Chair person

Prof. Angelos Chaniotis

Prof. Angelos Chaniotis

Professor Angelos Chaniotis currently holds a senior research fellowship at All Souls College Oxford (2006-). After his studies of Ancient History and Archaeology at the Universities of Athens and Heidelberg, he taught Ancient History and Classics at the Universities of Heidelberg (1986-94, 1998-2006) and at New York University (1993, 1994-98); he was Vice Rector of the University of Heidelberg (2001-06) and deputy speaker of the Collaborative Research Project "The Dynamics of Rituals"(2002-06). He is senior editor of Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (1998-). His main research interests are the social history and the history of religion in Hellenistic Greece and in the Roman East, primarily in light of the epigraphic evidence. Recent books: Army and Power in the Ancient World (editor;2002); Das antike Kreta (2004); War in the Hellenistic World: A Social and Cultural History (2005).

P 04 - Ritual Agency

Chair: Prof. Angelos Chaniotis angelos.chaniotis@classics.ox.ac.uk

Download preliminary daily schedule here (pdf)
(for better readability kindly print it out)

Common activities:

Reception
On Monday, 29 September, we will officially open the conference with a reception from 19.30 to 22.30

Key Note Lecture
Tuesday, 30 September:
Key Note Speaker Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jan Assmann
"Magie und Ritual"

Plenary Discussion
Wednesday, 1 October at 18.00 introductory presentation:
Prof. Dr. Christoph Wulf, Freie Universität Berlin
"The Future of the Science of Ritual in a transcultural Context"

Exchange meeting
Thursday, 2 October from 9:00 - 12:00:
Exchange meeting between scientists from the German Archaeological Institute
and the Collaborative Research Center SFB 619


Speakers (synonym for referee, panelist, active participant)


Day 1 – Monday, 29 September 2008


11:00-11:45    Alexis Sanderson
                        Keynote speaker

11:45:12:30    Marcia Butler

                        Ritual Specialists and Collective Agency in Middle Imperial China


14:00-14:45    Claudia Weber

                        Prescribed agency - a contradiction in terms?
                        Differences between the Tantric adhikara concept
                        and the sociological term of agency

14:45-15:30    Anjum Alvi
                        Towards an understanding of "agency":
                        The Ritual Practice of Punjabi Women


16:00-16:45    Michael Merrill   

                        A Ritual View of Communication in the Physician-Patient Encounter



Day 2 – Tuesday, 30 September 2008



9:00-9:45        Eftychia Stavrianopoulou
                         „Promises of continuity“:
                        The role of tradition in the forming of rituals in Ancient Greece


9:45-10:30      Fritz Graf
                        Ritual Restauration and Innovation in the Greek Cities
                        of the Roman Imperium

11:00-11:45    Ioanna Patera
                        Changes and arrangements in the Eleusinian ritual


11:45-12:30    Guolong Lai

                        The Dynamics of Death Ritual in Ancient China:
                        The Agentic Role of Scholar-Officials and Ritual Specialists

 
14:00-14:45    Flavia Frisone
                        A view inside the construction of consensus (homonoia) via ritual:
                        rules and change in ancient Greek funeral laws

14:45-15:30    Elisa Perego
                        Engendered Actions: Agency and Ritual in pre-Roman Veneto   


16:00-16:45    Mieira López-Bertran

                        Where are the Priests? Constructing Ritual Mastery in Punic Shrines

16:45-17:30    Christian Meyer
                        Agency, Discursive Performance, and Spirit Mediumship
                        in the Rituals of Brazilian Umbanda Religion

 

Abstract

The concept of 'agency' has a key-position in the study of the complex processes in which rituals change or resist change. This panel explores inter alia the following themes: the various types of agency (personal/individual, interpersonal/collective, virtual, non-human and superhuman); the dynamic relations between individuals and groups, ritual experts and decision-making bodies, 'authors' and recipients of ritual traditions and innovations; the origin, legitimacy, persuasion strategies, intentions, self-staging, and efficacy of representatives of agency; the overlapping of and the interaction between different representatives of agency; the role of social structures and hierarchies.

German version

Für das Verständnis der komplexen Prozesse, in denen sich Rituale verändern oder sich Veränderungen widersetzen, nimmt das Konzept der Handlungsmacht ('agency') eine Schlüsselposition ein. Das Panel befasst sich u.a. mit folgenden Themenkomplexen: den verschiedenen Typen von Handlungsmacht (persönliche/individuelle, kollektive, virtuelle, nicht- und übermenschliche); den dynamischen Beziehungen und Verhandlungen zwischen Individuen und Gruppen, Ritualexperten und beschlussfassenden Organen, 'Autoren' und Rezipienten von Ritualtraditionen und innovationen; Ursprung, Legitimität, Überzeugungsstrategien, Intentionen, Selbstinszenierung und Wirksamkeit von Vertretern von Handlungsmacht; der Überlappung von und der Interaktion zwischen Vertretern von Handlungsmacht; der Rolle von Sozialstrukturen und Hierarchien.