Chapter 8
In: Brill's Companion to Classics and Early Anthropology
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Abstract
Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century anthropologists had a penchant for sacred trees, which were valued because they were believed to illustrate some of the earliest stages of human religious thinking and behaviour. In particular, sacred trees were understood to show us primitive animistic responses to the natural world, responses which, scholars such as Tylor claimed, were the basis of all forms of religious action. Tree worship thus found itself characterized in this scholarship as quintessentially primitive, animistic and also materialistic. Indeed, this Protestant-centric scholarship insisted on framing tree worship as deludedly primitive because its focus was a material tree. Although these scholars fleshed out their interest in sacred trees with examples from several ancient cultures, as well as contemporary “savage” cultures and contemporary folklore, Roman culture was esteemed for its illustration of tree worship. This chapter explores why Roman sacred trees held such a special position in the imagination of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century anthropologists. It examines their Protestant-centric presentation of Roman religion as both deeply primitive and materialistic, through its alignment with Roman Catholicism. In particular, tree worship was framed as a phenomenon akin to Catholic idolatry, while both tree worship and idolatry were presented as examples of “fetishism”. The chapter reveals how these scholars privileged certain “arboreal figures” in Latin literary texts, especially Ovid; girls like Daphne who metamorphose into trees, the similar fate of Polydorus, the arboreal figures of the dryads and hamadryads, and the story of the tree-attacker Erysichthon all prove central here. Examining the early anthropologists’ lauding of Roman religion and its sacred trees, we gain insight into how their use and abuse of the classics shaped their scholarship. The chapter ends by reversing this focus and reflecting on the impact that the anthropologists’ arboreal enthusiasm has had on classical studies today.