Organized by : Trivium Centre for Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Department of History, University of Tampere in collaboration with the Finnish Historical Society and the Classical Association of Finland.
The 4th international Passages conference focuses on religion in its social context. Religion is seen as an active, ongoing process involving society and community. Important themes in the conference are the differences and similarities between elite culture and popular religion in Classical and Medieval society.
The conference aims at broad coverage not only chronologically but also geographically and disciplinarily (all branches of Classical and Medieval Studies), concentrating on the following themes :
- Religious rituals in everyday life
- Writing and reading religion vs. oral religious culture
- Devotional groups and their functions in society
- Official and nonofficial religious practices and practitioners.
- Gendered participation
- Forms of devoted life : e.g. living as a devoted child/man/woman/couple
- Sacrifice and self sacrifice.
Thursday 20.08
11.00 Registration
13.45 Welcome (Christian Krötzl and Katariina Mustakallio)
14.00 Session 1 : Rituals in their everyday contexts
Gabor Klaniczay, Ritual and Narrative in Late Medieval Miracle Accounts
Doralice Fabiano, The Meal of the Dead : Food, Religion and Society in Ancient Greece
Sari Katajala-Peltomaa, Children and Socialisation. Laity's Religious Rituals in Canonisation and Inquisition Records (c. 1200-1300)
15.45 Coffee Break
16.15 Session 2A : Iconography and Imagination
Outi Sihvonen, Vestal Virgins and Their Social Participation in the Beginning of the Third Century
Jill Bradley, The Faces of Christ : the Iconography and Positioning in Late Romanesque and Early Medieval Churches
Break
Ira Westergard, Art in the Service of Priests and the Savonarolan Movement
Kirsi Eskelinen, Art and Devotion in Veneto Countryside in the 16th century
16.15 Session 2B : Saints and Demons
Laura Cherubini, Hungry Witches. Some Late Developments of the Anthropophagous Nature of the Roman Strix
Jenni Kuuliala, Near God, far from Demons ? Rites as Laymen's Means of Healing Children in High Medieval Europe
Break
Emilia Jamroziak, Cistercian Nun : Downtrodden Victims of Clerical Misogyny ?
Asdis Egilsdottir, Potential Saints and Medieval Icelandic Society
19.30 Reception at the City Hall
Friday 21.08
9.00 Session 3A : From Domestic Rites to Public Cults
Maurizio Bettini, Lar familiaris : a God minutus
9.45 Coffee Break
10.15 Session 3A
Timo Sironen, Later Roman and Greek Methods in Laundering Archaic Religion
Olga Sidorovich, Sacra argeorum as a Sacerdotal Document
Break
Jussi Rantala, The Generosity of the Severan Dynasty
Agneta Ahlquist, The Pope and the Bianchi Movement
10.15 Session 3B : Crossing the Boundaries
Aleksandr Koptev, Regifugium's Sacrifice : What Sacrifice ?
Maijastina Kahlos, Polluted by Sacrifices : Christian Repugnance of Sacrificial Rituals in Late Antiquity
Break
Hannie Van Horen Verhoosel, Sin, Crime and Punishment in the Cantigas de Santa Maria
Taneli Kukkonen, Knowledge and Works : Al Ghazali's Concept of Religion in Context
12.30 Lunch Break
13.45 Session 4 : Divination and Divinities
Celia Schultz, Divination and community in Cicero's 'De Divinatione'
Sonia Macri, Gemstones and Art of Divination in Classical and Medieval Lapidaries
Break
Jyri Vaahtera, 'Watching the Birds' from a New Point of View
Svetlana Hautala, Gods in the Ancient Greek Drug Names
16.15 Coffee Break
16.30 Session 5A : Guilds and Collegia
Alison B. Griffith, Multiple Allegiances, Shared Space : the Affinity of Cults and Collegia in Rome and Ostia
James B. MacGregor, Garter Knights, Guild Piety, and the Cult of Saint George in Fifteenth Century England
Maija Ojala, The Religious Function of the Craftsmen's Organizations in Late Medieval Hansa Towns in the Baltic Sea Region
16.30 Session 5B : Continuity and Fecundity
Giada Tognazzi, The Ritual Function of Wedding Songs in Archaic Greece
Christian Laes, Male Virgins in Latin Inscriptions
Ville Vuolanto, God's Gift : the Case of Theodoret of Cyrrhus's (d. 466) Childhood
Elina Räsänen, In the Need of Children : Approaching Saint Anne, the Promoter of Fecundity
18.15 City Walk
19.00 Reception
Saturday 22.08
9.00 Session 6 : Spaces, Cults and Social Practices
Giovanni Salmeri, Cultural Life in the Sanctuaries of the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire
Paul Kimball, Court, City, and the Cult of the Saints : Dynamics of Ritual Communitas in Fifth-Century Constantinople
10.45 Coffee Break
11.15 Session 7A : Gendered Practices
Marja-Leena Hänninen, Domus/familia as a Religious Unit : Gender Roles inside the Domestic Cult in Ancient Rome
Valerie L. Garver, Women's Provision of Liturgical Textiles in the Carolingian World
Miikka Tamminen, Impediment or Reinforcement : Women Participation in Crusades in the 13th Century
10.15 Session 7B : Citizens and Courts
Maria Niku, Spheres of (Social) Interaction and Cooperation between Athenian Citizens and Foreigners in the Religious Life of Hellenistic Athens
Giulia Giovannini, Empusa and mormolukai : Between Popular Beliefs and Civic Religion
Rainer Opitz, God as a Court Witness - Oaths in a Medieval Court
12.45 Lunch Break
13.45 Session 8 : The Other World - The Next World
Eva-Maria Butz & Alfons Zettler, From Collective to Individual Commemoration : Case Studies in Early Medieval Religious Practice
Catharina Van Beek, Representations of Children on Medieval Funerary Monuments
Päivi Räisänen, Forbidden Practices : Anabaptist Religiosity and the Local Community in 16th Century Germany
Conclusion Remarks
18.00 Dinner (at participant's own expense).