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Copyright of Mediterranea - Ricerche Storiche is the property of Mediterranea-Ricerche Storiche and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The widespread metamorphic imagery of the ancients responded to a pattern of civilisation: metamorphosis was something that everyone could experience in the world and which, precisely because it was linked to something real, could be the subject of dreamlike fantasy. As an ‘everyday’ experience, metamorphosis also acquired its own everydayness in the dreamlike imagination. Our short note examines three dream narratives: the dream of Astiage in Erodotus, the metamorphic dreams of Artemidorus Daldianus, and finally the fourth dream of the Martyr Perpetua in her hagiography. In these dream narratives we find symbolism common to the oneiromantic tradition of the Ancient Near East and Pharaonic Egypt.

In this article I examine changes occurring in rituals and devotional practices enacted by Sinhala Catholics living in Messina (Sicily) and including new saint figures in their devotional repertoires in the wake of transnational mobility. For this reason, processes of construction of sainthood at the core of these ritual systems, very useful to reflect upon the vernacularization of religious discourses along the post-colonial trajectories of western “multicultural” Church, will be analyzed looking at the interactions connecting them to ecclesial powers, the daily experience of the sacred, and religious actors’ existential and biographical paths. Sinhala Catholics living in Messina are now deeply grounded in the local migration landscape. In the last years they have been progressively institutionalized their religious belonging through stable connections (although subject to continuous negotiation) with Messina’s Catholic diocese. Drawing on an ethnographic research focused on home-making processes activated through ritual practices and activities, I will take into account two examples of ritual complexes that are centered on saint figures that the Sinhalese meet and discover during their transnational mobility (as in the case of Saint Elia) or towards whom devotion is not so much rooted in Sri Lanka, being rather fed by the Messina’s Church (as in the case of Saint James). In both cases, these “saints of the others” must be placed and understood in the context of social and political relations within which devotional idioms and cultural repertoires take shape.

The article aims to analyze some historiographical and methodological aspects of the study of polytheisms in Late Antiquity. Recent research has somewhat neglected the internal mechanisms of late antique polytheisms. Interpreted simply as residual in an Empire watching the “triumph of Christianity”, studies have continued to project on the polytheistic cults of the fourth and fifth centuries CE the new conception of religion that Christian authors were constructing as an autonomous sphere from the political and social life of the ancient city. Against this backdrop, we focus on some historiographical tendencies that have contributed to the interpretation of late antique polytheisms. Such tendencies include the alleged spread of a soteriological anxiety due to the crises that would have crossed the empire, the individualization of religious practices, the spiritualization of the cult, and the ritualization of philosophical activity. The analysis of the different cases encourages a change of paradigm, which takes into account the plurality of rites, agents, and historical contexts without homologizing them all into an alleged “paganism” that would have eventually been defeated by Christianity.

In the book Symbolism of the Summer Solstice: Comparative Readings, Iosefina Blazsani-Batto approaches, through a comparative perspective, a theme with wide resonances in Romanian folkloric mythology, but also in the universal one, taken up by many historians of religions, exegetes and, last but not least, writers. The wide area of research reflects the author's desire to document as well as possible the scholarly approach to the theme and to give secondary importance to field sources, as well as to imaginative elaborations of them. The research, especially through its various hermeneutic possibilities, is a meritorious achievement which, complemented by the author's constant preoccupation with this field, offers a textually illustrated field of analysis of the subject, both in terms of theory (ethnography) and folklore and literature.

Our study is concerned with the celebrations and ritual practices devoted to the Isaianic deities in the Milesian settlements on the shores of Propontis and the Pontus Euxinus. Our research is based on literary, epigraphic and numismatic documents. The Πλοιαφέσια (Ploiaphesia) were a spring festival dedicated to the goddess Isis who was worshiped as the protector of navigation and sailors, as well as the deity of vitality and fertility. Ploiaphesia were celebrated on March 5 and marked the official reopening of navigation. The celebration of Ploiaphesia can be assumed to have been celebrated at Amastris, Sinope, Anchialos and Tomis, based on the evidence provided by epigraphic documents and monetary issues. Ἰσιεῖα (Isieia) were an autumn festival lasting from October 28 to November 3. This feast commemorated the disappearance of Osiris before he was found a few days later by his wife Isis. The Isieia are attested directly in an inscription from Kios. The feast of Χαρμόσυνα (Charmosyna) celebrates the resurrection of Osiris and is considered a feast of collective joy. It can be assumed that Charmosyna were celebrated on November 3. This feast is attested at Kios and Tomis. The Isiac celebrations bring together a large cultic personnel. The ritual of incubation is closely linked to the cult of Sarapis, who, as a god who heals by means of a dreamlike epiphany, is the object of great veneration by his followers. Incubation spread to Pontus Euxinus with the establishment of the Isiac cults.

Much of the knowledge is provided to us by the social context, from which the typification of behavior and action derives. In fact, knowledge is transmitted through language. It follows that even the verbal statement is connected to the context of its production. Persuasive or offensive language strengthens and multiplies the beliefs and symbolic universe of social actors, these same beliefs reverberate like a non-reflective ritual within the web and social pages. Being the recipient of an offense or being insulted and abused with hateful words performatively establishes that social subordination that names and typifies: we are vulnerable to language since language is the dimension in which human lives are represented, narrated, and lived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to synthesise the evolution and specificity of Latin mythology. Its primitive forms were mostly rural, with minor indigenous deities, and consisted mainly of ritual for practical purposes (invoking protection for agricultural crops, wars and family). An absorption of the rich Greek and Oriental mythological corpus followed. In the imperial age, in Rome, “there are so many gods that it is easier to meet one than it is to find a man” (Petronius Arbiter). A large part of this heterogeneous and complex corpus was inherited by the European Romanic and non-Romanic peoples. All around, written culture has copiously fed on traditional unwritten mythology.

In this brief review, the author has collected from the letters of the health care workers of the NGO “Medici con l’Africa Cuamm” some images, emotions, reflec-tions on the meaning of life and death, with which doctors have come into contact through the families and communities of patients who have died in hospital in some African countries. The doctors’ testimonies are largely taken from corre-spondence published in Cuamm’s “Quattro Venti” bulletins or in training handouts

In the area of social conflicts that divide nations, including in the field of religious beliefs, the text in the form of dialogue seeks to unfold the common base of different religions. The text includes twenty representatives of different religions. Despite the differences in ceremonies, their basis, in its depth, is universal and common. The personified Word of God is the one that expresses it the best.

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The given paper analyzes functions and artistic features of Ukrainian folk earthenware which was used in customs and rituals of the calendar year, predominantly while celebrating the biggest religious holidays, namely Christmas and Easter. In particular, the author explores such items as triple candlesticks, various earthenware meant for blessing holy water, other types of crockery, particularly pots, round pots, jugs, O-shaped flat jars, flat jars, bowls, makitras, doughnut bowls, goose, piglet and fish roasters, Easter bread moulds, baskets, Easter eggs etc. Folk earthenware has been examined through the context of preparations to and celebration of calendar holidays, which were associated with the beliefs the Ukrainian people had, as well as their analogues in other European people’s traditions.

In this article, folk songs, some important traditional practices and mythological sources relating to blood as well as selected poems of Slovenian poets from Gregorčič to Makarovič and Detela are researched. Presented are the meaning, roles, symbolic and metaphoric dimensions of blood. The focus of the article is based on two philosophical concepts that are thematised in folklore and poetry: the sacred and the profane. It seems that discussing blood is a taboo and therefore we can say that a genuine artistic creation can relevantly depict both perceptions and conceptualisations of blood. The article takes ecocentric and unspeciesistic perspectives to this discussion and criticises the still existing unacceptable ritual practices of perpetuating killing of non-humans and spilling innocent blood.

Love was always one of the most desired emotions in history as it meant acceptance and tenderness. Therefore. people, mostly women (stereotypically (for Slovenian areas)), tried to gain love through magic, amulets and rituals, especially when marriages were mostly arranged by economic and social status. Therefore, it is surprising that there are almost no written sources for traditional love charms in Slovenian archives, though there are some descriptions of love magic rituals. In contrast, nowadays, we can find many internet sites with so-called love spells in the Slovenian language accompanied by some content explanations and also alleged historical descriptions. In this article Slovenian love spells which appear nowadays as a magic recipe for love on internet will be overviewed, their structure and content will be analysed, compared to traditional forms, and explanations within the cultural context will be given.

The article analyses the christmas tradition of Ferla, a village located in the prov. of Syracuse in South Eastern Sicily. It explores them on the basis of an ethnographic research conducted between 2015 and 2016. In particular, it investigates the tradition and the alterations developed in the course of history. At first the study describes the different verses of oration pick up by local interviews. Secondly, the research observes the way in which the tradition dialogues whit the globalization practices that has put in crisis the nuvena's heritage sistem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores how the Norwegian usurper, King Sverre (1184-1202) exploited three princely burials to overthrow the ruling king and establish his dynasty. Both in 1179 and 1184, King Sverre took full advantage of his military victories to gain popular support for his claims to the throne, in transforming the burial of his most prominent enemies felt on the battlefield into a rostrum for his political propaganda, through speeches and ritual staging. Sverre’s own agony and funerals were also meticulously staged in order to defend his rule from accusations of excommunication and pave the way for his succession. The study provides insights on the challenges met by a usurper on his way to royal power and, in particular, on the concomitant relationship between military combat and the work of political persuasion.

For the peoples of the North-West Coast of America the forest was regarded as the domain of the non-human, where plants and animals lived and prospered. This distinction is not to be understood, as was customary in anthropology, as an opposition between Nature and Culture. The animals were not regarded as deprived of culture: they were assumed to live in villages, having ceremonies and a social organization of their own. When at home they took off their skins and appeared as human beings. However, it is undeniable that the world of animals and plants was a realm different from the world of humans, it was in some sense an “other world”, where things that were uncommon or unthinkable in the human domain could occur at ease. The forest was also the place where some beings lived, who were intermediate forms between the human and the animal, inhabitants of the borders that separate the human from the animal world. On the other side of the continent, East of the Great Lakes, in what is now the state of New York, the Iroquois celebrated, in January or February, the Midwinter Ceremony, a sort of New Year’s celebration, during which appeared the False Faces masks, among a variety of other Medicine societies, who provided curing and cleansing rituals for the people. The wooden masks of the False Faces depict beings seen in the forest or in dreams. When wearing these masks, members of the society have special powers and can handle hot coals without being burned. During the Winter ceremonial and also once or twice a year the members went through the houses of the community performing rituals to clean them of diseases. Analogously, in many Carnival festivals all through Europe the figure of the Wild Man makes his appearance, a character that has a long literary and iconographic heritage since the Middle Ages, and which is not always easily distinguishable from a wide array of other figures, all of them showing certain significant analogies. In the Carnival parades are frequently encountered figures with long hair and beard and wearing clothes made from leafs or animal skins. They could be confused with human-animal masquerades, where the most common elements are the sheep-skin clothes, the blackened faces and the shaggy hair, which we have already described for the Amerindian masks, while at other times they have vegetal connotations, like costumes with leaves or branches, holding boughs or sticks in their hands, giving the impression to be personifications of the trees or of the woods.

Balkan languages entail many euphemisms regarding death and funeral rituals. This paper focuses on the comparative study of Romanian and Albanian euphemisms, emphasizing their often use in similar contexts and at the same time their semantic differences. The analyzed examples of Romanian and Albanian euphemisms are from everyday talk. The article will also include debates regarding the methods and context of using these euphemisms in the two languages, focusing on cultural and linguistic differences.

The myths and the rituals have been analyzed during a lot of time by the anthropology. However, few of them are linked to the processes of rest and to the logic of the work. The following article seeks to be a novel contribution, to the function of the vacations like ritual processes of atonement. The state of art is based on two Mircea Eliade works -titled Myth and Reality, published in 1968; and The Myth of the Eternal Return, re-printed in 2006.

This paper is drawn from a more extensive research conducted by the author in Borneo in the Indonesian province of Kalimantan Barat. The Dayak are divided into several groups the best known is called Iban. The material culture of the Iban is characterized by a particular tissue called Ikat or also 'pua Kumbu'. These handmade cloths are used during rituals and in any religious practice. The only way available to preserve the art of weaving ikat is in the preservation of oral history: from mother to daughter down the art of ikat was always a device to communicate our identity.

Many semantic fields should be explored when we approach the study of any necropolis context and among them certainly it deserves to be considered the issue relating to the “gender", a term used not only from a biological point of view but in psychological and cultural sense too. A part of the whole data coming from the systematic excavation conducted in the last two decades in a part of Punic necropolis (barracks Tuköry), a small but significant portion of the vast cemetery located to the west of the ancient city, can be read according to this point of view. In addition to the analysis of grave goods and anthropological examination of the skeletal remains, some topographic features, ritual peculiarity, religious-eschatological aspects, types of burial help to overcome a partial interpretation of data based only on the number and quality of the grave goods of individual burial, a parameter that allow to distinguish between poor, less poor and rich burials, suggesting only the existence of a social community based on the economic potential of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)