Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 26.2 (2013) 211-234 ISSN (Print) 0952-7648 ISSN (Online) 1743-1700 Feasting the Community: Ritual and Power on the Sicilian Acropoleis (10th– 6th centuries bc) Meritxell Ferrer Martín Department of Classics, 450 Serra Mall, Building 110, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305-2145, USA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract In recent years, the emergence of new theoretical perspectives such as post-structuralism, post-colonialism and feminism in the study of colonial situations in the ancient Mediterranean have broken the hegemony long held by acculturation. Earlier perspectives focused mainly on the colonies, Greek or Phoenician, and considered them as the only active agents, while local populations were traditionally interpreted as static and monolithic entities, passive recipients of colonial innovations. Moving away from these interpretations and approaching new ways of reading colonial histories, the focus of this article is centered on the native Sicilian people, particularly on the recuperation of their agency, through an analysis of their ritual politics. In this case I examine processes of making social identities and the idea of community that these peoples constructed through the collective practices carried out in their main communal ritual settings, the acropoleis. Keywords: Sicily, feasting, ritual politics, cultural contact, community, social identities, acropoleis Introduction In line with this reappraisal, recent archaeo- logical studies have put an end to the subordi- In recent decades, several studies from differ- nation and marginalization that ritual practices ent disciplines have recognized the importance have often held in archaeological narratives of ritual in political action and in community (e.g. Barrett 1991; 1994; Brück 1999; Joyce construction and representation. These works 2000; Plunket 2002; Bradley 2005; Gonlin and have pointed out how highly formalized and Lohse 2007; Swenson 2006; Delgado and Ferrer routinized practices mark social temporalities, 2011a). These works moved away from tradi- create group identities and project images of tional binary readings, usually represented by difference between groups, negotiate interests, the dichotomy of ‘sacred’ versus ‘profane’, and and legitimize and contest different relations of rejected essentialist discourses in which every- power. These same studies have also emphasized thing regarded as irrational, unusual or strange that it is not only elites and religious techno- is lumped together under the label of ‘ritual’, crats who are active in the negotiation, achieve- as opposed to raw functionality and rationality ment and legitimation of these social outcomes. (Brück 1999). In fact, all community members participate There are three premises that have been central actively in these practices (Bourdieu 1972; to overcoming this duality and to recognizing Kertzer 1988; Connerton 1989; Hobsbawm the importance of the ritual sphere in relation and Ranger 1983; Bell 1992; 1997; Humphrey to other arenas of action. First of all, ritual has and Laidlaw 1994). © The Fund for Mediterranean Archaeology/Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v26i2.211 212 Ferrer Martín begun to be considered as a specific field of dis- by native Sicilian peoples are usually defined by course spatially and temporally integrated into certain elements of the Greek religious model, other areas of human practice (Barrett 1991; which are regarded as genuine canonical ritual 1994: 72-80). Secondly, it has been argued markers (Albanese Procelli 2003: 211; 2006: that ritual practices form a continuum with 55-56; Domínguez Monedero 2010: 139). Nev- daily actions, with the former acquiring new ertheless, the lack of a universal ritual pattern and meanings and greater emphasis through their the consequent inability to identify in a general own performance or ‘ritualization’ (Humphrey way elements of Greek religion in other historical and Laidlaw 1994; Bradley 2005: 34). Finally, and/or cultural contexts has strongly hampered scholars have begun to recognize that the dualist the study of ritual in non-Hellenic areas, espe- model does not correspond to a universal con- cially regarding its socio-political analysis. ception of the world. On the contrary, it corre- With respect to Sicily, the persistence of this sponds to an understanding of the world typical deeply colonialist attitude has led some scholars of modern Western societies, and its direct and to suggest that before the settlement of the first uncritical transposition to other historical con- Greek colonists on the island (late 8th cen- texts thus involves a strong anachronism as well tury bc), religious expression was barely visible as an interpretative fallacy (Brück 1999). or even absent among Sicily’s native peoples, In spite of the gradual acceptance of this except in the funerary sphere (Albanese Procelli revised thinking, most studies devoted to Sicily 2006: 56; Domínguez Monedero 2010: 134). during the first half of the first millennium bc In accordance with this reading, most ritual continue to place ritual practices in a purely sym- manifestations documented during the colonial bolic arena of action, completely isolated from period (7th–5th centuries bc), such as those other dimensions of society, such as the political registered on the acropoleis and dealt with in this and the social spheres. In these accounts, ritual paper, have been interpreted frequently as mere actions are seen simply as religious expressions or assimilations and/or responses to colonial settle- manifestations. As such, those spaces, practices ment. New ritual expressions born of a direct or materialities that do not neatly fit in with transmission of foreign ideas and religious val- functional interpretations (or with patterns of ues, as well as resulting from multiple needs— behavior considered to be normative within the social, political and economic—emerged after community) are the only ones assumed to belong the establishment of relations with these new to the ritual sphere (e.g. Palermo 1981; Vassallo colonies (Leighton 1999: 261; Albanese Pro- 1999; Albanese Procelli 2006; Guzzone 2009; celli 2003: 211; 2006: 56; Hodos 2006: 129; Tanasi 2009a; Domínguez Monedero 2010). The Domínguez Monedero 2010: 136-37). It is thus maintenance of this ritual conception, which in no exaggeration to conclude that this concep- archaeology has been broadly based on Renfrew’s tion of ritual and its direct association with work (1985: 19-20; 1994: 51-52), limits these traditional assumptions about colonization have studies to the search and identification of exclu- not only reinforced conventional evolutionary sively and specifically cultic elements, and in turn readings based on acculturation, but also have prevents—and also rejects—any type of analysis facilitated a complete subordination of native that goes beyond a formal description. Sicilian agency to the influences and innovations Likewise, the strong hegemony of the Helleni- received from those who lived in the colonies. zation perspective until recent times assumes that In this study, I suggest that to conceive in most cases Sicilian religiosities were simply of ritual practices as actions, rather than as seen as local reproductions of Greek religious straightforward religious expressions or mani- patterns. Ritual manifestations or expressions festations, enables us to examine the social © The Fund for Mediterranean Archaeology/Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2013 Feasting the Community 213 and political histories that characterized native spaces, where a reduction in the number of Sicilian populations during the first half of the individuals buried together is documented, and first millennium bc. In particular, I argue that in domestic contexts, where there is a greater feasting practices carried out periodically in the diversification and specialization of space (Fer- main Sicilian communal ritual setting of the rer 2012: 190-217). acropolis1 were actively involved not only in the The changes recorded in all of these spheres construction of a sense of community but also point to a reformulation of the relations estab- in the creation, negotiation and legitimization lished among both those who resided in the of the social and power relations that prevailed same settlement and those who were part of the within native Sicilian communities. On the same household. These different transforma- one hand, then, this study makes it possible to tions attest to the appearance of new social and cease interpreting Sicilian peoples as static and political dynamics that can be analyzed through monolithic entities, merely passive recipients the study of the native communities’ ritual poli- of colonial innovations. On the other hand, tics. More specifically, I refer to the analysis of it allows us to highlight these people’s agency, the acropoleis—the principal communal ritual thereby demonstrating the social and political spaces in these settlements—and especially to dynamics at work during this period.2 the feasting practices that were periodically car- I thus focus first on the main Sicilian com- ried out in these settings. munal ritual settings, i.e. the acropoleis. In par- Three factors underlie the suitability of the ticular, I examine the suitability of these spaces acropoleis for analyzing these dynamics and, in for approaching the agency of these people, as particular, for studying processes of community well as the various elements that characterized identification