NECESSARY COMPARISONS - A POSTCOLONIAL APPROACH TO RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM IN THE ROMAN PROVINCES

Questioning existing paradigms regarding religious syncretism in the w estern provinces of the Roman Empire, this paper addresses the difficu lty of reconciling comparative study with historical contingency. It i s argued that discourse analysis, as developed in post-colonial discou rse theory, both facilitates comparative study of material culture in colonial contexts, and enables radical new readings of Romano-Celtic s yncretism. It is further suggested that the discursive relationship be tween Roman imperialism and Western European imperialism - the cycle o f interaction between ancient and modern colonialisms - has influenced the study of Romano-Celtic religion in such a way that we not only ca n compare colonialisms, but must compare them if we wish both to artic ulate the nature of religious syncretism in the Roman provinces, and t o achieve a reflexive understanding of our own discipline.