Leonardo Ambasciano
Biographic Data
| ID | 5178563 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Leonardo Ambasciano |
| GIVEN NAMES | Leonardo |
| FAMILY NAME | Ambasciano |
| SIGNATURE | AMBASCIANO L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Masaryk University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4413-7060 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Zombies Roaming Around the Pantheon
The present contribution explores how the field of Roman History has formalized and justified the absence of “belief”—and religious belief in particular—as part of its standard research programme. In positing an unbridgeable gap between ancient Romans and modern human beings mainly based on the idea that “belief” and “faith” are modern Protestant concepts, Roman History inadvertently transmogrified its subjects of study into a legion of zombies i…
Who Is the Damiatrix ?: Roman Women, the Political Negotiation of Psychotropic Experiences, and the Cults of Bona Dea
The present contribution offers a neurosociological and socio-cognitive re-analysis of the two festivities dedicated to the ancient Roman goddess known as Bona Dea, both managed and attended by women only. Additionally, the main variants of Bona Dea’s mythography are assessed as a violent reminder of gendered behavioural norms and as a coercive mate-guarding strategy supported by religious storytelling. The two festivities are assessed as differe…
Year the World Became a Cognitive Historiographical Lab En Plein Air: Musings on the Covid-19 Pandemic as Two Editors Bid Farewell to the JCH
For a while physicians, in ignorance of the nature of the disease, sought to apply remedies; but it was in vain, and they themselves were among the first victims, because they oftenest came into contact with it. No human art was of any avail, and as to supplications in temples, enquiries of oracles, and the like, they were utterly useless, and at last men were overpowered by the calamity and gave them all up
Homo anxius, or How Fear and Anxiety Conquered the Social World
The article offers an extended review, counterpointed by a critical commentary, of two recent and outstanding volumes, Turner et al.’s The Emergence and Evolution of Religion (2018) and Sanderson’s Religious Evolution and the Axial Age (2018). Both books are eminently interdisciplinary in their scope: the first displays a distinctive deep-historical and neurosociological attention to the evolution of negative emotions and inter-group competition,…
Shamanism Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Notes on Sidky’s The Origins of Shamanism, Spirit Beliefs, and Religiosity (2017) and Botta’s Dagli sciamani allo sciamanesimo (2018)
The present contribution offers a descriptive account of two recent books concerning shamanism, Homayun Sidky’s The Origins of Shamanism, Spirit Beliefs, and Religiosity: A Cognitive Anthropological Perspective (2017) and Sergio Botta’s Dagli sciamani allo sciamanesimo. Discorsi, credenze, pratiche (2018). The commentary starts by supplying a brief historical contextualization of the subfield of shamanic studies in both Anthropology and the Histo…
The Eclipse of Morality: A Riposte to Lane, Wildman, & Shults’ “Paying the Piper” Commentary
The present contribution is a riposte to Lane, Wildman, and Shults’ commentary on my MTSR article “He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune” (Ambasciano 2022). I offer an epistemological and historical criticism of some of their most relevant claims, along with the identification and deconstruction of some of the biases and fallacies behind their commentary. I also highlight – once again – the historiographical neglect and some of the most questionab…
Trials and Tribulations of Luke Skywalker: How The Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm Have Failed to Confront Joseph Campbell’s Troublesome Legacy
The present contribution offers some critical reflections on the influence of Comparative Religion scholar Joseph Campbell’s (1904- 1987) monomyth, or hero’s journey, on George Lucas’ Star Wars space opera. Like other celebrated 20th-century scholars of religion, after his death Campbell was revealed as an ultraconservative racist intellectual. However, Campbell had already been turned into a liberal icon thanks to Lucas’ own sponsorship and acti…
An Evolutionary Cognitive Approach to Comparative Fascist Studies: Hypermasculinization, Supernormal Stimuli, and Conspirational Beliefs
After summarizing Roger Griffin’s Fascism: An Introduction to Comparative Fascist Studies (2018), I describe the academic subfield of Comparative Fascist Studies (CFS). I argue that CFS could be strengthened by integrating it with cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and religious studies. That biocultural integration would make it more effective as both a scholarly endeavour and an antifascist vaccine for democratic societies. I explain …
He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune: Big Data, Philanthrocapitalism, and the Demise of the Historical Study of Religions
The recent digital turn has had an unprecedented impact on the identity of the academic disciplines that study religions. Expectedly, this shift has brought about a dramatic change in the power dynamics between the main research actors and funders. In particular, historians and humanist scholars have taken the brunt, mostly replaced by data scientists, software engineers, statisticians, psychologists, anthropologists, and biologists alike. Conseq…
Big Data, Cognitive Biases, Horror Tropes, and Think Tanks: The Future of Historiography between Bold Cross-disciplinary Experiments and Scientific Reductionism
The present introduction is designed to offer a quick walkthrough of the various scholars’ contributions to the present issue of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography. Among the articles included, two are related to our Extended Open Call for Papers on the topic of “Toxic Traditions: Pathological and Maladaptive Beliefs, Biases, and Behaviours throughout Human History”, i.e., an analysis of the maladaptiveness of theistic beliefs in the Anthrop…
Horror Studies between Humanistic Interdisciplinarity and Scientific Consilience: A Conversation with Darryl Jones and Mathias Clasen
The present thought-provoking conversation engages two accomplished scholars of horror, Darryl Jones and Mathias Clasen, on the multimedia history of horror through their disciplinary viewpoints, respectively, literary studies and the cognitive sciences. Following the publication of their most recent books on the topic (Jones 2018; Clasen 2017), the main theme discussed herein is the possibility of creating an interdisciplinary bridge, and, possi…
Memoirs of an Academic Rōnin: Religious Studies and Mentorship in the Age of Post-Truth
The present article offers a selection of recollections about the author’s professional relationship with his mentor during his cursus studiorum as a graduate student and as a Ph.D. candidate. These memories are preceded by a series of critical reflections on the current state of both Religious Studies and the History of Religions, with a comparative focus on the 1960 scientific mandate of the International Association for the History of Religion…
Mircea Eliade, Michael Jackson, and the Normalization of Psychopathology
How do we deal with the (to say the least) problematic history of our acadeic superstars
History as a Canceled Problem? Hilbert Lists, du Bois-Reymond’s Enigmas, and the Scientific Study of Religion
The present article reviews the identification of “Hilbert Problems” in the scientific study of religion as presented in a call for papers and a subsequent special issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior (2015; 2017). Specific attention is herein devoted to some overlooked epistemological and methodological issues, that is, mathematical Platonism and presentism. Most importantly, notwithstanding the advances produced by the recent experimental turn i…
Gendered Deep History of the Bona Dea Cult
The article offers an overview of the cult of Bona Dea in light of the gendered social framework of ancient Roman society. Intrasexual competition and patriarchal, institutionalized sociodicy are taken into account, respectively, as ultimate and proximate explanations of the Bona Dea mythography. The diffusion of the cult and its spread in the literary environment are also tentatively explained by the presence of specific narrative elements (e.g.…
Comparative Religion as a Life Science
The present paper offers a brief contextualization of William E. Paden’s New Patterns in Comparative Religion (2016). Paden’s “new naturalism” entails the unification of cognition, biology, sociology, and ecology in order to bring down the divide between natural sciences and the humanities. While some representatives of the neo-phenomenological trend in comparative religion are currently reviving the most epistemically unwarranted assumptions of …
Mind the (Unbridgeable) Gaps
In this paper, I explore two of the most pernicious kinds of scientific distortions and misconceptions pertinent to the study of religion (i.e., pseudoscientific trends focused on allegedly paranormal/supernatural phenomena and discontinuity between human and non-human cognition), arguing that: a) the adherence to the prestigious reputation of Eliadean academic frameworks may still cause grave distortions in the comprehension of relevant scientif…
The Fate of a Healing Goddess: Ocular Pathologies, the Antonine Plague, and the Ancient Roman Cult of Bona Dea
The aim of this article is to offer a diachronic and dynamic contextualisation of the ancient Roman cult of Bona Dea, connecting its cognitive underpinnings with its healing dimension. Special attention is devoted to the ocular concerns attested in the epigraphic inventory. The decline of the presence of Bona Dea on the religious scene, attested by the 3rd century CE, is considered to be the multi-causal result of the long-lasting, ocular side-ef…
Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women
The history of ancient Roman women is a story substantially drawn up in absentia: with the exception of relatively few epigraphical documents, we have no access whatsoever to their own testimony. E
Mind the (Unbridgeable) Gaps
In this paper, I explore two of the most pernicious kinds of scientific distortions and misconceptions pertinent to the study of religion (i.e., pseudoscientific trends focused on allegedly paranormal/supernatural phenomena and discontinuity between human and non-human cognition), arguing that: a) the adherence to the prestigious reputation of Eliadean academic frameworks may still cause grave distortions in the comprehension of relevant scientif…
The Fate of a Healing Goddess: Ocular Pathologies, the Antonine Plague, and the Ancient Roman Cult of Bona Dea
The aim of this article is to offer a diachronic and dynamic contextualisation of the ancient Roman cult of Bona Dea, connecting its cognitive underpinnings with its healing dimension. Special attention is devoted to the ocular concerns attested in the epigraphic inventory. The decline of the presence of Bona Dea on the religious scene, attested by the 3rd century CE, is considered to be the multi-causal result of the long-lasting, ocular side-ef…
He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune: Big Data, Philanthrocapitalism, and the Demise of the Historical Study of Religions
The recent digital turn has had an unprecedented impact on the identity of the academic disciplines that study religions. Expectedly, this shift has brought about a dramatic change in the power dynamics between the main research actors and funders. In particular, historians and humanist scholars have taken the brunt, mostly replaced by data scientists, software engineers, statisticians, psychologists, anthropologists, and biologists alike. Conseq…
Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women
The history of ancient Roman women is a story substantially drawn up in absentia: with the exception of relatively few epigraphical documents, we have no access whatsoever to their own testimony. E
Mind the (Unbridgeable) Gaps
In this paper, I explore two of the most pernicious kinds of scientific distortions and misconceptions pertinent to the study of religion (i.e., pseudoscientific trends focused on allegedly paranormal/supernatural phenomena and discontinuity between human and non-human cognition), arguing that: a) the adherence to the prestigious reputation of Eliadean academic frameworks may still cause grave distortions in the comprehension of relevant scientif…
The Fate of a Healing Goddess: Ocular Pathologies, the Antonine Plague, and the Ancient Roman Cult of Bona Dea
The aim of this article is to offer a diachronic and dynamic contextualisation of the ancient Roman cult of Bona Dea, connecting its cognitive underpinnings with its healing dimension. Special attention is devoted to the ocular concerns attested in the epigraphic inventory. The decline of the presence of Bona Dea on the religious scene, attested by the 3rd century CE, is considered to be the multi-causal result of the long-lasting, ocular side-ef…
Comparative Religion as a Life Science
The present paper offers a brief contextualization of William E. Paden’s New Patterns in Comparative Religion (2016). Paden’s “new naturalism” entails the unification of cognition, biology, sociology, and ecology in order to bring down the divide between natural sciences and the humanities. While some representatives of the neo-phenomenological trend in comparative religion are currently reviving the most epistemically unwarranted assumptions of …
Gendered Deep History of the Bona Dea Cult
The article offers an overview of the cult of Bona Dea in light of the gendered social framework of ancient Roman society. Intrasexual competition and patriarchal, institutionalized sociodicy are taken into account, respectively, as ultimate and proximate explanations of the Bona Dea mythography. The diffusion of the cult and its spread in the literary environment are also tentatively explained by the presence of specific narrative elements (e.g.…
Mircea Eliade, Michael Jackson, and the Normalization of Psychopathology
How do we deal with the (to say the least) problematic history of our acadeic superstars
History as a Canceled Problem? Hilbert Lists, du Bois-Reymond’s Enigmas, and the Scientific Study of Religion
The present article reviews the identification of “Hilbert Problems” in the scientific study of religion as presented in a call for papers and a subsequent special issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior (2015; 2017). Specific attention is herein devoted to some overlooked epistemological and methodological issues, that is, mathematical Platonism and presentism. Most importantly, notwithstanding the advances produced by the recent experimental turn i…
Big Data, Cognitive Biases, Horror Tropes, and Think Tanks: The Future of Historiography between Bold Cross-disciplinary Experiments and Scientific Reductionism
The present introduction is designed to offer a quick walkthrough of the various scholars’ contributions to the present issue of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography. Among the articles included, two are related to our Extended Open Call for Papers on the topic of “Toxic Traditions: Pathological and Maladaptive Beliefs, Biases, and Behaviours throughout Human History”, i.e., an analysis of the maladaptiveness of theistic beliefs in the Anthrop…
Horror Studies between Humanistic Interdisciplinarity and Scientific Consilience: A Conversation with Darryl Jones and Mathias Clasen
The present thought-provoking conversation engages two accomplished scholars of horror, Darryl Jones and Mathias Clasen, on the multimedia history of horror through their disciplinary viewpoints, respectively, literary studies and the cognitive sciences. Following the publication of their most recent books on the topic (Jones 2018; Clasen 2017), the main theme discussed herein is the possibility of creating an interdisciplinary bridge, and, possi…
Memoirs of an Academic Rōnin: Religious Studies and Mentorship in the Age of Post-Truth
The present article offers a selection of recollections about the author’s professional relationship with his mentor during his cursus studiorum as a graduate student and as a Ph.D. candidate. These memories are preceded by a series of critical reflections on the current state of both Religious Studies and the History of Religions, with a comparative focus on the 1960 scientific mandate of the International Association for the History of Religion…
Trials and Tribulations of Luke Skywalker: How The Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm Have Failed to Confront Joseph Campbell’s Troublesome Legacy
The present contribution offers some critical reflections on the influence of Comparative Religion scholar Joseph Campbell’s (1904- 1987) monomyth, or hero’s journey, on George Lucas’ Star Wars space opera. Like other celebrated 20th-century scholars of religion, after his death Campbell was revealed as an ultraconservative racist intellectual. However, Campbell had already been turned into a liberal icon thanks to Lucas’ own sponsorship and acti…
An Evolutionary Cognitive Approach to Comparative Fascist Studies: Hypermasculinization, Supernormal Stimuli, and Conspirational Beliefs
After summarizing Roger Griffin’s Fascism: An Introduction to Comparative Fascist Studies (2018), I describe the academic subfield of Comparative Fascist Studies (CFS). I argue that CFS could be strengthened by integrating it with cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and religious studies. That biocultural integration would make it more effective as both a scholarly endeavour and an antifascist vaccine for democratic societies. I explain …
He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune: Big Data, Philanthrocapitalism, and the Demise of the Historical Study of Religions
The recent digital turn has had an unprecedented impact on the identity of the academic disciplines that study religions. Expectedly, this shift has brought about a dramatic change in the power dynamics between the main research actors and funders. In particular, historians and humanist scholars have taken the brunt, mostly replaced by data scientists, software engineers, statisticians, psychologists, anthropologists, and biologists alike. Conseq…
Who Is the Damiatrix ?: Roman Women, the Political Negotiation of Psychotropic Experiences, and the Cults of Bona Dea
The present contribution offers a neurosociological and socio-cognitive re-analysis of the two festivities dedicated to the ancient Roman goddess known as Bona Dea, both managed and attended by women only. Additionally, the main variants of Bona Dea’s mythography are assessed as a violent reminder of gendered behavioural norms and as a coercive mate-guarding strategy supported by religious storytelling. The two festivities are assessed as differe…
Year the World Became a Cognitive Historiographical Lab En Plein Air: Musings on the Covid-19 Pandemic as Two Editors Bid Farewell to the JCH
For a while physicians, in ignorance of the nature of the disease, sought to apply remedies; but it was in vain, and they themselves were among the first victims, because they oftenest came into contact with it. No human art was of any avail, and as to supplications in temples, enquiries of oracles, and the like, they were utterly useless, and at last men were overpowered by the calamity and gave them all up
Homo anxius, or How Fear and Anxiety Conquered the Social World
The article offers an extended review, counterpointed by a critical commentary, of two recent and outstanding volumes, Turner et al.’s The Emergence and Evolution of Religion (2018) and Sanderson’s Religious Evolution and the Axial Age (2018). Both books are eminently interdisciplinary in their scope: the first displays a distinctive deep-historical and neurosociological attention to the evolution of negative emotions and inter-group competition,…
Shamanism Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Notes on Sidky’s The Origins of Shamanism, Spirit Beliefs, and Religiosity (2017) and Botta’s Dagli sciamani allo sciamanesimo (2018)
The present contribution offers a descriptive account of two recent books concerning shamanism, Homayun Sidky’s The Origins of Shamanism, Spirit Beliefs, and Religiosity: A Cognitive Anthropological Perspective (2017) and Sergio Botta’s Dagli sciamani allo sciamanesimo. Discorsi, credenze, pratiche (2018). The commentary starts by supplying a brief historical contextualization of the subfield of shamanic studies in both Anthropology and the Histo…
The Eclipse of Morality: A Riposte to Lane, Wildman, & Shults’ “Paying the Piper” Commentary
The present contribution is a riposte to Lane, Wildman, and Shults’ commentary on my MTSR article “He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune” (Ambasciano 2022). I offer an epistemological and historical criticism of some of their most relevant claims, along with the identification and deconstruction of some of the biases and fallacies behind their commentary. I also highlight – once again – the historiographical neglect and some of the most questionab…
Zombies Roaming Around the Pantheon
The present contribution explores how the field of Roman History has formalized and justified the absence of “belief”—and religious belief in particular—as part of its standard research programme. In positing an unbridgeable gap between ancient Romans and modern human beings mainly based on the idea that “belief” and “faith” are modern Protestant concepts, Roman History inadvertently transmogrified its subjects of study into a legion of zombies i…
Sociology (16 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · History (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Social science (8 works) · Art (7 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (7 works)