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11
through which we experience and make sense of gender, colonialism and material
culture.”14
Though the use of the senses as a primary tool for analyzing cultures is a
relatively new development, modern philosophers and social theorists have long
recognized the importance of sensory experience in defining social relationships. Karl
Marx (1818-1883), to take one important example, wrote at length on the role of the five
senses and their “formation” in the history of human development. The stripping of the
senses by capitalist forces, which ultimately reduced the worker to a “senseless” beast
with no further desire than to feed himself, was both a direct physical result of the
brutality of the factory work he described in his three-volume work Das Kapital (first
published in 1867, 1885 and 1894) and an analogy for the loss of social refinement and
individualism that followed on the heels of what he perceived as demeaning capitalistic
development.15 The loss of the senses was equated with the loss of humanity.16 Marx
was expanding on the earlier work of Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872), a materialist
philosopher who emphasized the role of the senses not only as mediators of the physical
world, but also as the means through which man has knowledge of himself as a physical
being.17
14 Howes 2005a, 4.
15 For an English translation, see Marx 2007.
16 Howes 2005c, 282.
17 Feuerbach 1966, 58. Feuerbach wrote: “Man is given to himself only through the senses; he is an object
of himself only as an object of the senses. The identity of subject and object which in self-consciousness is
only an abstract idea, is truth and reality only in man’s sensuous perception of man.”
Object Description
| Title | Making sense of sacrifice: Sensory experience in Greco-Roman cult |
| Author | Weddle, Candace Cherie |
| Author email | candaceweddle@gmail.com; weddle@usc.edu |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Art History |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-03-04 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2011-04-27 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Pollini, John |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Yasin, Ann Marie Bitel, Lisa |
| Abstract | Performing a sacrifice was one of the most sensorially full actions undertaken in the Greco-Roman world. The production and control of the correct movements, scents and sounds were prerequisites for summoning, communicating with and propitiating deities. Sacrifice was also ubiquitous, occurring on an almost continual basis as a range of sacrificial activities were celebrated publicly and privately in a variety of locations in urban areas. Cultivating a multi-sensory understanding of the full range of sensory elements that accompanied ancient cult rites – visual and auditory cues, things smelled, tasted and touched - provides a platform for achieving a more thorough knowledge of the meanings of the rites.; This dissertation examines the archaeological, literary and epigraphical evidence for the role of the senses in Greek and Roman sacrifice in order to analyze the social and ritual importance of the senses, the impact of sacrificial rituals within ancient urban spaces, and the sensory experience of the ancient worshiper. Given the ephemeral nature of much of the evidence for sensory elements of worship, as well as the subjectivity inherent in representations of sensory experience in literature and art, this dissertation argues for the necessity of crossing disciplinary boundaries in order to appreciate the sensory impact of ancient sacrifice. Therefore, in addition to utilizing traditional historical and art historical approaches, methodological tools from the field of anthropology and evidence from studies in the animal behavioral sciences and consumer sciences are employed. For example, I suggest that greater understanding of the experience of ancient sacrifice may be acquired through an autoethnographic investigation of modern religious sacrifice. To that end, I analyze my experience of the slaughter of large numbers of bovines during the Islamic Kurban Bayram sacrifices in Istanbul to make suggestions concerning certain elements of the sensory experience of ancient blood sacrifice. I focus not only on the sensory experience of humans participating in (or within range of) sacrifices, but also on that of the animal victims. Given the immense ritual importance of the behavior of sacrificial animals in antiquity, I suggest that it is possible to identify some sensory aspects of the sacrificial process that may have been intentionally manipulated in order to control the reactions of the victims as far as possible.; Particular attention is paid to mundane aspects of the process of sacrifice not often addressed in ancient literary sources or represented in art that would have resulted in notable sensory impacts on areas surrounding urban temples, for example the removal of sacrificial refuse. I conclude not only that these elements of sacrifice formed an important part of the sensory experience of Greco-Roman cult, but also that their effects were more far-reaching – in terms both of how great an area they affected and how long they lasted – than has previously been recognized. Using fresh interdisciplinary approaches to well-known examples of texts and images, this dissertation employs a more visceral approach to the study of the sensory experience of ancient sacrifice than is possible when considering textual and archaeological evidence alone. |
| Keyword | archaeology; autoethnography; cult; Greece; religion; Rome; sacrifice; senses |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Rome |
| Geographic subject (country) | Italy; Greece |
| Coverage date | circa -0600/0600 |
| Coverage era | Greco Roman |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3788 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Weddle, Candace Cherie |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Weddle-4363 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume48/etd-Weddle-4363.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 29 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 11 through which we experience and make sense of gender, colonialism and material culture.”14 Though the use of the senses as a primary tool for analyzing cultures is a relatively new development, modern philosophers and social theorists have long recognized the importance of sensory experience in defining social relationships. Karl Marx (1818-1883), to take one important example, wrote at length on the role of the five senses and their “formation” in the history of human development. The stripping of the senses by capitalist forces, which ultimately reduced the worker to a “senseless” beast with no further desire than to feed himself, was both a direct physical result of the brutality of the factory work he described in his three-volume work Das Kapital (first published in 1867, 1885 and 1894) and an analogy for the loss of social refinement and individualism that followed on the heels of what he perceived as demeaning capitalistic development.15 The loss of the senses was equated with the loss of humanity.16 Marx was expanding on the earlier work of Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872), a materialist philosopher who emphasized the role of the senses not only as mediators of the physical world, but also as the means through which man has knowledge of himself as a physical being.17 14 Howes 2005a, 4. 15 For an English translation, see Marx 2007. 16 Howes 2005c, 282. 17 Feuerbach 1966, 58. Feuerbach wrote: “Man is given to himself only through the senses; he is an object of himself only as an object of the senses. The identity of subject and object which in self-consciousness is only an abstract idea, is truth and reality only in man’s sensuous perception of man.” |
