Contested Cures
Identity and Ritual Healing in Roman and Late Antique Palestine
Seiten
2022
Edinburgh University Press (Verlag)
978-1-3995-0273-3 (ISBN)
Edinburgh University Press (Verlag)
978-1-3995-0273-3 (ISBN)
Studies the people, places and objects credited with ritual cures and the elite rhetoric critical of these cures
In the ancient Mediterranean world, individuals routinely looked for divine aid to cure physical afflictions. Contested Cures argues that the inevitability of sickness and injury made people willing to experiment with seemingly beneficial techniques, even if they originated in a foreign cultural or religious tradition. With circumstances of close cultural contacts, such as prevailed in Palestine, the setting was ripe for neighbouring Jews, Samaritans, Christians, Greeks and Romans to borrow rituals perceived to be efficacious and to alter them to fit their own religious framework. As a result, they employed related means of seeking miraculous cures. The similarities of these rituals, despite changes in the identity of the divine healers that they invoked, made them the subject of polemical discourse among elite authors trying to police collective borders. Contested Cures investigates the resulting intersection of ritual healing and communal identity.
This innovative study synthesises evidence for the full range of healing rituals that were practised in the ancient Mediterranean world. Examining both literary and archaeological evidence, it considers ritual healing as a component of identity formation and deconstructs the artificial boundary between 'magic' and 'religion' in relation to ritual cures.
In the ancient Mediterranean world, individuals routinely looked for divine aid to cure physical afflictions. Contested Cures argues that the inevitability of sickness and injury made people willing to experiment with seemingly beneficial techniques, even if they originated in a foreign cultural or religious tradition. With circumstances of close cultural contacts, such as prevailed in Palestine, the setting was ripe for neighbouring Jews, Samaritans, Christians, Greeks and Romans to borrow rituals perceived to be efficacious and to alter them to fit their own religious framework. As a result, they employed related means of seeking miraculous cures. The similarities of these rituals, despite changes in the identity of the divine healers that they invoked, made them the subject of polemical discourse among elite authors trying to police collective borders. Contested Cures investigates the resulting intersection of ritual healing and communal identity.
This innovative study synthesises evidence for the full range of healing rituals that were practised in the ancient Mediterranean world. Examining both literary and archaeological evidence, it considers ritual healing as a component of identity formation and deconstructs the artificial boundary between 'magic' and 'religion' in relation to ritual cures.
Megan Nutzman, Assistant Professor of History, Old Dominion University.
Erscheinungsdatum | 12.10.2022 |
---|---|
Reihe/Serie | Edinburgh Studies in Religion in Antiquity |
Zusatzinfo | 11 B/W illustrations 7 B/W tables 11 black and white illustrations and 7 tables |
Verlagsort | Edinburgh |
Sprache | englisch |
Maße | 156 x 234 mm |
Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte |
Studium ► Querschnittsbereiche ► Geschichte / Ethik der Medizin | |
ISBN-10 | 1-3995-0273-5 / 1399502735 |
ISBN-13 | 978-1-3995-0273-3 / 9781399502733 |
Zustand | Neuware |
Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
Mehr entdecken
aus dem Bereich
aus dem Bereich
Was Pompeji über uns erzählt
Buch | Hardcover (2023)
Propyläen (Verlag)
CHF 44,75
auf den Spuren der frühen Zivilisationen
Buch | Hardcover (2023)
C.H.Beck (Verlag)
CHF 27,95