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sacrifice by his father - as with Ishmael/Isaac, he was also rescued from that fate through
divine intervention at the final moment. For a period of several days, sacrifices of
various animals are carried out, as well as communal meals at which the meat from those
sacrifices is consumed.
According to Muslim tradition, the animals that are considered acceptable
offerings for the Kurban (literally, “sacrifice”) are rams, sheep, ewes, goats, cows, bulls
and camels.311 The sacrificial area I visited was designated for the slaughter of large
animals, that is cows and bulls (camels were not included, being much less common in
this part of the Muslim world than in areas nearer to Mecca). This will allow me to make
the most salient suggestions about blood sacrifices in the imperial cult.
As a token of respect for the religious nature of the ceremonies, and to blend in as
fully as possible and thus create the least distraction, I wore a long, loose skirt and
traditional headscarf. Throughout the time that I was observing, photographing and
videotaping the ceremonies, there was only one individual, a woman, who was not
pleased with the fact that I was documenting the proceedings. Others were extremely
friendly and helpful, including a man who repeatedly reached over to raise the flash on
my camera although I was not intending to use it. Another young man on several
occasions pushed or pulled me to one side while I was absorbed in filming or
311 Buffaloes are also considered acceptable for sacrifice if necessity dictates, as they are technically part of
the species of the cow. In all cases, the smaller animals should be at least one year of age (considered the
age of adulthood), cows and bulls at least two years, and camels at least five. M.I. Siddiqi 2000, 17-20, 28-
30. Except in instances in which explanations are material to the analysis of the sensory elements of
sacrifice, for the remainder of this chapter I shall relegate discussion of Muslim sacrificial practice to
footnotes in order to emphasize that I am not drawing direct comparisons between the interpretation of
religious practice in the classical Greek and Roman and the modern Islamic world.
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 204 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 186 sacrifice by his father - as with Ishmael/Isaac, he was also rescued from that fate through divine intervention at the final moment. For a period of several days, sacrifices of various animals are carried out, as well as communal meals at which the meat from those sacrifices is consumed. According to Muslim tradition, the animals that are considered acceptable offerings for the Kurban (literally, “sacrifice”) are rams, sheep, ewes, goats, cows, bulls and camels.311 The sacrificial area I visited was designated for the slaughter of large animals, that is cows and bulls (camels were not included, being much less common in this part of the Muslim world than in areas nearer to Mecca). This will allow me to make the most salient suggestions about blood sacrifices in the imperial cult. As a token of respect for the religious nature of the ceremonies, and to blend in as fully as possible and thus create the least distraction, I wore a long, loose skirt and traditional headscarf. Throughout the time that I was observing, photographing and videotaping the ceremonies, there was only one individual, a woman, who was not pleased with the fact that I was documenting the proceedings. Others were extremely friendly and helpful, including a man who repeatedly reached over to raise the flash on my camera although I was not intending to use it. Another young man on several occasions pushed or pulled me to one side while I was absorbed in filming or 311 Buffaloes are also considered acceptable for sacrifice if necessity dictates, as they are technically part of the species of the cow. In all cases, the smaller animals should be at least one year of age (considered the age of adulthood), cows and bulls at least two years, and camels at least five. M.I. Siddiqi 2000, 17-20, 28- 30. Except in instances in which explanations are material to the analysis of the sensory elements of sacrifice, for the remainder of this chapter I shall relegate discussion of Muslim sacrificial practice to footnotes in order to emphasize that I am not drawing direct comparisons between the interpretation of religious practice in the classical Greek and Roman and the modern Islamic world. |
