Pages: 159-192 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp222159192
The work of Mary Helms and Alfred Gell on cultural transformations, object colour and brilliance and their links to ritual power emphasises the most important aspect of magic for objects — its agency. The aesthetic of exotic, bright and colourful objects in the Neolithic and Copper Age of ‘Old Europe’ was central to the objects’ agency. However, the vast majority of figurines from this region was neither polished nor highly coloured, nor even decorated — sometimes showing signs of rapid production for short-term usage. Yet there is a widespread notion that figurines had the potential to produce special effects in ritual practice. Just as the agency of figurines is ‘culture-specific’ as well as context-specific, their potency depended upon a widespread underlying acceptance of what this particular class of objects could do for people. Here we pose two questions: how did figurines perform their agency? and was figurine’s agency fundamentally different from the agency of bright, colourful, exotic objects?
We present four examples of the magical effects — i. e. the agency — of figurines from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Copper Age of Old Europe: the efficacy of Lepenski Vir fish-persons; how figurines contributed to the practice of black magic in the Vinča group; the ability of the fragmentation of shiny, black Hamangia figurines to achieve significant social effects; and the arrangement of Cucuteni figurine sets to educate women about (in)fertility.
Keywords: agency, enchantment, colour, brilliance, figurines, Lepenski Vir, Vinča-Belo Brdo, Hamangia, Cucuteni
Information about authors:
John Charles Chapman (Durham, Great Britain). PhD.
E-mail: [email protected]
Bisserka Gaydarska (Durham, Great Britain). PhD. Durham University. South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, Great Britain
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6236-872X
Emma Watson (Durham, Great Britain). PhD. Durham University. South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, Great Britain
E-mail: [email protected]