Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves

Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community
1. Auflage 2001
ISBN: 978-0-520-22086-7
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 314 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 490 g

Recent decades have seen a revival of paganism, and every summer people gather across the United States to celebrate this increasingly popular religion. Sarah Pike's engrossing ethnography is the outcome of five years attending neo-pagan festivals, interviewing participants, and sometimes taking part in their ceremonies. Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves incorporates her personal experience and insightful scholarly work concerning ritual, sacred space, self-identity, and narrative. The result is a compelling portrait of this frequently misunderstood religious movement.

Neo-paganism began emerging as a new religious movement in the late 1960s. In addition to bringing together followers for self-exploration and participation in group rituals, festivals might offer workshops on subjects such as astrology, tarot, mythology, herbal lore, and African drumming. But while they provide a sense of community for followers, Neo-Pagan festivals often provoke criticism from a variety of sources—among them conservative Christians, Native Americans, New Age spokespersons, and media representatives covering stories of rumored "Satanism" or "witchcraft."

Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves explores larger issues in the United States regarding the postmodern self, utopian communities, cultural improvisation, and contemporary spirituality. Pike's accessible writing style and her nonsensationalistic approach do much to demystify neo-paganism and its followers.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pike, Sarah M.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Religionen des Alten Orients
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Prähistorische Religionen
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Religionen der Antike
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Allgemeines
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Sonstige Religionen: Spiritualität, Mystik
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Alteuropäische Religionen: Kelten, Germanen, Slawen, Balten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures 
Preface 
Acknowledgments 
Introduction: We Cast Our Circles Where the Earth Mother Meets the Sky Father 
1. Driving into Fairie: Place Myths and Neopagan Festivals 
2. Shrines of Flame and Silence: Mapping the Festival Site 
3. The Great Evil That Is in Your Backyard:Festival Neighbors and Satanism Rumors 
4. Blood That Matters: Neopagan Borrowing 
5. Children of the Devil or Gifted in Magic? The Work of Memory in Neopagan Narrative 
6. Serious Playing with the Self: Gender and Eroticism at the Festival Fire 
Conclusion: The Circle Is Open but Never Broken 
Notes 
Bibliography 
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Sarah M. Pike is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at California State University, Chico.