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- Convenors:
-
Viola Teisenhoffer
(IRSS-LASC, FaSS, University of Liège)
Denise Lombardi (GSRL-UMR 8582 CNRS EPHE - PSL)
- Stream:
- Religion
- Location:
- A228
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 23 June, -, -, Wednesday 24 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Zagreb
Short Abstract:
This panel addresses the issue of social change in the New Age. We welcome ethnographically grounded papers that examine the specific ways in which remote past and exotic present are mobilized in modern pagan and neo-shamanic practices and put in the service of utopian change.
Long Abstract:
Grounded in the vaster ideology of the New Age, modern paganisms and neo-shamanism turn to remote pre-Christian eras and cultures as sources of inspiration for practices meant to insure a fulfilling present and a sustainable future. In this context, individual and collective rituals, therapeutic practices and body techniques are the means of triggering a "shift of consciousness", i.e. a more or less radical change of thought and habits that intend to break with the values of Western society, deemed devoid of spirituality, and thus destructive and limiting. In this vision of an implicitly utopian future, ancient and/or exotic traditions perceived as heirs of an ancient past play a major role. Germanic gods, Roman goddesses, South American or Altai shamans, Mexican, Celtic or Peruvian ruins appear as mediators of individual spiritual development and personal empowerment which are purported to eventually elicit wider social transformation.
In this panel we would like to reassess the issue of social change in the New Age by analyzing the specific ways in which remote past and exotic present are mobilized in modern pagan and neo-shamanic practices and put in the service of utopian change. How "sacred sites", archaeological artifacts and purportedly ancient practices are rallied in neo-pagan and neo-shamanic rituals? What kind of relationships practitioners establish with figures of the past? What kinds of experiences do they narrate? How are these aspects articulated to visions of a utopian future?
This panel welcomes ethnographically grounded papers that explore these questions in different contexts of neo-paganism and neo-shamanism.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 23 June, 2015, -Paper short abstract:
The presentation analyses the emerging Altaian "cult" of the Mummy Princess of Ukok in its discursive and ritual dimensions, and the construction of the Princess as an anti-technological symbol, as a personification of the past Golden age, and as a key to the future harmony of humanity.
Paper long abstract:
The mummy of a young rich woman dead IV-III centuries BCE and unburied in 1993 on the highlands of the Ukok plateau in Russian Altai is considered one of the major discoveries of Russian archaeology. Contrary to other archaeological discoveries in the region, the "Princess of Ukok" triggers a constant mobilization in the context of politicized religious revival in Altai. For some contemporary Altaian shamans, as well as for many lay people, she was an ancestor of the Altaian nation and a shaman of the ancient times, who was keeping the Earth safe from the evil forces. Autochthonous discourses interpret the Princess' actual "unrest" as the cause of many natural and social catastrophes. Only her reburial in the sacred land of Ukok would bring harmony to Altai people and to the whole world.
The presentation will analyse the emerging Altaian "cult" of the Princess in its discursive and ritual dimensions. I will argue that the Princess is constructed at the same time as an anti-technological symbol of the respect for the nature in opposition to the culture of consumption; as a personification of the Golden age of Altaian nation in the remote past; but also as a symbol of a future utopian change, which can be endlessly manipulated in asymmetrical relations between the West (represented by Russians) and the East.
Paper short abstract:
How does a Modern Pagan Scot identify with their own spirituality in a country that has experienced multi-spiritual personalities, even as modern Christians in Scotland are struggling to self-identify?
Paper long abstract:
The modern neo-pagan movement, as a general rule, may focus on the Goddess or a Great Creator without aligning to a particular spirituality but during the mid-to-late 20th century and onwards, there has been considerable focus on Celtic and Norse Spirituality. Yet for those who live in Scotland, this creates a predicament. The Celts may have lived in Scotland but the Picts were believed to be here first. And the Norse were notorious for raiding the Scottish lands, stealing from the peoples and destroying their environment. So why would a Scot choose to align with either instead of looking to the Picts? And how do they incorporate this spirituality within their own daily mores when there are Christian Churches dedicated to helping do the same and focus on saints who were from Scotland?
I will be studying a local neo-pagan group in Aberdeen, Scotland whose members include those that follow both Celtic and Norse spirituality and how they are able to merge their faith into their identity of being a Scot.
Paper short abstract:
Paper focuses on fairies and fairy pedagogy in Croatian neopagan spiritualities, trying to underline effects of old folk tales about faery existence in the present. Through research of individual practices paper will try to connect alternative ways of today's living with educational role of faeries.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper I will try to detect continuity of belief in faeries in Croatian neopagan spiritualities as well as continuity of aspects of faery pedagogy based on this beliefs, but also on spiritual, magical and everyday practices of Croatian neopagans. I observe faery pedagogy like practice which implies learning from faeries. This learning is in most cases based on questioning the dominant forms of (bio)power, and faeries here are opposed to capitalism, imperialism, and to numerous forms of oppression. The emphasis is mostly on ecology - on learning how to, using faery cultures, relate to the land and to nature in a different, less aggressive manner.
In the contextualization of faery pedagogy the emphasis is on neopagan communities in Croatia. Through member tellings about their spiritual and everyday practices, I'll try to show the existence of some aspects of faery pedagogy in Croatia, and only their compatibility, not commonality.
Even if belief in faeries is noticed in spirituality of most of the examinees, usually this belief doesn't have direct impact on their religious and everyday practices in educational context which is present in faery pedagogy in Great Britain and USA. Activist, social, and spiritual worldviews of Croatian neopagans usually are indirectly initiated by experiential relationships with faeries. Belief in the existence of faeries like nature energies and manifestations is a part of the complete spirituality system of neopagans in Croatia and related way of living like complex and encircled worldview.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines how cultural meanings are being embodied through affective practices of the native faith group of Estonians.
Paper long abstract:
Native faith is a fairly new concept in the religious studies. It has been developed to distinct Eastern European neo-paganism from the other variants of the global phenomenon. Different forms of native faith in Eastern Europe began to flourish in a very specific socioeconomic situation in the times of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Estonian variant of native faith is called Maausk (earth faith). They practice as they would describe "pre-Christian folk beliefs": customs and traditions drawn from the past. Practitioners read popular folklore studies with the addition to ethnographic studies made of Finno-Ugric folks around the current Russian territory, in order to construct their practice.
In this paper I am analyzing how practicing traditions by the members of Maausk can produce meanings of a good life and give a sense of meaningful identity. Imagined past is being embodied through practice of Maausk, which in turn orients the members towards an unknown future. Analyzing the affective practices opens up a possibility to analyze the role of affects and emotions in connection to person's motivations and action in life. I understand the practices as affective (Margareth Wetherell 2012) in the way that sensing and feeling body is in the participatory role when cultural meanings are being produced. Mind and body is then not understood as separate, but in connection with each other.
Paper short abstract:
The paper is dedicated to the concept of healing as it is perceived by neo-shamanic practitioners in Slovakia: it is associated with the idea of common work that can cure and transform individuals as well as society. Such work is regarded necessary for the creation of a healthier and happier world.
Paper long abstract:
The paper is dedicated to the concept of healing as it is perceived by neo-shamanic practitioners in Slovakia. It is based on the results of ethnographic research conducted on a group belonging to the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and practicing in Bratislava. The research has demonstrated that, though the urban shamans' position in the society of Slovakia is marginal and they are often perceived in a negative way, their own attitude is oriented toward active practicing: being a shaman means helping the general transformation that should result in the creation of a healthier, happier and more beautiful world.
In my paper I will investigate political values of my respondents: egalitarian social order, citizens' engagement, ecological lifestyle, individualism and free choice, gender equality. They are linked to the general idea of the interconnectedness of all living beings and the vision of common work on general balance; however, the urban shamans' background and gender stratification of the neo-shamanic groups play here a significant role.
I will also pay attention to the relation of neo-shamanic techniques to Complementary and Alternative Medicine, aimed towards the attainment of wholeness and well-being of body, mind and spirit. Such holistic viewpoint offers practitioners ways of negotiating contemporary dilemmas of selfhood, including the contradiction between 'living for others' and 'living for oneself'. Neo-shamanism resonates with this perspective, with the interconnection of individual and social dimensions of healing.
Paper short abstract:
The paper presents an overview of the exchanges between Indians coming to Bugarach (South-West France, Aude) to participate in spiritual workshops and of alternative spiritualists visiting sacred sites on the American Continent. It also describes the roots and blossoming of the 2012 phenomenon.
Paper long abstract:
After an evocation of two contactees of the 1950s who visited Peru to find traces of Mu and of the Ancient Incas, the paper presents some myths developed around Indians (cult of the Goddess through the Academia, Unity with Nature as exemplified in Chief Seattle's famous speech) which influenced New Age ideas and movements in Europe (example of the Rainbow Warrior) and stressed that only Non-Western models of wisdom could save our Earth doomed by Western materialism.
Revitalizing the Age of Aquarius hopes of the 1970s, by the late 1980s, a new era was expected to arrive on December 21, 2012. This date was said to correspond, in the Maya calendar of the Classic era, to the end of the Long Count, a cycle of some 5126 solar years. This reference to 2012 was adapted à la carte in the leaders' different messages, some expecting the return of the Mayas from the Cosmos. At the same time, hostile French authorities claimed to fear collective suicides of disappointed spiritualists.
Drawing on anthropological studies, self-presentation literature and participant observation, the paper discusses and analyzes the interactions between alternative spiritualists of Indian and non-Indian origins in The Triangle of Bugarach where a whole industry of workshops and pilgrimages to the sacralized peak had developed and was enhanced when some authorities pretended that the peak was to be saved from a universal disaster in 2012, thus developing tourism. Most alternative spiritualists had rejected the disaster idea and adapted easily to this non-occurrence.
Paper short abstract:
Based on observations carried out since 2010 among the New Age circles of Tulum (Mexico) and at the festival Cosmic Convergence in Atitlan (Guatemala), this paper examines the alterglobalist millenarianism projected onto the Mayan calendar, and the practices that confer to it a performative scope.
Paper long abstract:
It is not widely known that the rumour about the change of Mayan cycle 21/12/12 is an outcome of the Thirteen moon calendar, a syncretistic version of the Mayan calendar which accompanies a New Age millenarian utopia.
Based on ethnographic surveys conducted in Tulum (Mexico) and at the festival Cosmic Convergence in Atitlan (Guatemala), this paper examines the alterglobalist utopia projected onto the Mayan calendar, and the practices that confer to it a performative scope.
The narratives collected reveal that the Mayan calendar is mobilized as an instrument of decolonization of history : the world would have entered a destructive and materialistic phase with the colonization and evangelization of America, era of which the Mayas would have prophesied the end, that New Agers attempt to hasten through collective and individual practices which aim to revitalize Precolumbian cultures and change habits of consumption, particularly in the framework of "conscious festivals".
I will discuss travel, ritual, musical and narcotic experiences through which my interlocutors felt that they awoke and disseminated the "Mayan memory" present in "energetic epicenters" and in themselves, the latter being none other than the "cosmic information" that Precolumbian civilizations were reportedly able to capture while Europe was still in prehistoric times.
I shall show that theories postulating genealogical links between "the civilizations of the pyramids" or the galactic origins of the Maya, allow alterglobalist youths to fabricate roots compatible with the contemporary world, as well as with the globalized but non-capitalist future which they aspire to build.
Paper short abstract:
A shift of consciousness is told being encountered by the participants of the Burning Man festival. Through new practices, this unique spiritual experience accesses the feel of ancient/exotic traditions without precisely reproducing them.
Paper long abstract:
In the one week Burning Man festival more than 60 000 people meet every year in the Desert of Nevada. A shift of consciousness combined with a deep spiritual sense is said to be experienced by the participants. This event initiated in 1986, reaches a massive success since about 10 years. An intense spirituality is told being encountered particularly through practices oriented towards relation with light declined in 3 ways sun/electrical light/ fire. Living in the desert and following 10 principles such as immediacy, gifting, radical self-reliance and leave no trace, burners are encountering different forms of temporality and spatiality than usual. The community acts as a collective support, during the event, for each individual experience. Some practices may be seen as classical rituals as they prescribed actions, such as the entrance ritual and/or spiritual workshops. Others practices may be seen as contemporary rituals since their actions are not prescribed and participants can choose to do the actions they want. It seems more important for burners to be in the feeling of traditional practices rather than in their precise reproduction: such are the actions related to the burn of art pieces or those related to the celebrations of the sun in the Temple. In those contemporary rituals, the effort is set on individual creativity rather than in the reproduction of existing rituals. An inspiration from ancient/exotic traditions is massively shown through the entire event with the goal of a fullfilling present and a sustainable future.