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12
Beyond their role as a universal means by which human beings experience
themselves and their world, in the context of individual cultures the senses also provide
insights into the structure of those cultures. The primary pitfall any researcher intent on
using the senses as a tool for studying a particular culture must be aware of is the ever-present
risk of cultural sensory bias. Because our own senses perform as the primary
interface between our selves and our environment, it is tempting to essentialize and
naturalize our experiences and project them onto members of other cultures. However,
while there are certainly biological parameters within which the senses operate to obtain
data from the physical world, that is where our assumptions about the similarities among
the sense perceptions of various human groups must end.
As anthropological research has amply demonstrated, the methods by which the
sensory data culled from our surroundings are processed are culturally determined. The
history of philosophical and scientific inquiry into the function of the senses has, at least
in the Western world, tended to assume a standard hierarchy of the five senses as well as
a standard method by which they operate and by which the human brain assimilates the
information they take in. However, post-colonial, post-modern inquiries into the
understanding, refinement and interpretation of the senses – how, in effect, members of
various cultures make sense of their senses – reveal basic and often surprising cultural
differences.
The fundamental work of Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) is a driving force
behind much of this research. Recognizing the need to reject the ocularcentrism of the
Western ‘worldview’ (a term that for him embodies the sensory biases of Western
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 30 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 12 Beyond their role as a universal means by which human beings experience themselves and their world, in the context of individual cultures the senses also provide insights into the structure of those cultures. The primary pitfall any researcher intent on using the senses as a tool for studying a particular culture must be aware of is the ever-present risk of cultural sensory bias. Because our own senses perform as the primary interface between our selves and our environment, it is tempting to essentialize and naturalize our experiences and project them onto members of other cultures. However, while there are certainly biological parameters within which the senses operate to obtain data from the physical world, that is where our assumptions about the similarities among the sense perceptions of various human groups must end. As anthropological research has amply demonstrated, the methods by which the sensory data culled from our surroundings are processed are culturally determined. The history of philosophical and scientific inquiry into the function of the senses has, at least in the Western world, tended to assume a standard hierarchy of the five senses as well as a standard method by which they operate and by which the human brain assimilates the information they take in. However, post-colonial, post-modern inquiries into the understanding, refinement and interpretation of the senses – how, in effect, members of various cultures make sense of their senses – reveal basic and often surprising cultural differences. The fundamental work of Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) is a driving force behind much of this research. Recognizing the need to reject the ocularcentrism of the Western ‘worldview’ (a term that for him embodies the sensory biases of Western |
