*Rasenna*
August 22nd, 2008, 07:23 PM
I feel that this topic deserves its own thread (as opposed to be tagged on to a related topic. During some research I encountered a couple of passages that are very inspiring. Hence this new thread. :)
To begin, here is some foundation. According to historian Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum: "The civilization of the goddess in Italy is verified by archaeological evidence all along the Lingurian, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic, Ionian, and Mediterranean islands of Sicily, Malta, and Sardinia."
Birnbaum mentions divine feminine figures, and cave drawings, discovered near Palermo that date 30,000 years before the Christian era. She also mentions them found on the islands of Malta and Sardinia, dating from 6,000 to 3,500 years before the Christian era. What they share in common are two things. They appear to represent a mother goddess concept, and in close proximity to the Paleolithic and Neolithic sites are the sanctuaries of what is know as the black madonnas. The black maddona is an unusual image of St. Mary compared to the number of statues that show her as a Caucasian.
Here is what Birnbaum has to say about the black maddona:
“Black Maddonas may be considered a metaphor for a memory of time when the earth was believed to be the body of a woman and all creatures were equal, a memory transmitted in vernacular traditions of earth-bonded cultures, historically expressed in cultural and political resistance, and glimpsed today in movements aiming for transformation” – Black Madonnas: Feminism, Religion & Politics in Italy, page 3.
She goes on to say:
"Images of the ancient divinity can be seen througout Italy: in Sicily, a statue of Isis at Solunto, twelve statues of Cybele at Palazzola Acreide, and many full-busomed mothers at Megara Hyblaea. In southern Italy at Capua, two hundred statues of mother goddesses, Deae Matres, of the seventh to the first centuries b.c.e. merge goddess and child. In the archaeological museum of Naples, a nearly seven-foot tall statue of a black Artemis/Diana of Ephesus melds goddess and all living creatures and suggests the prechristian antecedents of black madonnas." - page 7
The mention of a black Artemis/Diana brings to mind something written by Pausanias in ancient Greece:
"The road to Antikyra [in Phokis] is at first up-hill. About two stades up the slope is a level place, and on the right of the road is a sanctuary of Artemis surnamed Diktynnaia (Of the Nets), a goddess worshipped with great reverence by citizens. The image is of Aiginetan workmanship, and made of a black stone. From the sanctuary of Diktynnaia the road is downhill all the way to Antikyra. They say that in days of old the name of the city was Kyparissos." - Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 36. 5
Are we looking at the origins and roots on the black madonna in the ancient cult of Diana/Artemis? :artist:
Well, here's an interesting thing to think about:
“..it was at Ephesus, the city where the Greaco-Roman goddess Artemis-Diana was venerated, that the church proclaimed Mary the mother of god in 431 ce” - page 32, Black Madonnas: Feminism, Religion & Politics in Italy
Is it a coincidence that St. Mary is bestowed the title of “the mother of god” in the city of Ephesus, which featured the biblical “Diana of Ephesus” the mother of all living creatures?
Let’s turn now to Italian subculture and the goddess. Birnbaum writes of her book Black Madonnas:
“This book explores the hypothesis that the veneration of the indigenous goddess of Old Europe merged with African, Middle Eastern, and Asian dark goddesses and persisted in the Christian era in vernacular beliefs and rituals associated with black maddonas. The term ‘vernacular’ connotes submerged beliefs visible in the everyday activities of people Antonio Gramsci described as ‘subaltern classes.’ Woman, historically subordinated culturally, as well as economically and politically, by hegemonies of church, society, and state, may be said to pertain, along with other colonized peoples, to the subaltern classes” - page 4
So the historian is looking at the veneration of the black madonna in Italian culture as carrying a former connection to the goddess of pre-Christian Italy. Birnbaum uses the term "subaltern" to indicate that a specific type of Italian subcultures is home to persisting ways of the ancient goddess cult. Birnbaum takes the position that traces of this are found in the vernacular of specific subcultures. She writes of this:
“Vernacular ways of knowing and believing, bypassing established knowledge and belief, are implied in the metaphor of black maddonas. In this sense, this study participates in what Michel Foucault called ‘insurrection of subjugated knowledges,’ a revolt visible in accumulating evidence, and growing awareness, that the oldest divinity perceived by humans was a woman. Black maddonas, like the primordial woman divinity, are believed to nurture all life, all the different peoples of the earth, and all the seasons of life: birth, maturity, death, and regeneration.” – page 4
And this:
“Not a romantic excursion, this study of the beliefs of the vernacular, submerged cultures of Italy is in agreement with Antonio Gramsci that folklore can challenge hegemonic culture, and that the revolutions are authentic when they tap submerged beliefs of denied cultures” – page 14
Hegemonic refers to the domination of one thing over another, and in this case is referring to the accepted majority view of Italian culture. But what we find in the paragraph is a challenge to that order. It comes in the form of the point that folklore can be someone’s history instead of someone’s legends. This stands out no better than in the comment made by a Sicilian folklorist named Giuseppe Pitre’ – “ The significant history of a people, not to be confused with the history of their rulers, is to be found in folkloric beliefs and customs transmitted orally or enacted in rituals”
Let’s chew on all this for now, and my next post will delve into “folklore as history” or some such thing. I'll be referring to Sicilian sources as well as to mainland Italian. :chattin:
To begin, here is some foundation. According to historian Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum: "The civilization of the goddess in Italy is verified by archaeological evidence all along the Lingurian, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic, Ionian, and Mediterranean islands of Sicily, Malta, and Sardinia."
Birnbaum mentions divine feminine figures, and cave drawings, discovered near Palermo that date 30,000 years before the Christian era. She also mentions them found on the islands of Malta and Sardinia, dating from 6,000 to 3,500 years before the Christian era. What they share in common are two things. They appear to represent a mother goddess concept, and in close proximity to the Paleolithic and Neolithic sites are the sanctuaries of what is know as the black madonnas. The black maddona is an unusual image of St. Mary compared to the number of statues that show her as a Caucasian.
Here is what Birnbaum has to say about the black maddona:
“Black Maddonas may be considered a metaphor for a memory of time when the earth was believed to be the body of a woman and all creatures were equal, a memory transmitted in vernacular traditions of earth-bonded cultures, historically expressed in cultural and political resistance, and glimpsed today in movements aiming for transformation” – Black Madonnas: Feminism, Religion & Politics in Italy, page 3.
She goes on to say:
"Images of the ancient divinity can be seen througout Italy: in Sicily, a statue of Isis at Solunto, twelve statues of Cybele at Palazzola Acreide, and many full-busomed mothers at Megara Hyblaea. In southern Italy at Capua, two hundred statues of mother goddesses, Deae Matres, of the seventh to the first centuries b.c.e. merge goddess and child. In the archaeological museum of Naples, a nearly seven-foot tall statue of a black Artemis/Diana of Ephesus melds goddess and all living creatures and suggests the prechristian antecedents of black madonnas." - page 7
The mention of a black Artemis/Diana brings to mind something written by Pausanias in ancient Greece:
"The road to Antikyra [in Phokis] is at first up-hill. About two stades up the slope is a level place, and on the right of the road is a sanctuary of Artemis surnamed Diktynnaia (Of the Nets), a goddess worshipped with great reverence by citizens. The image is of Aiginetan workmanship, and made of a black stone. From the sanctuary of Diktynnaia the road is downhill all the way to Antikyra. They say that in days of old the name of the city was Kyparissos." - Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 36. 5
Are we looking at the origins and roots on the black madonna in the ancient cult of Diana/Artemis? :artist:
Well, here's an interesting thing to think about:
“..it was at Ephesus, the city where the Greaco-Roman goddess Artemis-Diana was venerated, that the church proclaimed Mary the mother of god in 431 ce” - page 32, Black Madonnas: Feminism, Religion & Politics in Italy
Is it a coincidence that St. Mary is bestowed the title of “the mother of god” in the city of Ephesus, which featured the biblical “Diana of Ephesus” the mother of all living creatures?
Let’s turn now to Italian subculture and the goddess. Birnbaum writes of her book Black Madonnas:
“This book explores the hypothesis that the veneration of the indigenous goddess of Old Europe merged with African, Middle Eastern, and Asian dark goddesses and persisted in the Christian era in vernacular beliefs and rituals associated with black maddonas. The term ‘vernacular’ connotes submerged beliefs visible in the everyday activities of people Antonio Gramsci described as ‘subaltern classes.’ Woman, historically subordinated culturally, as well as economically and politically, by hegemonies of church, society, and state, may be said to pertain, along with other colonized peoples, to the subaltern classes” - page 4
So the historian is looking at the veneration of the black madonna in Italian culture as carrying a former connection to the goddess of pre-Christian Italy. Birnbaum uses the term "subaltern" to indicate that a specific type of Italian subcultures is home to persisting ways of the ancient goddess cult. Birnbaum takes the position that traces of this are found in the vernacular of specific subcultures. She writes of this:
“Vernacular ways of knowing and believing, bypassing established knowledge and belief, are implied in the metaphor of black maddonas. In this sense, this study participates in what Michel Foucault called ‘insurrection of subjugated knowledges,’ a revolt visible in accumulating evidence, and growing awareness, that the oldest divinity perceived by humans was a woman. Black maddonas, like the primordial woman divinity, are believed to nurture all life, all the different peoples of the earth, and all the seasons of life: birth, maturity, death, and regeneration.” – page 4
And this:
“Not a romantic excursion, this study of the beliefs of the vernacular, submerged cultures of Italy is in agreement with Antonio Gramsci that folklore can challenge hegemonic culture, and that the revolutions are authentic when they tap submerged beliefs of denied cultures” – page 14
Hegemonic refers to the domination of one thing over another, and in this case is referring to the accepted majority view of Italian culture. But what we find in the paragraph is a challenge to that order. It comes in the form of the point that folklore can be someone’s history instead of someone’s legends. This stands out no better than in the comment made by a Sicilian folklorist named Giuseppe Pitre’ – “ The significant history of a people, not to be confused with the history of their rulers, is to be found in folkloric beliefs and customs transmitted orally or enacted in rituals”
Let’s chew on all this for now, and my next post will delve into “folklore as history” or some such thing. I'll be referring to Sicilian sources as well as to mainland Italian. :chattin: