Senses, Cognition, and Ritual Experience in the Roman World: (Ancient Religion and Cognition)

How do the senses shape the way we perceive, understand, and remember ritual experiences? This book applies cognitive and sensory approaches to Roman rituals, reconnecting readers with religious experiences as members of an embodied audience. These approaches allow us to move beyond the literate elites to examine broader audiences of diverse individuals, who experienced rituals as participants and/or performers. Case studies of ritual experiences from a variety of places, spaces, and contexts across the Roman world, including polytheistic and Christian rituals, state rituals, private rituals, performances, and processions, demonstrate the dynamic and broad-scale application that cognitive approaches offer for ancient religion, paving the way for future interdisciplinary engagement. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: experiencing rituals Abigail Graham and Blanka Misic; 1. Remembering the rites: religious learning network model and transmission of religious rituals in the worship of Nutrices Augustae (Poetovio, Pannonia Superior) Blanka Misic; 2. The haptic production of religious knowledge among the vestal virgins: a hands-on approach to Roman ritual Emma-Jayne Graham; 3. Haptic colour: experiential viewing in Graeco-Roman sacred spaces Vicky Jewell; 4. Ain't nobody gonna rain on my parade: experiencing Salutaris' procession as a ritual event Abigail Graham; 5. Objects and ritual in Egeria's fourth century pilgrimage: the props of my faith Steven Muir; 6. Conclusions: (re)creating ritual experiences Blanka Misic and Abigail Graham.

About the Author :
Blanka Misic is an Instructor in Ancient Civilizations at Champlain College Lennoxville, Canada. She researches and publishes on cognitive and sensory aspects of religious rituals and was recently awarded the HORIZON EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at Institut für Klassische Archäologie, Universität Wien. Abigail Graham is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Classical Studies at the University of London, and an honorary research fellow at the British School Rome, where she is the founder and coordinator of the BSR Postgraduate Course in Epigraphy. She researches and publishes on cognition, epigraphy, and monumentality in the urban landscape.

Review :
'It is difficult to underestimate the enormous added value of this study. By adding neuroscience, CSR, Cognitive Historiography, biocultural approaches and haptic views on ritual and ritual dynamics, we can now make visible previously invisible dimensions within cult participation, personal religion and ritual performance. … [a] scholarly and literary gem that will be part of the discourse on ancient religion and ritual for a long time to come.' Mark Beumer, Kleio-Historia