Teaser
Scholars of cognitive science and psychology who study modern religious rituals and ritual experiences can draw from a wealth of quantitative and qualitative data when conducting research. However, researching religious rituals and experiences proves more difficult for scholars of ancient religions as the material evidence and data they are working with is often incomplete. Thus, understanding how learning and transmission of religious rituals between individuals, social groups, and material culture in the ancient world functioned still proves problematic. This talk presents a new theoretical model of ritual learning and transmission, called the Religious Learning Network (RLN) model, designed specifically to be applied to material and archaeological evidence. This model will be tested within a case study of the cult of Mithras, so that we may better understand the rituals that were performed, how ritual knowledge was transmitted within this cult, as well as the cognitive and social effects that rituals may have produced upon the worshippers of Mithras.
About Blanka Misic, BA MA PhD
Blanka completed her PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London in 2013, after which she worked as an instructor in Humanities and Ancient Civilizations at Champlain College Lennoxville in Canada.
In 2023, Blanka joined the Department of Classical Archaeology at the University of Vienna as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Fellow, where she leads the Cognitive Aspects of Mithraic Rituals in Pannonia (CAMRIP) Project.
