[eBook] [PDF] For Animal Sacrifice in the Roman Empire (31 BCE-395 CE) 1st Edition By Rives

[eBook] [PDF] For Animal Sacrifice in the Roman Empire (31 BCE-395 CE) 1st Edition By Rives

This introductory chapter defines key terms and presents the book’s analytical framework. It defines animal sacrifice as a ritualized practice involving the slaughter of an animal, parts of which were offered to superhuman powers to win their favor. It also elaborates on two key concepts. The first is social power, analyzed in terms developed by Michael Mann. Social power takes two broad forms: authoritative (commands that are enforced) and diffused (social practices that embody power relations but are not enforced). It derives from a range of sources; the two most important for this book are control of economic resources and physical force on the one hand and ideology on the other. The second key concept is communication, the propagation of diffused power, which takes two distinct but interrelated forms: practice, primarily nonverbal, and discourse, primarily verbal. These two modes of communication align respectively with the immanent and transcendent forms of ideological power. The chapter also addresses cultural transformation, especially the shift from a cultural configuration in which there is little that is analogous to modern conceptions of “religion” to one in which there existed something much closer to “religion” as the term is employed today.