Paper short abstract:

As a global practice, votive offerings reflect complexities of the human condition across space and time. Although typically related to health and wellbeing, this paper explores a subset of offerings in which one's miracle is another's demise, particularly in matters of war, slavery, and violence.

Paper long abstract:

As a global practice, votive offerings reflect complexities of the human condition across time and space. In essence, vowed objects are presented to deities and other beings in gratitude or anticipation of divine intervention, often in relation to health, safety, and wellbeing. Longitudinal theme analysis, however, reveals a subset of offerings in which one's miracle might have been another's demise, particularly in matters of war, slavery, and both physical and symbolic violence. Using a mixed methodology approach of visual analysis and archival research, this paper seeks to deepen our understanding of how such objects relate to wider discourses on spirituality and morality within material culture. It relies heavily on existing theoretical frameworks as well as compressive collections of offerings from diverse geographical areas and systems of religious belief. Ultimately, it illustrates the challenges of contemporary readings of the politics of trace in religious landscapes, while also advocating for its essentiality.