THE PARAPHERNALIA OF CULT LIFE IN THE LATE COPPER AGE
THE PARAPHERNALIA OF CULT LIFE IN THE LATE COPPER AGE

Summary/Abstract: The monotony of daily life was and still is coloured by various rituals, festivities and celebrations, and community ceremonies. Repeated community events eventually turn into tradition and mature into a narrative of the events and major incidents between the present and the past, handed down from generation to generation. Tales, narratives of mythical origins, and myths are born, which are incorporated into a community’s religious beliefs (the forerunners of later canonised religions). Put very simply, the myths of a particular community serve as the “sacral confirmation” of what members of a community hold about their ancestors and their own past. Myths can be regarded as “miniature dramas”, narrated through various rituals. Rituals can be regarded as a set of symbols narrating various customs as defined by tradition. By enacting various rituals, members of the community hope to influence supernatural powers in order to achieve a human goal. Rituals are based on a predetermined sequence of a set of events, during which various artefacts are used in order to symbolically narrate and present those events. Cults represent the sum of rituals performed with various intentions, which incorporate the symbolic presentation and performance of all events, which are important to the community. In other words, these terms are not synonyms, but express different aspects of a dramaturgical process.

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