The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

Chapter 6 - Cultural epidemiology
Before we proceed, it is necessary to sum up what we have found on the cognitive factors
underlying divination. The core function of divination is, as stipulated in chapter 3, the
activation of a representation of a communicative interaction with a counterintuitive agent.
This function is orchestrated in three phases corresponding to the three elements in
divination: motivation, sign production and interpretation. The first phase is the pre-
activation phase, the next is the activation phase, and the last is the elaboration phase.
The pre-activation phase establishes the potential for activation. In impetrative divination it
is the formulation of a question and in oblative divination it is the current concern that
establishes this potentiation. Both depend on a perception of a discrepancy between the lived
life and the idealized life model, what we called actual or potential misfortune in chapter 4.
This in turn depends on the establishment of a life model and a cognitive feedback system
that regulates life.
The activation phase moves from the perception of intentionality to the identification of
this as a communicative intentionality (divination differs from normal functioning in that this
identification cannot be referred to manifest agents). This phase depends on the sign
production to produce a stimulus with certain qualities, which subsequently makes its
identification as being the product of an intentional agent possible. In impetrative divination,
the activation is facilitated by the displacement and replacement of intention produced by the
ritualization of action in the technique employed. As seen in chapter 5, in oblative divination
the cultural “priming” produced by a widely circulated cultural model and the perception of a
salient event facilitates such activation. These two routes lead to the activation of the HIDD,
which is the basis for the core function of divination. The activation of the HIDD is followed
by an identification of a communicative interaction in difference from other types of
interaction, such as for example exchange. In impetrative divination this is stimulated by the
prior formulation of a question, in oblative divination it is stimulated by the cultural model
specifying the possibility of receiving communicative signs from counterintuitive agents.
The elaboration phase moves from the identification of the content, that is, the answer, to
the assessment of the credibility of this content. In impetrative divination the interpretation of
the information in the sign will follow the principle of relevance and is based on the
identification of a communicative sign and the context of the question. This will produce an
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