Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience PDF
Preview Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience
COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO ANCIENT RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE For some time interest has been growing in a dialogue between modernscientificresearchintohumancognitionandresearchinthe humanities.Thisground-breakingvolumefocusesthisdialogueonthe religious experience of men and women in the ancient Greek and Romanworlds.Eachchapterexaminesaparticularhistoricalproblem arisingfromanancientreligiousactivity,andthecontributionsrange across a wide variety of ancient contexts and sources, exploring and integratingliterary,epigraphic,visual,andarchaeologicalevidence.In ordertoavoidasimplepolaritybetweenphysicalaspects(ritual)and mentalaspects(belief)ofreligion,thecontributorsdrawontheoriesof cognition as embodied, emergent, enactive, and extended, accepting the complexity, multimodality, and multicausality of human life. Through this interdisciplinary approach, the chapters open up new questions around and develop new insights into the physical, emo- tional,andcognitiveaspectsofancientreligions. isProfessorofAncientHistoryattheUniversityof Bristol.SheworksonancientGreekculture,specializinginmagicand religion.SheisadistinguishedfellowoftheReligion,Cognition,and Culture Unit of Aarhus University, and a founder of the Journal of CognitiveHistoriography.Sheiscurrentlyleadingaprojectfundedby theUK’sArtsandHumanitiesResearchCounciltodevelopavirtual realityexperienceofconsultationoftheoracleofZeusatDodona. . isEmeritusProfessorintheHistoryofReligions at Aarhus University. He works on the cognitive science of religion, evolutionarytheory,andthepsychologyofreligiousexperiences.He isco-founder/editoroftheJournalfortheCognitiveScienceofReligion and Advancesin the Cognitive Science ofReligion. isEmeritusProfessorofHistoryatUniversityCollege London. He has worked on the religious history of Rome and the changingcharacterofreligiouslifeintheRomanEmpiredowntothe riseofChristianity.Heisaco-authorofthetwo-volumehistoryand sourcebookReligionsofRome(Cambridge). Series Editors EstherEidinow,University ofBristol Thomas Harrison, University ofSt Andrews Thisseriesseekstotakeadvantageofacriticalmomentinthedevelopmentofthe study of ancient religion. This is one in which previous models (especially the sharp oppositions frequently drawn between ritual and belief, or between the social and the individual) are increasingly being questioned, and in which scholarsoftheancientworldaremoreandmoredrawingoncognitiveapproaches in the search for new paradigms. The ‘cognitive science of religion’ draws on insights developed in a wide range of fields: cognitive and evolutionary psychol- ogy, cognitive anthropology, and neurobiology, amongst others. In essence, however, it seeks to understand religious experience as rooted in the ordinary cognitive capacities of the human brain. The series covers not only Greek and RomanreligionbutarangeofancientculturesfromtheMediterraneanandNear East,includingGreece,Rome,Egypt,Babylonia,Persia,andPhoenicia,aswellas culturesfromIronAgeEurope.Itwillalsoexploretheimplicationsforthestudy of these cultures of a range of different cognitive approaches to religion and will include work by scholars from a wide range of disciplines in anthropology, the study of religion, evolutionary psychology, and neuroscience in addition to that by historians and archaeologistsof the ancient world. COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO ANCIENT RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE ESTHER EIDINOW UniversityofBristol ARMIN W. GEERTZ AarhusUniversity JOHN NORTH UniversityCollegeLondon UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeB,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,thFloor,NewYork,,USA WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,,Australia –,rdFloor,Plot,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre,NewDelhi–,India PenangRoad,#-/,VisioncrestCommercial,Singapore CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/ :./ ©CambridgeUniversityPress Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData :Eidinow,Esther,–editor.|Geertz,ArminW.,–editor.| North,John,–editor. :Cognitiveapproachestoancientreligiousexperience/editedbyEstherEidinow, ArminW.Geertz,JohnNorth. :Cambridge;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,.|Series:Ancient religionandcognition|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. :(print)|(ebook)| (hardback)|(paperback)|(epub) ::Experience(Religion)|Cognitionandculture–Greece.|Cognitionandculture– Rome.|Civilization,Ancient.|Greece–Religiouslifeandcustoms.|Rome–Religiouslifeand customs.|BISAC:HISTORY/Ancient/General :.(print)|(ebook)|–dc/eng LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/ LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/ ----Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Contents List of Figures and Tables page vii List of Contributors viii List of Abbreviations xiii Funder Acknowledgement xiv Introduction EstherEidinow,ArminW.Geertz,QuintonDeeley,andJohnNorth A Cognitive Approach to Ancient Greek Animal Sacrifice HughBowden To the Netherworld and Back: Cognitive Aspects of the Descent to Trophonius YuliaUstinova Ancient Greek Smellscapes and Divine Fragrances: Anthropomorphizing the Gods in Ancient Greek Culture EstherEidinow Belief, Make-Believe, and the Religious Imagination: The Case of the Deus Ex Machina in Greek Tragedy FelixBudelmann Chanting and Dancing into Dissociation: The Case of the Salian Priests at Rome MaikPatzelt v vi Contents The Bacchants Are Silent: Using Cognitive Science to Explore the Experience of the Oreibasia VivienneMcGlashan Who Is the Damiatrix? Roman Women, the Political Negotiation of Psychotropic Experiences, and the Cults of Bona Dea LeonardoAmbasciano Walls and the Ancient Greek Ritual Experience: The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis MichaelScott Identifying Symptoms of Religious Experience from Ancient Material Culture: The Example of Cults of the Roman Mithras LutherH.Martin Bridging the Gap: From Textual Representations to the Experiential Level and Back AndersKlostergaardPetersen A Relevant Mystery: Intuitive and Reflective Thought in Gregory of Nyssa’s Representations of Divine Begetting in the Against Eunomius IsabellaSandwell Index Figures and Tables Figure . Plan of the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis by J. Travlos ‘The Topography of Eleusis’ Hesperia (.) pp. –, adapted by M. Scott. page Tables . Ritual form hypothesis (adapted from Larson ). . Ritual form hypothesis applied to the Bona Dea cults. . Theory of the modes of religiosity (adapted from Whitehouse : ). . Organization and experiences of the Bona Dea cults and Roman state religion (sacra publica) according to the theory of the modes of religiosity. vii Contributors earned his PhD in historical studies at the University of Turin, Italy, in with a cognitive, evolutionary, and genderandsexualityanalysisoftheancientRomancultofBonaDea.In , he was Visiting Lecturer in Religious Studies at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. He also served as Editorial Assistant and Managing Editor of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography from to . Ambasciano is the author of Sciamanesimo senza sciamanesimo (Nuova Cultura ) and An Unnatural History of Religions: Academia, Post-Truth, and the Quest for ScientificKnowledge(Bloomsbury).Amonghismostrecentarticles are ‘The Trials and Tribulations of Luke Skywalker: How the Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm Have Failed to Confront Joseph Campbell’s Troublesome Legacy,’ Implicit Religion (): –, and ‘An Evolutionary Cognitive Approach to Comparative Fascist Studies: Hypermasculinization, Supernormal Stimuli, and Conspirational Beliefs,’ Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture (): –. isProfessorofAncientHistoryatKing’sCollegeLondon. He has been involved in a series of national and international research projectsfocusedoncognitiveapproachestoGreekreligion,workingwith neuroscientists and anthropologists alongside classical scholars. He has writtenextensivelyinthefieldofancientreligion,withaparticularfocus on oracles and divination, and on mystery cults. His books include Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle: Divination and Democracy (Cambridge University Press ) and Mystery Cults in the Ancient World(ThamesandHudson/PrincetonUniversityPress). is Professor of Classics at the University of Groningen. He works on Greek literature and has a special interest in the interface of literature and cognition. A volume on cognitive approaches to Greek tragedy, jointly edited with Ineke Sluiter, is viii
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