Call for papers
European Association of Archaeologists 24th Annual Meeting,
Barcelona, 5th-8th September 2018
‘Reflecting Futures’
We invite abstracts for a panel on ‘Lived Ancient Religion in North Africa’. The title may have max. 20 words and abstract min. 200 words and max. 300 words. Five keywords are allowed. The deadline for submitting or modifying an abstract is 15 February 2018, 23h59 CET. Proposing a paper, poster or other contribution can only be done via online submission form (link: https://www.e-a-a.org/eaa2018). Current and past EAA members can log in using their EAA credentials (EAA ID, username, password). For assistance with retrieving credentials, please contact the EAA Secretariat at helpdesk@e-a-a.org. New members need to sign up for EAA account first at www.e-a-a.org. You can either pay your membership fees upon signing up or at any time before 31 March 2018 when registering for the Annual Meeting at www.e-a-a.org/eaa2018.
General queries can be directed at this email address: valentino.gasparini@gmail.com
Panel Proposal
Thematic field: The archaeology of material culture, bodies, and landscapes
Proposal number: # 634
Title: Lived Ancient Religion in North Africa
Abstract: The session claims to explore how, in the Roman provinces of North Africa, local religious preferences were strongly influenced by shifting social networks, changing over time according to specific historical contexts. The historical issue at the core of this panel is the process of integration of the pre-Roman gods within the Roman ‘pantheon’ and, at the same time, the permeability of the ‘traditional’ Roman deities in encounters with the cults problematically labelled ‘Oriental’. Speakers will be asked to approach the study of these ‘cults in motion’ not from the perspective of the civic religion as the dominant structure (based on the static and standardised performance of public, collective rites, and on elite-driven ideology), but of the individual as an active (often unpredictable) actor, capable of situational and creative innovation. This line of research is interested in the single cultic agents, not as ‘normalising’ actors (viz. representatives of institutional entities or local oligarchies), but as individuals who (independently of their social position) act as decision-makers and conscious modifiers of established religious patterns. Papers will deal with the archaeological evidence attesting the social dimension of this religious practice, including variety, creativity, religious multiplicity, fluidity and flexibility of identities, changes in forms of individuality, and spaces for individual distinction. The goal is to examine empirically religion as a practical resource available to emergent or self-styled religious providers, and explore how this resource was selected and instrumentalised by other agents, whether individuals, families, cities, or other social groupings.
Kind regards,
Jaime Alvar, Valentino Gasparini, Attilio Mastino