Abstract:

This essay attempts to apply Bourdieu's notion of the field to the study of Greco-Roman religion (a move that Bourdieu himself seemingly ruled out). It traces some changes in the Greco-Roman religious field by tracking the meaning and fortunes of the practice of supplication, first in the context of the struggle between Roman administration and Greek autonomy and then in the context of the struggle between pagans and Christians to define charity to the poor as a strategy of legitimation.

Author: Alex Gottesman