Gastvortrag Dr. Rocío Suárez Vallejo (Hamburg - Innsbruck): Negotiating Climatic Risk in Late Antique Gaul and Hispania (6th-7th centuries)

14. Juli 2026

Foto: Ziereis Faksimiles

The perception of a late antique rural environment particularly resistant to abandoning pagan rituals has often been reconstructed from the condemnations of Gallic and Hispanic bishops, who noted that certain rural practices echoed the customs of the pagans (paganorum consuetudine). This intervention seeks to explore the dynamics behind this association through a set of practices repeatedly identified as such: rituals aimed at mitigating climatic risks. The study compares condemned practices –such as the use of ligatures by peasants to protect their livestock, an informal “bottom-up” response– with sanctioned practices, such as the procession in Emerita Augusta to request rain, institutionalised “top-down”. The analysis of these rituals aims to highlight the ritual flexibility of the devotees and the centrality of the practitioner over the ritual object, while also emphasising how certain practices challenged the boundaries of religious authority. In doing so, it seeks to show how ecclesiastical propaganda was employed to mediate the tension between institutional norms and “lived religion”.

Wir freuen uns auf einen spannenden Vortrag und heißen Interessierte herzlich willkommen!

• Wann? Dienstag, 14.07.2026, 16 Uhr c.t.
• Wo? Hörsaal F im Philturm, Von-Melle-Park 6, 20146, Hamburg