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Project information
Generativní historiografie antického Středomoří: Modelování a simulace dynamiky šíření náboženských představ a forem chování (GEHIR)

Project Identification
MUNI/M/1867/2014
Project Period
3/2015 - 12/2017
Investor / Pogramme / Project type
Masaryk University
  • Grant Agency of Masaryk University
  • INTERDISCIPLINARY - Interdisciplinary research projects
MU Faculty or unit
Faculty of Arts
Other MU Faculty/Unit
Faculty of Science
Other MU Faculty/Unit
Faculty of Informatics
Keywords
ancient Mediterranean, Roman Empire, Isiac cults, Mithraism, early Christianities, mod-elling and simulation, mathematical modelling, network theory, dynamical systems, cog-nitive historiography, digital humanities, diffusion of innovations, cliodynamics,

This project systematically applies selected methods of formalized modeling and com-putational simulations to the study of the diffusion dynamics of religious ideas and forms of behavior. As such, the project strives to integrate a specific methodological framework into the academic study of religion. On the one hand, this framework may open up new avenues in the systematic study of specific instances of historical change, on the other, it may contribute to the study of more general questions related to the factors which influence the dynamics of cultural systems.
This project is centred around four case studies which focus on selected religious tradi-tions of the ancient Mediterranean (Isiac cults, Mithraism, Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianities), which can be, despite their historical specificity, viewed through the same theoretical-methodological optics, i.e. through the processes of (1) the dissemina-tion of religious ideas and forms of behaviour at the population level, (2), taking place over long periods of time, (3) being studied on the basis of fragmentary sources, (4) being viewed from the theoretical concept of the diffusion of innovations, (5) and being subjected to the influence of specific environmental, social and cognitive factors. These four case studies were selected on the basis of their similarity as well as their complementary specificities. In this sense, the project aims at the foundation of a “methodological laboratory” whose probes might facilitate the work of other researchers, as it com-bines historiography with methods of formalized modelling.
Within the study of historical processes formalized modelling is conceptualised as an innovative third way through which the limitations of the traditional inductive analysis of historical sources and deductive application of social-scientific and cognitive theories to social and historical phenomena can be overcome. Computational modelling can be viewed as a form of theoretical experimen

Publications

Total number of publications: 49

2016

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