Project Division C. Valuations

Since the Imperial Period and even more in in Late Antiquity, religion has proven to be a particularly important and identity-forming resource, not least because the spread and establishment of the Christian religion and the associated processes of Christianisation, which are to be differentiated locally, allow us to grasp new dynamics for already existing as well as for newly emerging religious and cult communities. The oracles of the Imperial Period and Late Antiquity (texts, spaces, objects) will be examined from archaeological perspective, while from a historical point of view, the complex relationship between religious, economic and political structures, especially in the province of Syria, will be examined as case studies of religious ResourceCultures.

With the help of the SFB 1070's concept of resources, the formation and transformation of social and cultural identities of Etruscan and Greek urban spaces on the Italian peninsula will be examined from a perspective beyond supposedly homogeneous political or ethnic units. Contextual analyses are aimed at the understanding of identity-creating or preserving practices with monuments and objects in ritual or sacred contexts.
In the previous phases, the focus was on the periods of the 8^th to early 5^th and the 5^th and 4^th cent. BC, which are usually regarded as times of formation and then of 'crisis'. The studies on ResourceCultures of the 1^st mill. BC are now being examined with regard to the integration under Roman rule with clearly changed social and political conditions.

The project aims to understand and compare the dynamics of religious resources in South and Central Asia. Based on the resource concepts and analytical instruments of SFB 1070, an empirical as well as theoretical contribution is thus made to the topic of religious economics. In the current phase, the focus is on the resource dynamics of religious (material) objects that are not only used by specific religious institutions and specialists, but are important religious resources for almost all people, are part of everyday life and consumption and are determined by the interests of a wide range of actors or stakeholders: Rice and wheat.

The project deals with islands as distinct places of resource cultures. The comparison between several islands with regard to the respective use of resources illustrates the particularly prominent importance of fresh water as a scarce resource. A historical case study will interpret late medieval and early modern island compendia (islarios) to examine the contemporary discourse on freshwater management, as well as the technological, infrastructural and cultural changes in the use of water. An archaeological case study will focus on the supply and disposal of water as well as the importance of water for monasteries on islands.

The ResourceComplex of health and the body is the focus of this project, especially with regard to knowledge production and power imbalances.
The ResourceComplexes and structures grouped around the resource ‘health’ are considered as constellations of spatial orders and materialities, networks and exchange relationships, knowledge formations and coping strategies that need to be investigated. In the third phase of the SFB 1070, the resources of health and the body will be investigated in their socio-cultural dynamics in the context of public and collective health, using the example of Covid19 in India.

Project  C07 investigates the interplay of institutions, actors, practices, objects and interpretations of history and identity politics. It will demonstrate to what extent cultural heritage, nationalism and identity as dynamic concepts are part of ResourceComplexes and ResourceAssemblages. To this end, three interrelated ethnographic studies on the use of cultural heritage in the context of nationalist ideologies will be conducted in India (Polit/Schwabach), Bosnia-Herzegovina (Alex/Balorda) and Germany (Thiemeyer/Gilfert).