SAMR seeks proposals for three co-sponsored sessions in 2021.
(1) Cultural Production and Social Networks within Greco-Roman Religion: The Religion of Enslaved Peoples and Freedpersons: Of particular interest for this panel is evidence for the religious discourses and practices of the enslaved and formerly enslaved (freedpersons). Potential foci for this topic include analyses of both literate and illiterate enslaved/freedperson populations throughout the ancient Mediterranean world: their day-to-day lives, literate training, and/or relative cultural capital within households or associated networks.
(2) Homo Necans, Homo Competens: Ritual Killing and Competition in the Ancient Mediterranean: This panel invites papers exploring ritual violence as performance and competition in Greco-Roman religious practice, including Jewish and Christian traditions; authors are encouraged to reflect on the trajectories of the theoretical frameworks established nearly fifty years ago in Burkert’s seminal Homo Necans, e.g., ethology, functionalism, structuralism, and the long arc of human behavior from the Palaeolithic to Late Antiquity.
(3) Animals in Ancient Mediterranean Religions: This panel examines human/animal relations in antiquity beyond the topos of animal sacrifice. We invite papers addressing this topic in literary and archaeological sources, and exploring the roles animals played in religious thought and practice. How, e.g., might we understand theriomorphic gods, the ritual use of animal masks and masquerades, or of animal parts in magical potions? Presenters may submit their papers for a planned publication.
Please visit our website (www.samreligions.org) for further information.