The Bottom Line
Pros
- Packed with surprising facts, theories, and insights
- Consistency of style and organization
- Bite-size chapters
- One chapter by Christopher Faraone, a personal favorite
Cons
- Some chapters less clear than others
- Not really for beginners
- Missing a list of abbreviations for works cited
Description
- An authoritative work on ancient family religion.
- Result of a 2005 conference on the topic of domestic religion at Brown University.
- Generally, two contributors per region.
- The 2 main distinctions are between civic and private, on the one hand, and household and family, on the other.
- Covers Western Asia in the first and second millennia B.C., Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
- Consecutive chapters feed off the preceding ones.
- Maps, diagrams, and black & white illustrations.
Guide Review - Household and Family Religion in Antiquity
There is sound reason behind the apparent duplication in the title, not only because different sub-disciplines use different terms, but also because, especially in slave-owning societies, there can be a distinction between family and household.
Chapters of only about 20-pages, including footnotes and diagrams, make for perfect one-sitting readings. Since there are two chapters per area, if you find the first rough going, you have a second chance. Duplication of chapters, like the duplication in the title, does not mean repetition.
The earlier societies' religious focus is on care for household gods and the spirits of the dead. The big-name gods might not be worshiped by commoners, but only by the aristocrats or in the public religious observations. Even the pre-Babylonian exile Israelites worshiped their own household gods, with food, drink, and scents. Women, in particular, invoked deities to help with fertility and birth, while outside, at local sanctuaries, men gave thanksgiving with sacrifices. An extra chapter on the Israelites delves into their economy and the workload of the women. The especially religious Egyptians come next, with household religion little different from the public one. Next comes Greece, about which Deborah Boedeker observes that because government was composed of the people, not remote bureaucracy, there was less distinction between public and private than among the Maya. Next come the Romans, whose religion is most familiar to us. Finally, in the concluding chapter, the editors look at the "inconcinnities" of a cross-cultural, diachronic approach.
