Marginales et exemplaires. Remarques sur quelques aspects du rôle religieux des femmes dans la Rome républicaine

Pailler, Jean-Marie

doi:10.4000/clio.487

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Exemplary public priestesses were held to be necessary for the entire community, they assumed the role that Pailler, using Georges Dumézil's categories, 53 de nes as 'bearers of the sacred' . 54 This expression refers to those women (in the roles of vestales, aminica dialis or regina sacrorum) who can touch and carry objects of extra-human power during religious ceremonies. They were assisted by the 'manipulators of the sacred' , exclusively men, who were permitted not only to come into contact with these objects but also to handle and use them for speci c purposes.…”

Section: Human Remains and Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

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Against the sacred body

Sbardella

2021

Human Remains and Violence

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In the Catholic areas of Europe, the human remains (both their bones and the fabrics they touched) of persons considered to have been exceptional are usually stored for transformation into relics. The production and the reproduction of the object-relic takes place within monasteries and is carried out firstly on the material level. In this article I intend to present in detail, from an anthropological standpoint, the practices used to process such remains, the role of the social actors involved and the political-ecclesiastical dynamics connected with them. Owing to obvious difficulties in accessing enclosed communities, such practices are usually overlooked in historiographical and ethno-anthropological analyses, while they should instead be considered the most important moment in the lengthy process intended to give form and meaning to remains, with a view to their exhibition and use in ritual.

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Section: Human Remains and Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Catholic Church, religious orders are societies of communal life, approved by the ecclesiastical authority, whose members strive for evangelical perfection by taking the three solemn vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.Human Remains and Violence 7/1 (2021),[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71] …”

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Against the sacred body

Sbardella

2021

Human Remains and Violence

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“…12. Some have argued that the unique and ambiguous status of these priestesses prevent us from considering them as any other Roman woman (Beard 1980 andPailler 1995;Scheid 2002;Raepsaet-Charlier 2018, p. 210). Diverging from such views, I agree with the more recent interpretation of DiLuzio (2016, p. 152-153) who sees the Vestal's sexual status as ideal virgins, adding that: "The Vestals presumably understood the ideological force of their virginity, though other aspects of their identity, such as their sacrificial capacity or their membership in the pontifical college, may have been just as important to their sense of self, if not more.…”

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Menstrual Blood: Uses, Values, and Controls in Ancient Rome

Chavarria¹

2022

mondesanciens

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Since 1993 and the ground-breaking thesis of French historian Nicole Boëls-Janssen, it is rare to find publications that discuss the powers of female bodies, and in particular of menstrual blood in ancient Rome. 1 There is no mention of this blood in any of our pre-Imperial sources, perhaps due to the limited range of evidence rather than a lack of interest from the Romans. However, each and every Latin author examined in this article has acknowledged their debts to foreign influences, especially Hellenistic philosophy and medicine which started to flourish as early as the 5 th century BC. Even though these works contain numerous allusions to Greco-Egyptian practices, it does not mean similar ones were unknown or employed elsewhere in the Roman world at the same time (Aubert 1989, p. 422). As such, this paper analyses how menstrual blood was understood by the Romans, potentially as early as the 3 rd century BC. 2 Unfortunately, Boëls-Janssen's thesis is also one of the very few works that have discussed both the dangerous and beneficial properties of this blood. In her Introduction dedicated to women's apotropaic powers, she explains how "certaines parties du corps féminin semblent avoir été l'objet de précautions ou de superstitions particulières" (1993, p. 4). Indeed, the female nature and its unique powers were associated with several bodily fluids such as urine and saliva, but also the intriguing blood that flowed out of women's bodies every month. 3 Following in her footsteps, this paper aims to examine the social representations falling upon menstrual blood, as well as its uses symbolizing one of the most powerful feminine insignia in Ancient Rome. 2A more recent number of publications have investigated the role of menstrual blood, including most notably Jack Lennon's article (2010) who subjected this topic to an anthropological enquiry supported by Mary Douglas' (1966) key concepts. Lennon's aim was to demonstrate that menstrual blood was a source of danger and power, an idea further argued in his monograph (2014, p. 56 and 84-85). This paper also builds upon other publications that have qualified Douglas' main theories, and in particular Menstrual Blood: Uses, Values, and Controls in Ancient Rome Cahiers « Mondes anciens », 16 | 2022

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Femmes entre violences et stratégies de liberté

Hurbon¹

2004

Femmes Entre Violences Et Stratégies De Liberté

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Marginales et exemplaires. Remarques sur quelques aspects du rôle religieux des femmes dans la Rome républicaine

Cited by 9 publications

References 2 publications

Against the sacred body

Against the sacred body

Menstrual Blood: Uses, Values, and Controls in Ancient Rome

Femmes entre violences et stratégies de liberté

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