Dislodging "Embedded" Religion: A Brief Note on a Scholarly Trope.
Scholars of ancient cultures are increasingly speaking of the "embeddedness" of ancient religion — arguing that the practices modern investigators group under the heading of "religion" did not compose a well-defined category in antiquity; instead, they claim that "religion was embedded" in other asp...
| Published in: | Numen: International Review for the History of Religions Vol. 55; no. 4; pp. 440 - 461 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Brill Academic Publishers
2008
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=32661461&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 32661461 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00295973 C4J jtl: Numen: International Review for the History of Religions issn: 00295973 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: 2008 vid: 55 iid: 4 pid: 639 pub: Brill Academic Publishers artinfo: ui: 32661461 10.1163/156852708X310527 ppf: 440 ppct: 21 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 159KB tig: atl: Dislodging "Embedded" Religion: A Brief Note on a Scholarly Trope. aug: au: Nongbri, Brent affil: Department of Religious Studies, Yale University, 451 College St., P.O. Box 208287, New Haven, CT, USA su: Roman religion Enlightenment Religion & culture Religion & politics Economics Religion sug: subj: Roman religion Enlightenment Religion & culture Religion & politics Economics Religion keyword: descriptive EMBEDDED RELIGION REDESCRIPTIVE ab: Scholars of ancient cultures are increasingly speaking of the "embeddedness" of ancient religion — arguing that the practices modern investigators group under the heading of "religion" did not compose a well-defined category in antiquity; instead, they claim that "religion was embedded" in other aspects of ancient culture. These writers use this notion of "embeddedness" to help us see that categories post-Enlightenment thinkers often regard as distinct (such as politics, economics, and religion) largely overlapped in antiquity. The trope of "embedded religion" can, however, also produce the false impression that religion is a descriptive concept rather than a redescriptive concept for ancient cultures (i.e., that there really is something "out there" in antiquity called "Roman religion" or "Mesopotamian religion," which scholars are simply describing rather than creating). By allowing this slippage between descriptive and redescriptive uses of "religion," the rhetoric of "embedded religion" exacerbates the very problem it is meant to solve. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Numen: International Review for the History of Religions is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Numen: International Review for the History of Religions holder: Brill Academic Publishers dt: @attributes: year: 2008 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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