RT Journal Article
T1 Embodied Theories of Knowledge and the Evil Eye in the Roman World
A1 Alvar-Nuño, Antón
K1 Mal de ojo
K1 Magia antigua - Roma
K1 Religión romana
AB This article aims at enriching current interpretations on the Evil Eye in the Roman world by applying embodied theories of knowledge to the social environments that triggered this belief. In general terms, religious belief is grounded on representational processes of the body and of its surrounding environment; these, together, organise specific mental reference-systems. In other words, actual experience is encoded in a mental frame that may be later used to make plausible explanations of a given situation. The psychosomatic feeling of envy (the Evil Eye was often conceptualised as an emotion) that the individual experienced at a given situation was processed into a complex socio-cultural reasoning that included 1) the identification and description of the pain suffered by the envious person (including the idea that the whole colour of his/her skin became bluish – livor); 2) the monitoring of one’s own moral conduct in the situation that triggered the feeling of envy; 3) the association of envy with a whole system of beliefs of mystical harm that could affect others; and 4) the possibility of restraining it. This experience fed the variety of cognitive strategies that individuals then elaborated in order to externalise their responsibility towards random misfortune.
PB Equinox
YR 2023
FD 2023-07
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/40049
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/40049
LA eng
NO ALVAR NUÑO, Antón, "Embodied Theories of Knowledge and the Evil Eye in the Roman World", Journal of Cognitive Historiography, 8, 2023, pp. 69-93
NO Política de acceso abierto: https://equinoxreligionlibrary.com/page/journal-open-access-policy.  "f required by their institutions, authors may post the post-refereed Accepted Manuscript version of the article in their Institutional Repository (only) with the appropriate acknowledgement after an embargo period of 24 months from the date of official publication."
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 21 ene 2026