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Magic
The fifth in a series of seminars linked to the publication of Dr Emma-Jayne Graham’s book Reassembling Religion in Roman Italy (Routledge 2021)
Dr Stuart McKie (Durham University) and Adam Parker (Open University) will join Dr Emma-Jayne Graham (Open University) to discuss approaches to ancient magic.
The seminar will be held on Microsoft Teams, and will comprise an introduction by Emma-Jayne Graham (c. 10 mins), a presentation by Stuart McKie (c. 20 mins), a presentation by Adam Parker (c. 20 mins), and an open discussion (c. 40 mins).
Register via Eventbrite to receive further details and joining instructions.
About the Reassembling Ancient Religion seminar series…
The seminar series has been designed to explore the key themes and approaches to ancient religion that are adopted in a new book by Dr Emma-Jayne Graham, entitled Reassembling Religion in Roman Italy. The series comprises five online seminars, each of which is connected with one of the book’s broadly themed chapters - (1) Place, (2) Objects, (3) Bodies, (4) Divinity, and (5) Magic. During the seminars we will explore how the new materialist and relational approach to ancient lived religion that is advocated by the study might relate to lived religion as it was experienced in other chronological, geographical and cultural contexts across the ancient world.
Abstract of ‘Magic’ chapter from ‘Reassembling Religion in Roman Italy’
“This chapter draws upon archaeological evidence from the late antique fountain of Anna Perenna at Rome to spotlight questions about magic in the ancient world, specifically its relationship with broader religious strategies. It considers the place (fountain), objects (inscribed lead canisters), bodies (organic poppets) and divine things that made up the ritualised assemblages that formed in different moments at this discrete location. Hence, it demonstrates the value of analysing the overlapping thingly components of ritualised assemblages as a collective and with reference to a single case study by explicitly setting out to reassemble the disparate components of the assemblages that lie at the heart of ritualised practices. This chapter also demonstrates the analytical value of using assemblage theory to contribute towards wider debates in the study of Roman religion by examining one particular form of proximal knowledge characterised as ‘magic’ and its relationship with not necessarily mutually exclusive distal forms of ‘religion’.”
You can read more about the book on the Routledge website, and use the flyer below to get a discount.
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