ABSTRACT
This chapter engages with the discourse on the cultural dichotomy between the eastern Adriatic coast and its hinterland, tracing cultural mediation and exchange of ideas in the domain of religion through two different periods during Antiquity. The chapter challenges Fernand Braudel’s vision of this region as patriarchal, backward, and uncivilized, which places Dalmatia in the context of the Western-made Balkanizing discourse. I argue instead that the eastern Adriatic hinterland has been a distinct space of invention and interaction, where local traditions are continuously combined with outside influences in an original and unique fashion. I will analyze two chronologically and contextually distinct examples, arbitrarily chosen, but in my opinion representative for the present argument.
