Puro e impuro nel mondo antico: lo stato dell’arte

Abstract

Going over the development of the main bibliography about the categories of pure and impure, the research tries to verify the cognitive contribution that Archeology can offer. The study, therefore, addresses the problem from a functional perspective, with the aim of reconstructing a behavior in its social dimension, since the rules of the miasma seem to have played a relevant role, especially for the construction of the identity and the organizational rules of the Greek communities. The different ritual forms known from the ancient sources and the interpretative elaborations are, then, compared with the various possible archaeological situations, in order to propose a research path to be further developed. Among the central aspects is the objects‟ management analysis that is related to sacredness and contamination, and the relationship between these and the sacred space.