CALL. 31.01.2018: Sixth International Interdisciplinary Conference on Ancient Languages and Cultures
FECHA LÍMITE/DEADLINE/SCADENZA: 31/01/2018
FECHA CONGRESO/CONGRESS DATE/DATA CONGRESSO: 06-07-08/06/2018
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: Institute of Classical, Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, University of Wroclaw (Wroclaw, Poland)
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Centre for Distance Learning, University of Wroclaw; Institute of Classical, Mediterranean, and Oriental Studies, University of Wroclaw; Institute of Comparative Linguistics, Charles University, Prague; Institute of Ancient Near East, West-Bohemian University, Plzen
INFO: beliefs@uwr.edu.pl
CALL:
Proposals are invited for the Sixth International Interdisciplinary Conference on Ancient Languages and Cultures, ‘Beliefs and Rituals in Antiquity’, to be held in Wroclaw on 6-8 June 2018. The deadline for proposals is 31 January 2018. Further details of the conference (including how to submit proposals) may be found below.
As far as the human memory can reach, ritual way of thinking and dealing with everyday life, is known and widely practiced. There is no known culture, that would be areligious, or that would not perform rituals of any kind. Different beliefs accompany people from the dawn of material culture, and don’t fade within the development of society or technology. Together with ritual activities, they play the role of group identification markers, and often are the main factors in actual policy towards other communities or groups. Beliefs can also determine human behaviours, as well as approaches towards different aspects of everyday life. They are also widely used to explain the nature and its laws, whenever these are not yet understood by people. But what was exactly the role of rituals and beliefs in ancient cultures? What does piety and blasphemy mean to them? How did they act with ritual layers of their lives? And what made them introduce ritual activities in almost (if not every) aspect of their existence?
The most important topics of the conference should be as follows:
-Origins and development of ritual -Religious, magic, and everyday rituals -Common beliefs and ritual practices across space and time -Positive and negative aspects of beliefs and rituals – “black” and “white” magic -The role of beliefs and rituals in everyday life -Desecration and its aftermath -Beliefs and rituals as presented in textual sources -Reflections of beliefs and rituals in material culture -Cultural context of beliefs and rituals
This conference will take a comparative approach, taking a wide geographical and chronological sweep. We warmly invite scholars whose subject of study is the ancient world, including Greece, Rome, Egypt, Near East, India, and Far East. We invite linguists, philologists, historians, archaeologists, sociologists, and lawyers, hoping that this conference will be a forum for the wide range of specialists to exchange their ideas and results of research.
Proposals are now invited for individual papers or posters. Proposals must be attached as anonymous, and must not contain more than 300 words (in English). They can be submitted by 31st January 2018 via conference registration form.
Applications of doctoral students should be sent via e-mail, and approved by their supervisors (not in the text of proposal, which must remain anonymous, but with supervisor’s address in CC field), to the conference e-mail address: beliefs@uwr.edu.pl
All relevant proposals will be accepted after the formal revision made by conference committee by 28th February 2018. The final program of the conference will be released by 31st of March 2018.