History, Anthropology, Religions

The course provides an overview of the main theories of sacrifice that have shaped the historical study of religions between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and offers theoretical tools to critically assess their impact on the ways religious contexts are described and interpreted. The importance of studying sacrifice lies in the central role of this category within the history of religions and in the historiography that has guided research in cultural and religious settings different from those that inspired the theories themselves. However, the so-called “sacrificial fact” is a historiographical construction that today struggles to explain practices such as gift, exchange, communion, and nourishment, thus risking to provide a distorted view of religious phenomena. The course addresses key questions such as: is it possible to define what sacrifice actually is? Does a phenomenon exist that can be called sacrifice tout court? What are the interpretative consequences of employing exportable notions to classify observed religious facts?

No specific prerequisites are required to attend the course. However, a basic knowledge of the main principles and theoretical frameworks of the history of religions, acquired in previous courses of the curriculum, is recommended.

A) Two monographs: 1) A. Brelich, Presupposti del sacrificio umano, Editori Riuniti, Roma, 2006.
 2) Robert G. Hamerton Kelly et al., Origini violente : uccisione rituale e genesi culturale, Giuffrè, Milano, 2018


 B) Two essays: 3) Marcel Detienne, Jean-Pierre Vernant, La cucina del sacrificio in terra greca, tr. it. Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2014 [ed. or. 1979]. (soltanto pp. 9-31) 4) C. Grottanelli, Uccidere, donare, mangiare. Problematiche attuali del sacrificio antico, in C. Grottanelli, N. Parise (a cura di), Sacrificio e società nel mondo antico, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1988, pp. 3-56.

 C) Additional readings that will be distributed during the course and made available on Classroom. 5) M. Ferrara, Il ‘Sacrificio'. Temi, teorie, conseguenze 6) C. Facchini, L’arte della conversazione. Alla ricerca del sacrificio perduto: da Tylor a Freud (1870-1913)

Frontal classes. It is also planned the reading, followed by discussion, of a selection of sources inherent to the main issues of the course. During the course, students will be involved to actively work in team in order to explore some aspects specifically related to the course and the teaching program and enhance the historical thinking skills.

Attendance is not mandatory, but workshop activities, held in class at the end of the course, are reserved exclusively for attending students. Non-attending students are strongly encouraged to read the additional materials listed in the syllabus in order to achieve an equivalent level of preparation.

The examination will consist of an interview intended to verify the applicant's knowledge on the issues exposed during the course and the methodological, critical and applicable aspects of the History of religions. Also, the exam will verify the applicant's autonomous ability to connect the issues of the corse with other disciplines.

Teaching combines lectures and seminar-based sessions. Several flipped-classroom seminars, open only to attending students, will involve group work aimed at exploring specific aspects of the course and its monographic section. These activities are designed to foster critical analysis, collaborative learning, and the independent application of historical-religious knowledge. Erasmus incoming students may use English-language materials and are allowed to take the final exam in English.