Tokens of piety. Inexpensive dedications as functional and symbolic objects
Tokens of piety. Inexpensive dedications as functional and symbolic objects
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虔诚的象征。
DOI：
10.30549/opathrom-11-05
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发表时间：
2018
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
G. Salapata
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
G. Salapata
本文尝试运用传统经学之外的一些学科方法和理论，对物质文化、宗教与社会的相互关系进行新的阐释。它侧重于奉献的做法，特别是对适度的奉献和多种方式，这些都是在希腊社会的价值。它的结论是，即使小的廉价产品是穷人负担得起的，他们的奉献者可能来自不同的社会经济背景。经济价值较低、外表朴素的奉献可能具有很高的象征价值，因为它们体现了社会和宗教观念或奉献者的愿望和身份;或者它们的价值来自于它们在仪式中发挥的作用。如果这些祭品传递的信息是主要关切，其价值是象征性和情感性的，而不是物质性的，那么选择小的或便宜的祭品不一定反映较低的社会经济地位。此外，如果送礼的主要目的是交流和互惠，那么送礼的行为就比礼物的货币价值更重要。
This article engages with some methods and theories of disciplines outside the traditional sphere of Classics to open up new perspectives on the interrelationship between material culture, religion and society. It focuses on dedicatory practices and, in particular, on modest offerings and the multiple ways these were valued in Greek society. It concludes that, even though small inexpensive offerings were affordable by poorer people, their dedicators likely came from various socio-economic backgrounds. Dedications of low economic value and modest appearance may have had high symbolic value because they embodied social and religious ideas or the desires and identities of the dedicator; or they could derive their value from the function they performed in ritual. If the messages carried by such offerings were of primary concern and their value symbolic and emotional rather than material, the choice of a small or inexpensive offering would not necessarily reflect lower socio-economic status. Moreover, if the main concern of gift giving were communication and reciprocity, the act of giving would have been more important than the offering’s monetary value.