Religious Networks in the Antique Mediterranean
drs. B.E.A.L. van der Lans
In this seminar we examined the role of religious networks in Mediterranean cultural interaction in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. In recent years 'connectivity' and the fluidity of the movement of people, goods, and ideas have emerged as new paradigms in studies of cultural interaction in the ancient Mediterranean. That religion played an important role in construing, sustaining and changing social, political and economic connections in ancient societies is common knowledge: through religious practices and ideas people communicated not only with the gods but also with each other, at local and trans-local levels. Yet the exact effects of religion on connectivity, and how they can be analysed, are less well understood.
The seminar tackled this question by addressing four themes that are representative of this period in Mediterranean history:
* Aegean islands as cultic and economic centres;
* festivals circuits and athletes;
* the spread of new cults and ideas;
* and the rise of Christianity as a 'textual network'.
Working with these case studies we explored the possibilities and limitations of network analysis (both theoretical paradigms and methods of social network analysis) to understand how Mediterranean connectivity functioned, and how we should effectively analyse it.
The seminar tackled this question by addressing four themes that are representative of this period in Mediterranean history:
* Aegean islands as cultic and economic centres;
* festivals circuits and athletes;
* the spread of new cults and ideas;
* and the rise of Christianity as a 'textual network'.
Working with these case studies we explored the possibilities and limitations of network analysis (both theoretical paradigms and methods of social network analysis) to understand how Mediterranean connectivity functioned, and how we should effectively analyse it.
The pages here and on the Networks in Antiquity page showcase the seminar's projects.