Magnification and Miniaturization in Religious Communication in Antiquity and Modernity
Materialities and Meanings
Edited by Elisabeth Begemann Edited by Diana Pavel Edited by Georgia Petridou Edited by Anna-Katharina Rieger Edited by Rubina Raja
Human agents might not be the measure of all things. Nonetheless, human bodies, and their bodily dimensions, often are, with size impacting on the ways in which we conceive of, interact with, and relate to the world around us. The scaling up or down of features – magnification and miniaturization – is particularly evident in the creation of anthropogenic items intended for use in religious ritual, and here sizing can be employed as a deliberate strategy to encourage shock and awe, admiration and deterrence, among spectators. Taking as its starting point the concept of ‘materialities and meanings’, this volume explores how human perceptions and understanding of magnified and miniaturized forms and structures are shaped and changed, both synchronically and diachronically, by our understanding of the human body and its size, and the impact that this has in our relationship with the wider world in the context of ritual practices. The chapters collected here consider a range of questions, from a discussion on the essentials of magnification or miniaturization to an exploration of the impact of such strategies on humans and their wider socio-political ramifications. Together, these chapters contribute to a unique discussion that offers new insights into ‘materialities and meanings’, the creation of items for ritual, and the ways in which they influence human perception and understanding.
- Edited by Elisabeth Begemann
- Edited by Diana Pavel
- Edited by Georgia Petridou
- Edited by Anna-Katharina Rieger
- Edited by Rubina Raja
Other Titles in this Series
Housing the Chosen
The Architectural Context of Mystery Groups and Religious Associations in the Ancient World
Volume 2
Redefining the Sacred
Religious Architecture and Text in the Near East and Egypt, 1000 BC - AD 300
Volume 1
Terrakotten aus Beit Nattif
Eine Untersuchung zur religiosen Alltagspraxis im spatantiken Judaa
Volume 7
Expressions of Cult in the Southern Levant in the Greco-Roman Period
Manifestations in Text and Material Culture
Volume 6
Contextualizing the Sacred in the Hellenistic and Roman Near East
Religious Identities in Local, Regional, and Imperial Settings
Volume 8
Similar Books
The Body
Lived, Cultured, Adorned: Essays on Dress and the Body in the Bible and Ancient Near East in Honor of Nili S. Fox
Beiträge zur Islamischen Kunst und Archäologie
The Arts and Archaeology of Funerary Cultures in Islam
Volume 10.0
Groundbreaking Technologies in the Middle Paleolithic of the Levant
8igh Resolution and Multi-scale Functional Analysis of Ground Stone Tools
Volume 3
Viyano – A Passion for Kurds and Mountain Life
The Werner Finke Collection. With the assistance from Eszter Agota Hars and Marina Stoilova
Volume 2
Die Idee eines weißen Australiens
Rassenideologien, „Biological Absorption Policy“ und die Theorie von den schwarzen Kaukasiern
La construction de la ritualite heretique dans le Panarion d’Epiphane de Salamine
Pratiques et polemiques dans l'Antiquite tardive
Quellenpublikationen der Gesellschaft für Rheinische Geschichtskunde
Rahmenbedingungen, Genese und Rezeption im wissenschaftshistorischen Kontext