Gifts, Votives, and Sacred Things: Strategies, Not Entities

This paper critically reviews definitions of concepts such as 'votive' and 'altar'. Close analysis of the complex development of the objects and rituals designated by such terms can show two very different developments of concepts. In one case, it is public legal concerns that lead to the development of a specific terminological solution that remains open for further generalisation. In another case, different traditions of ritual action and etymologies are unified by drawing on previous Greek antiquarian discourse. It is in the history of the concept that terminological alternatives are identified. The article suggests focusing on identifying strategies of religious action as are hidden behind, or lost through, the use of terminological shorthand and basing comparison on these strategies rather than on a typology of rituals grounded in a language that is part of these strategies, rather than their precondition.