Engendering the Future
Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic
By (author) Chris Mowat
Paperback (Published)
(March 2021)
ISBN: 9783515129343
6.69 x 9.49 inches
Price: $86.00
In stock
Chris Mowat brings together understandings of divinatory traditions and of gender in the Late Roman Republic to consider how each influenced the performative nature of the other. The identity of the divinatory actor(s) is an important element that plays a part in confirming the correctness of interpretations, and as such gender is an important aspect in understanding divination within Roman religious traditions. Beginning with Cicero’s “On Divination”, Mowat’s reading shows how gender is axiomatic to – but never explicit in – the opposing viewpoints presented. Four extended case studies follow, each focusing on a specific divinatory tradition: the Sibylline Books, as written prophetic guides for the State; the portentous nature of the birth of an intersex child under the Republic, and the ritual response it garnered; the sacrificial specialism of individual diviners, specifically through the story of a woman named Martha; and, finally, the construction of prophetic dreaming in the Roman Republic. Together, these studies demonstrate how the performativity of gender informed, but was also informed by, the performativity of divination in the Roman world, in a reciprocal and inseparable relationship.
Chris Mowat brings together understandings of divinatory traditions and of gender in the Late Roman Republic to consider how each influenced the performative nature of the other. The identity of the divinatory actor(s) is an important element that plays a part in confirming the correctness of interpretations, and as such gender is an important aspect in understanding divination within Roman religious traditions. Beginning with Cicero’s “On Divination”, Mowat’s reading shows how gender is axiomatic to – but never explicit in – the opposing viewpoints presented. Four extended case studies follow, each focusing on a specific divinatory tradition: the Sibylline Books, as written prophetic guides for the State; the portentous nature of the birth of an intersex child under the Republic, and the ritual response it garnered; the sacrificial specialism of individual diviners, specifically through the story of a woman named Martha; and, finally, the construction of prophetic dreaming in the Roman Republic. Together, these studies demonstrate how the performativity of gender informed, but was also informed by, the performativity of divination in the Roman world, in a reciprocal and inseparable relationship.
- By (author) Chris Mowat
Other Titles in this Series
Language and Power in the Roman Empire and Early India
Hierarchy, Ambiguity, and the Art of Reading the Signs in Cosmopolitan Cultures
Religiöse Geheimniskommunikation in der Mittleren und Späten Römischen Republik
Separatheit, gesellschaftliche Öffentlichkeit und zivisches Ordnungshandeln
Vestigia
Miscellanea di studi storico-religiosi in onore di Filippo Coarelli nel suo 80° anniversario
Burial Rituals, Ideas of Afterlife, and the Individual in the Hellenistic World and the Roman Empire
Citizenship Practised, Citizenship Imagined
Multiple Ways of Experiencing Citizenship in the Greek World
Gespräche mit Göttern
Die poetologische Funktion kommunikativer Kultbilder bei Horaz, Tibull und Properz
Zur literarischen Fiktion von Kindheit
Überlegungen zu den apokryphen Kindheitsevangelien Jesu im Rahmen der antiken Biographie
Aspects of Roman Dance Culture
Religious Cults, Theatrical Entertainments, Metaphorical Appropriations
Squalor
Symbolisches Trauern in der Politischen Kommunikation der Römischen Republik und Frühen Kaiserzeit
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