Unveiling the veil: cultic, status, and ethnic representations of early imperial freedwomen
To corroborate that the veil was the standard mode of dress that symbolized pudicitia (virtue or chastity) for Roman matrons during the Augustan period (27 BCECE 14), scholars have frequently turned to the ancient material record, especially funerary monuments depicting freedwomen. In this article...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis
[2007]
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| In: |
Material religion
Year: 2007, Volume: 3, Issue: 2, Pages: 218-241 |
| Further subjects: | B
Epigraphy
B Ethnicity B Roman freedwomen B pudicitia B Legal B Funerary B Cult B Veil |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | To corroborate that the veil was the standard mode of dress that symbolized pudicitia (virtue or chastity) for Roman matrons during the Augustan period (27 BCECE 14), scholars have frequently turned to the ancient material record, especially funerary monuments depicting freedwomen. In this article I demonstrate that there are several difficulties with the evidence and methodological approaches applied to this corpus of evidence. I offer a new approach to show that questions that anthropologists and historians of religion are currently asking about veiling in the Muslim world can be used to formulate the basis for the wide-ranging representations of ancient Roman veiling practices. This coupled with a reevaluation of both the iconographic and epigraphic evidence on Italian funerary monuments of freedslaves reveals various cultic, social, and ethnic factors that may have influenced depictions of Roman freedwomen with or without the veil. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Material religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2752/175183407X219750 |