{"product_id":"contested-cures-identity-and-ritual-healing-in-roman-and-late-antique-palestine-paperback","title":"Contested Cures: Identity and Ritual Healing in Roman and Late Antique Palestine - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMegan Nutzman\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the ancient Mediterranean world, individuals routinely looked for divine aid to cure physical afflictions. Contested Cures argues that the inevitability of sickness and injury made people willing to experiment with seemingly beneficial techniques, even if they originated in a foreign cultural or religious tradition. With circumstances of close cultural contacts, such as prevailed in Palestine, the setting was ripe for neighbouring Jews, Samaritans, Christians, Greeks and Romans to borrow rituals perceived to be efficacious and to alter them to fit their own religious framework. As a result, they employed related means of seeking miraculous cures. The similarities of these rituals, despite changes in the identity of the divine healers that they invoked, made them the subject of polemical discourse among elite authors trying to police collective borders. Contested Cures investigates the resulting intersection of ritual healing and communal identity.\u003cbr\u003eThis innovative study synthesises evidence for the full range of healing rituals that were practised in the ancient Mediterranean world. Examining both literary and archaeological evidence, it considers ritual healing as a component of identity formation and deconstructs the artificial boundary between 'magic' and 'religion' in relation to ritual cures.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eStudies the people, places and objects credited with ritual cures and the elite rhetoric critical of these cures In the ancient Mediterranean world, individuals routinely looked for divine aid to cure physical afflictions. Contested Cures argues that the inevitability of sickness and injury made people willing to experiment with seemingly beneficial techniques, even if they originated in a foreign cultural or religious tradition. With circumstances of close cultural contacts, such as prevailed in Palestine, the setting was ripe for neighbouring Jews, Samaritans, Christians, Greeks and Romans to borrow rituals perceived to be efficacious and to alter them to fit their own religious framework. As a result, they employed related means of seeking miraculous cures. The similarities of these rituals, despite changes in the identity of the divine healers that they invoked, made them the subject of polemical discourse among elite authors trying to police collective borders. Contested Cures investigates the resulting intersection of ritual healing and communal identity. This innovative study synthesises evidence for the full range of healing rituals that were practised in the ancient Mediterranean world. Examining both literary and archaeological evidence, it considers ritual healing as a component of identity formation and deconstructs the artificial boundary between 'magic' and 'religion' in relation to ritual cures. Megan S. Nutzman is Assistant Professor in the History Department at Old Dominion University.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMegan Nutzman is Assistant Professor of History at Old Dominion University, USA. She is the author of a number of journal articles including in \u003ci\u003eJewish Studies Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGreek Roman and Byzantine Studies\u003c\/i\u003e. This is her first book, based on her PhD, which she achieved in 2014.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 272\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.57 x 9.21 x 6.14 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 15, 2024\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51773683761440,"sku":"9781399502740","price":70.02,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/0cd986ca69e2a7653f117cd1fe0850bb_4a192617-f4ee-41cb-8392-fa7c8db54e3d.webp?v=1780430548","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/contested-cures-identity-and-ritual-healing-in-roman-and-late-antique-palestine-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}