Ritual power in society: Ritualizing Late Antique North African martyr cult activities and social changes in gender and status

TL;DRAbstract

Scholars have claimed that women played a pivotal role in what is often called “the Christianization of the Roman Empire.” In the case of north Africa, women's involvement seemed to center on the martyr cults, which underwent significant changes during the fourth and fifth centuries. Scholarship has explained the reshaping of martyr cults by viewing it as a special case of the broader shifts occurring within Christianity during this time period. Yet why martyr veneration in general, and why in particular women's practices were targeted for change has not been adequately examined. Ritual theorists have posited that religious practices translate the abstract notion of differentiation from the realm of thought into the realm of action. When applied to women's activities in North African martyr cults, this theory makes explicit the processes of identity-formation and the reordering of social networks. Martyr cult practices were a likely object for marking similarity as well as difference p

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