subjects:B religious agency
B projectivity
B Lived Ancient Religion
B Time
B presentification
B Iteration
B Anubis
B Isiac cults
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Summary:Abstract This article analyzes three different case studies related to the Graeco-Roman cult of Anubis, located in different historical periods (Early, Middle, and Late Roman Empire) and approached by the study of different types of material (namely literary, epigraphic/archaeological, and iconographic sources). The goal of this study is to explore the social dimension of religious practice, stressing its variety, creativity, multiplicity, fluidity, and flexibility of identities, changes in forms of individuality, and spaces for individual distinction. By means of a detailed inquiry of Mustafa Emirbayer and Ann Mische’s schema of “disaggregation” of agency into three component elements ( iteration, projectivity , and presentification ), this analysis will stress the historical variability of religious agency and will show how, across time, emerging situations forced religious actors to select among alternative possibilities of action by recovering patterns belonging to past routines and creating new future options that responded to present hopes and fears. The results of this investigation will then be conceptualized according to the methodological framework of the Lived Ancient Religion paradigm.
ISSN:1568-5276
Contains:Enthalten in: Numen
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341611