“As I Twirl This Spindle, …”: Ritualization and the Magical Efficacy of Household Tasks in Western Antiquity

Abstract

AbstractIn Mediterranean antiquity the ritual acts of binding and charming were often associated with ordinary domestic tasks reoriented through accompanying incantations and sometimes the adjustment of the task's gestures. Drawing on theories of ritualization (Bell, Humphrey, and Laidlaw) and extending the classical evidence with medieval and modern comparative materials, this article addresses how mundane economic practices are brought into service for magical performance. Ritualization highlights the process by which a domestic “agent” can isolate and transform some particular element or stage in an overall activity (clothes-making, cooking) to reflect a sense of stipulation, of traditional and efficacious action, and thus reorient the isolated domestic task for curse or binding charms.