Subject: method and theory - LINDAT/CLARIAH-CZ Catalog Search Results

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Creator:: Ambasciano, Leonardo
Format:: text/pdf
Type:: Article
Subject:: Bona Dea, cognitive science, human geography, method and theory, network theory, social network analysis, Roman history, and Study of Religions
Language:: English
Description:: The present article deals with the diffusion of the predominantly female Roman cult of Bona Dea. In order to contextualize and preliminarily assess Attilio Mastrocinque's (2011, 2014) hypothesis of a top-down imperial organization of the cult, supervised by empress Livia herself, both gendered constraints to mobility and the Augustan marriage ban are taken into account and evaluated. Epistemological and methodological limitations of social network analysis in the field of ancient history are carefully appraised before tackling the relationships between hypothetical imperial support and quantitative diffusion of the cult. As an alternative methodological approach, Donald W. Meinig's model of dynamic cultural regions is adopted, and adapted, to suggest a possible spatial and diachronic pattern of diffusion.
Rights:: unknown

Creator:: Ambasciano, Leonardo
Format:: text/pdf
Type:: Article
Subject:: cognition, evolution, historiography, History and Philosophy of Science, History of Religions, method and theory, post-truth, and Study of Religions
Language:: English
Description:: The present contribution offers a recapitulation of the author's book entitled An Unnatural History of Religions: Academia, Post-truth and the Quest for Scientific Knowledge (2019). The book is intended to offer a most comprehensive account of the History of Religions as an academic discipline, from its inception as a Victorian science of religion to the postmodern rejection of master narratives and from the birth of contemporary Religious Studies to the recent resurgence of cognitive and evolutionary approaches. One of the major themes to emerge from the historiographical analysis is the constant disciplinary temptation to move aside scientific explanations in favour of fideistic redescriptions. Ever struggling to come to terms with science, the historical study of religions in all the major national schools of the past considered here has reaffirmed time and again the absolute value of religion as epistemic truth, delegitimizing, depreciating, and discarding scientific and rational tools as useless for grasping the inner core of human consciousness.
Rights:: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International and unknown

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