Property, Appropriation, and the Economy of Religion (III & IV): Questioning Socio-Religious Interplays and Economic Management

Note: Bianchi Mancini will give four lectures over three days.

• 8 June: Property, Appropriation, and the Economy of Religion (I): Questioning Divine Property and its Limits
• 15 June: Property, Appropriation, and the Economy of Religion (II): Questioning Appropriation Mechanisms, Introducing Hierotropia
• 29 June: Property, Appropriation, and the Economy of Religion (III & IV): Questioning Socio-Religious Interplays and Economic Management

About

The divine ‘owner’ of a place does not necessarily coincide with the institutional proprietor of that site, yet the two remain structurally connected. This tension creates a gap between what is considered sacred and the administration of goods assigned to the sacred space. At what point do offerings, sales, and endowments within a sanctuary become the property of the gods? The answer lies in the multi-layered nature of religious practice: the prestige of a religious institution and the economic protection of sacrality generate differentiated regimes of exchange, with or without the full transfer of property. Central to this dynamic is the role of those who managed such institutions – often not religious officials, but public figures embedded within the administrative structures of temples and sanctuaries. The resulting arrangements varied considerably, shaped by the terms of concession, the internal organisation of the sanctuary, and its wider socio-economic context within the ancient city. In this double lecture, I examine selected configurations of this variability, concentrating on public sanctuaries and the ways in which their interaction with civic authorities and donor endowments conditioned specific regimes of economic management.