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MOULDING CULTURAL CHANGE: A CONTEXTUAL APPROACH TO ANATOMICAL VOTIVE TERRACOTTAS IN CENTRAL ITALY, FOURTH–SECOND CENTURIES BC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Rafael Scopacasa
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Abstract

This article demonstrates how a contextual approach to material culture can help us think about the link between Roman hegemony and cultural change in Republican Italy. It does this by focusing on a particular set of artefacts — anatomical votive terracottas — that have been seen to indicate the spread of Roman and/or Latin culture in central Italy. Although the use of anatomical terracottas may have begun in the vicinity of Rome, communities in central Italy actively engaged with these artefacts according to their own cultural dispositions. Such signs of local agency are especially visible in the way that worshippers in the Apennine areas of central Italy favoured votive terracottas depicting legs, feet and hands, instead of reproductive organs, which were more popular in the Tyrrhenian zone. These findings emphasise the key role of local cultural practice in shaping the effect of accelerated political change on the micro-level.

Questo articolo dimostra come un approccio contestuale alla cultura materiale possa aiutarci a comprendere la connessione tra l'egemonia romana e il cambiamento culturale nell'Italia repubblicana. Nel saggio questo scopo è perseguito focalizzando l'attenzione in particolare su una classe di materiale, i votivi anatomici in terracotta, che sono stati connessi alla diffusione delle culture Romana e/o Latina nell'area centrale della penisola italiana. Sebbene l'uso delle terrecotte anatomiche abbia avuto origine in un'area prossima a Roma, le comunità dell'Italia centrale si sono relazionate con questi oggetti a seconda delle diverse ‘predisposizioni culturali’. Questi indizi di agency locale sono rintracciabili specialmente nei modi in cui i fruitori del culto nelle aree appenniniche dell'Italia centrale facevano uso delle terrecotte votive, preferendo rappresentazioni di gambe, piedi e mani, piuttosto che di organi, più diffusi invece nell'area tirrenica. Questi rinvenimenti enfatizzano il ruolo chiave della pratica culturale locale nel riplasmare l'effetto del veloce cambiamento politico sul micro-livello.

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Articles
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 83 , October 2015 , pp. 1 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 2015 

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