The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

List of Figures.......................................................................................................... 5
List of Tables............................................................................................................6
Acknowledgements..................................................................................................7
Summary of dissertation................................................................................ 16
Chapter 1 - History of divination as a general phenomenon..................................21
The history of divinatio prior to Cicero............................................................. 21
Cicero’s De divinatione......................................................................................23
Modern treatments of divination as a general term............................................25
Chapter 2 - A History of Modern Divination Research......................................... 29
Foundations - End of the 19th century start of the 20th ....................................30
The British thread ..........................................................................................30
The French thread.......................................................................................... 32
Edward Evans Evans-Pritchard .....................................................................33
Elaborations........................................................................................................35
Summary............................................................................................................ 43
Chapter 3 - Definition and typology of divination.................................................47
Chapter 4 - Impetrative Divination........................................................................ 53
Motivation..........................................................................................................53
Life models.....................................................................................................56
Motivation as a feedback system................................................................... 57
Motivation for divination............................................................................... 59
Summary........................................................................................................ 62
Sign production.................................................................................................. 64
The effect of ritualized action on the evaluation of credibility in divination.69
The effect of different types of ritual techniques........................................... 75
Summary........................................................................................................ 79
Communicative basis..................................................................................... 89
Restricted symbol system...............................................................................93
Utility............................................................................................................. 94
Credibility...................................................................................................... 96
Summary...................................................................................................... 104
Chapter 6 - Cultural epidemiology.......................................................................110
Chapter 7 - Research history on Roman divination............................................. 121
Chronology of research on Roman Divination................................................ 121
Classical philology.......................................................................................121
Anthropology............................................................................................... 123
Post evolutionism.........................................................................................124
Fear and trembling....................................................................................... 125
Manipulation................................................................................................ 126
Drawing lots- chance and ritual................................................................... 127
Recent developments................................................................................... 128
Summary...................................................................................................... 129
Four central theses in the history of Roman Divination.................................. 129
The historical thesis......................................................................................129
The formalist thesis ...................................................................................130
The fear thesis.............................................................................................. 131
The functional thesis.................................................................................... 135
Summary...................................................................................................... 137
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