Votives & Value: Colonialism, Economy, & Religion in Roman Africa

Fri. Mar. 20 04:00 PM - Fri. Mar. 20 05:00 PM

Dr. Matthew McCarty, University of British Columbia

March 20, 2026 | 4:00-5:00pm | 2L17

The bifurcation of religion and economy is deeply baked into studies of Antiquity, driven by epistemologies born from modern colonialism. Nowhere is this clearer than in scholarship on Roman Africa, where the seeming cultural “permanence” of “African” religion is contrasted with the dynamism of the Roman “North African economic boom” (itself cast in the guise of modern development economics). This presentation argues instead for the centrality of votive worship practices in creating and naturalizing those forms of social value that underpinned the productive regimes of Africa under Roman rule.