{"title":"How Sacred Are The Dead?","authors":"Ronald Hutton","doi":"10.5325/preternature.13.1.0137","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.13.1.0137","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:Traditionally, one of the most magical, numinous, or consecrated kinds of space is a grave, which has the capacity to inspire all the feelings of reverence, affection, discomfort, or fear that humans associate with the dead of their own species. However, the contents of graves, including the bodies of occupants, also represent one of the most valuable sources of information concerning ancient societies. For most of the time since systematic inquiry into the ancient past began, this potential paradox was solved by denying the ancient dead any of the respect recorded to more recent burials. Since the 1990s, a number of challenges have been mounted to this approach, and a complex debate resulted that provides a window into contemporary attitudes toward death, humanity, the sacred, and the spirit of place. This article is designed to review and analyze that debate in a British context.","PeriodicalId":516659,"journal":{"name":"Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural","volume":"58 5","pages":"137 - 154"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140510212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Talking with the Land: Walking Magic, Storytelling, and the Imagination around the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic","authors":"Helen Cornish","doi":"10.5325/preternature.13.1.0110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.13.1.0110","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:Relations between people and places can be understood through the metaphor of conversation. Contemporary Pagans and Witches who visit the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Cornwall often take walks into the surrounding countryside. By tracing three walks (Rocky Valley labyrinths, Saint Nectan's Waterfall, and the memorial to Joan Wytte in Minster Woods), this article showshow assemblages of walking, places, and stories can be configured through expanded temporalities and magical consciousness. Practitioners move between the land, the collection, and the museum, where empirical histories and materiality are entangled with sensory, emotional, and imaginal experiences.","PeriodicalId":516659,"journal":{"name":"Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural","volume":" 27","pages":"110 - 136"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139640470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Re-wilding Ritual: An Archaeological Study of Plants in Ritual Contexts in the Traprain Law Environs, Scotland","authors":"Leia Kristen Tilley","doi":"10.5325/preternature.13.1.0076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.13.1.0076","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:The study of European prehistory has often associated natural objects as menacing presences rooted in fears concerning, at a basic level, continued subsistence and combative conciliatory ritual practice. Nevertheless, in this time, ritual is imprinted upon entire landscapes with natural objects manipulated to construct ritual spaces. This article considers the nature and purpose of natural objects, specifically plant species, within prehistoric ritual practice in Scotland through consideration of the Traprain Law environs, East Lothian. Within prehistoric contexts, the Traprain Law environs are formed partly through the physical manifestations of ideology in a network of ritual sites. In this context, plants as natural objects are a community integral to ritual networks, whether through ritualized clearance, symbolic usage in cremation, votive offering, or deposition prior to site abandonment. There are many ways in which plant remains occupied space within ritual taskscapes in prehistoric Scotland.","PeriodicalId":516659,"journal":{"name":"Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural","volume":"44 9","pages":"109 - 76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140510374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Agency of the Idyllic Landscape: Entanglement in Theocritus's Idyll 21","authors":"L. Canevaro","doi":"10.5325/preternature.13.1.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.13.1.0007","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:The Idylls of Theocritus stand between imitation and imagination, between the real world and story. Theocritus's presentation of both urban and rural environments trains our readings on people, landscape, and materiality—and the porosity between them. This article offers a reading of Theocritus's Idyll 21 and the strong connection it presents between fishermen and their environs, through the lens of material ecocriticism. It shows that the world of the Theocritean corpus is complicated and enriched by material agency and the agentic landscape. This article engages with approaches to imagination, especially new-materialist entangled perspectives that resonate with Theocritus's cast of characters, which include nature and the nonhuman.","PeriodicalId":516659,"journal":{"name":"Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural","volume":" 4","pages":"32 - 7"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139640683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lucian of Samosata's Imaginative Divine and Human Landscapes","authors":"Eleni Bozia","doi":"10.5325/preternature.13.1.0176","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.13.1.0176","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:This article presents Lucian's theocentric works through the lens of fictional narratology and sociopragmatics and argues that he builds imaginary worlds that feature delinquent gods, regretful and spiteful corpses that contemplate life, and lands inhabited by lamp-shaped beings to explore humanity's exploration of life and religious beliefs. More specifically, The Parliament of the Gods, Zeus Catechized, Zeus Rants, On Sacrifices, Dialogues of the Gods, Menippus, Icaromenippus, and the True Story are closely studied to argue that Lucian conceptualizes the quest into life's unknowns by engineering imaginary worlds, estranging the normal, and questioning ground truths about life. Ultimately, he actualizes literary fiction to explain theology and philosophical inquiries and their implications for everyday people.","PeriodicalId":516659,"journal":{"name":"Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural","volume":"40 8","pages":"176 - 197"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140510278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Jeweled Castle of the Dragon","authors":"Daniel Ogden","doi":"10.5325/preternature.13.1.0198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.13.1.0198","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:Five analog narratives—from Apuleius's Metamorphoses (\"Cupid and Psyche,\" second century AD), Philostratus's Apollonius (ca. AD 220), Callimachus and Chrysorrhoe (early fourteenth century AD), Konrad's Saga (fourteenth century AD) and The Theodore Tiron Miracle Story (fourteenth century AD)—prove to be underpinned by an ideal story type along the following lines. A dragon lives in a golden, jeweled castle, almost impossible of access. It is surrounded by and infested by lesser serpents. Within it he has a special raised platform, and he is served in it by automatic air-powered trays, tables, and vessels. He conceives a desire for a human girl, steals her and keeps her captive. The castle is penetrated by her lover-to-be, who kills the dragon and saves her, whereupon the marvelous castle melts away. The theme of erotic desire travels with the story type. Further support is provided for the long-held suspicion that the Cupid and Psyche tale builds upon a preexisting traditional dragon narrative.","PeriodicalId":516659,"journal":{"name":"Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural","volume":"16 2","pages":"198 - 225"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140510182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Geographical Reality or Literary Fantasy: The Tainaron nekuomanteion as a Natural Deathscape","authors":"J. Gordon","doi":"10.5325/preternature.13.1.0033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.13.1.0033","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:This article redefines the dualism of nekuomanteia's real and imagined topographies via a novel analysis of the tertium quid that is \"natural deathscapes.\" This framework is applied to the case study of the nekuomanteion at Tainaron. Comparison between the literary descriptions and the archaeological record reveals numerous anomalies within this landscape's presentation, including an imaginary grove, spring, and impossible localizations. While traditional analyses explain away such matters as the result of poetic license or tradition, this approach cannot account for all identifiable inconsistencies. Thus, the site's identification as a natural deathscape, a place associated with death/the dead and imbued with multifaceted sociocultural meanings, serves as a tertium quid that coalesces the site's real and imagined topographies into a holistic landscape. Within this paradigm of spatial syncretism, particular attention is paid to the interaction of sociocultural functions inherent within the processes of landscape creation and eschatological reflection.","PeriodicalId":516659,"journal":{"name":"Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural","volume":"37 5","pages":"33 - 54"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140510458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Supernatural Jersey: \"Thy Charms Are So Many and Rare\"","authors":"Francesca Bihet","doi":"10.5325/preternature.13.1.0055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.13.1.0055","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:The Channel Island of Jersey has an abundance of supernatural folklore, which can help foster a sense of understanding and care toward the island environment. These legends are tied deeply to the landscape in landmarks, rock formations, and placenames. Les Petits Faîtchieaux haunt the dolmens, carry round menhirs, and even relocate churches. Michel Foucault outlined the principle of heterotopias, counter-spaces which are separated, both open and closed, and create a break from everyday time. The supernatural folklore of Jersey helps generate a heterotopia, with the promise of an eerie supernatural threat that is always lurking. An ecoGothic lens can add further dark clarity to heterotopic approaches to the landscape, highlighting the vulnerable island landscape in relation to human activities. This article applies these two lenses to the supernatural folklore of Jersey, viewing the island as a heterotopia, a container for a landscape of folkloric imagination.","PeriodicalId":516659,"journal":{"name":"Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural","volume":" 32","pages":"55 - 75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139640685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Hagiographical Landscape of Twelfth-Century England","authors":"Anne E. Bailey","doi":"10.5325/preternature.13.1.0155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.13.1.0155","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:This article explores hagiographic landscapes as depicted in miracle narratives from twelfth-century England. These stories, which focus on miraculous healing sought by pilgrims at saints' shrines, often situate their protagonists in locations that, although based on real places, are reimagined for didactic purposes. The article argues that the journeys undertaken by pilgrims in the stories were meant to be read on a metaphorical level and that these re-imagined landscapes functioned to depict the protagonists' inner journey from sin to salvation.","PeriodicalId":516659,"journal":{"name":"Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural","volume":"15 8","pages":"155 - 175"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140510185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}