Nature Embodied
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-07494-8 (ISBN)
Bodily gesture. A Roman worshipper spins in a circle in front of a temple. Faced with death, a Roman woman tears her hair and beats her breasts. Enthusiastic spectators at a gladiatorial event gesticulate with thumbs. Examining the tantalizing glimpses of ancient bodies offered by surviving Roman sculptures, paintings, and literary texts, Anthony Corbeill analyzes the role of gesture in medical and religious ritual, in the gladiatorial arena, in mourning practice, in aristocratic competition of the late Republic, and in the court of the emperor Tiberius. Adopting approaches from anthropology, gender studies, and ecological theory, Nature Embodied offers both a series of case studies and an overarching narrative of the role and meanings of gesture in ancient Rome. Arguing that bodily movement grew out of the relationship between Romans and their natural, social, and spiritual environment, the book explores the ways in which an originally harmonious relationship between nature and the body was manipulated as Rome became socially and politically complex.
By the time that Tacitus was writing about the reign of Tiberius, the emergence of a new political order had prompted an increasingly inscrutable equation between truth and the body--and something vital in the once harmonizing relationship between bodies and the world beyond them had been lost. Nature Embodied makes an important contribution to an expanding field of research by offering a new theoretical model for the study of gesture in classical times.
Anthony Corbeill is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Kansas. He is the author of "Controlling Laughter" (Princeton) and the editor of "Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome".
List of Illustrations ix List of Abbreviations xi Acknowledgments xiii INTRODUCTION Gesture as a Cultural System 1 CHAPTER 1 Participatory Gestures in Roman Religious Ritual and Medicine 12 Physicality of Words 15 Hands 20 Romans and Earth 24 Physicality of Prayer 26 Physicality of Cures 33 Conclusion 37 CHAPTER 2 The Power of Thumbs 41 Textual Appearances 42 Visual Representations 51 The Sign for the Deathblow in the Arena 62 A Riddle 64 Conclusion 65 CHAPTER 3 Blood, Milk, and Tears: The Gestures of Mourning Women 67 Gendered Funerals 68 Gendered Gestures 70 Greekand Etruscan Mourning Gestures 72 Legal Evidence 75 Roman Mourning Gestures 77 Women as Scapegoats 84 Woman's Work 85 Roman Death Ritual as Double-Birth 89 First Funeral 90 Second Funeral 95 Milkas Nurture for an Adult 100 Conclusion 105 CHAPTER 4 Political Movement: Walking and Ideology in Republican Rome 107 Philosophy in Action 108 Body Movement and Political Competition 111 Movement in Oratory and Philosophy 114 Movement in Daily Life 117 Incessus in Cicero 118 Cinaedi and Elite Politicians 120 Enforcement 124 Conclusion 137 CHAPTER 5 Face Facts: Facial Expression and the New Political Order in Tacitus 140 Gesture as Metaphor 140 The Politics of the Face 144 Eye-Movement in Roman Antiquity 146 Aspectus in Republican Tradition 147 The Decline of Rhetoric as the Decline of Physical Representation 151 Aspectus as Appearance 157 Conclusion: Tiberius and the New World Order 165 Bibliography 169 Index Locorum 187 General Index 198
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 4.12.2003 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 19 halftones. 1 table. |
| Verlagsort | New Jersey |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 235 mm |
| Gewicht | 454 g |
| Themenwelt | Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Kunstgeschichte / Kunststile |
| Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Malerei / Plastik | |
| Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Verhaltenstherapie | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-691-07494-1 / 0691074941 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-691-07494-8 / 9780691074948 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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