Analysis of byzantine-Rite and Orthodox Minorities vs. Anti-women Tendencies and Attitudes. The case of the Myrrhbearers

AROMATA, starting from an in-depth analysis of the cult of the Myrrhbearers (the women who came to the tomb of Christ, Mt 28,1-8; Mk 16,1-8; Lk 24,1-10), exalted or neglected in the different Christian traditions, is an innovative and original project, with a remarkable impact on the dynamics of coexistence in a multicultural metropolis like Turin. Unlike Roman Catholicism, in Byzantine-Rite and Orthodox Christianity these women are celebrated in worship, art and literature. Starting from this evidence, AROMATA has 4 specific objectives: 1. to conduct a survey on Myrrhbearers (non-existent to date) in a context in which they are exalted by means of an interdisciplinary perspective (it combines, for the first time in this field: philology; history and literature of Early Christianity; folklore and popular traditions; history of iconography; digital humanities) and with an approach based on Gender Studies; 2. to verify the knowledge of Myrrhbearers and their diffusion in a context in which they are not an object of devotion, by means of an evaluation of sample groups of students and parish communities; 3. to reorient the focus to an anthropological perspective, in order to analyse, in Byzantine-Rite and Orthodox minorities living in Turin, how much the presence or absence of the cult of the Myrrhbearers counts for (especially for women) and if, in a context of emigration, this can represent an element of identity; 4. to spread knowledge of traditions, artistic and literary phenomena related to this cult among the sampled groups, so that the project will help to highlight the role of women at the outset of Christianity and to promote factors such as religious tolerance, integration, ecumenism, or curiosity regarding minorities. A database will also be created which, for the first time, will make it possible to investigate all the documentary material on the Myrrhbearers that the project will make available, being so an useful and unprecedented tool for consultation.