Witching culture : folklore and neo-paganism in America

Sabina Magliocco

Taking the reader into the heart of one of the fastest-growing religious movements in North America, Sabina Magliocco reveals how the disciplines of anthropology and folklore were fundamental to the early development of Neo-Paganism and the revival of witchcraft. Magliocco examines the roots that this religious movement has in a Western spiritual tradition of mysticism disavowed by the Enlightenment. She explores, too, how modern Pagans and Witches are imaginatively reclaiming discarded practices and beliefs to create religions more in keeping with their personal experience of the world as sacred and filled with meaning. Neo-Pagan religions focus on experience, rather than belief, and many contemporary practitioners have had mystical experiences. They seek a context that normalizes them and creates in them new spiritual dimensions that involve change in ordinary consciousness. Magliocco analyzes magical practices and rituals of Neo-Paganism as art forms that reanimate the cosmos and stimulate the imagination of its practitioners. She discusses rituals that are put together using materials from a variety of cultural and historical sources, and examines the cultural politics surrounding the movement-how the Neo-Pagan movement creates identity by contrasting itself against the dominant culture and how it can be understood in the context of early twenty-first-century identity politics. Witching Culture is the first ethnography of this religious movement to focus specifically on the role of anthropology and folklore in its formation, on experiences that are central to its practice, and on what it reveals about identity and belief in twenty-first-century North America.

「Nielsen BookData」より

Taking the reader into the heart of one of the fastest-growing religious movements in North America, Sabina Magliocco reveals how the disciplines of anthropology and folklore were fundamental to the early development of Neo-Paganism and the revival of witchcraft. Magliocco examines the roots that this religious movement has in a Western spiritual tradition of mysticism disavowed by the Enlightenment. She explores, too, how modern Pagans and Witches are imaginatively reclaiming discarded practices and beliefs to create religions more in keeping with their personal experience of the world as sacred and filled with meaning. Neo-Pagan religions focus on experience, rather than belief, and many contemporary practitioners have had mystical experiences. They seek a context that normalizes them and creates in them new spiritual dimensions that involve change in ordinary consciousness. Magliocco analyzes magical practices and rituals of Neo-Paganism as art forms that reanimate the cosmos and stimulate the imagination of its practitioners. She discusses rituals that are put together using materials from a variety of cultural and historical sources, and examines the cultural politics surrounding the movement-how the Neo-Pagan movement creates identity by contrasting itself against the dominant culture and how it can be understood in the context of early twenty-first-century identity politics. Witching Culture is the first ethnography of this religious movement to focus specifically on the role of anthropology and folklore in its formation, on experiences that are central to its practice, and on what it reveals about identity and belief in twenty-first-century North America.

「Nielsen BookData」より

[目次]

  • Introduction: The Ethnography of Magic and the Magic of Ethnography PART I. ROOTS AND BRANCHES Chapter 1. The Study of Folklore and the Reclamation of Paganism Chapter 2. Boundaries and Borders: Imagining Community PART II. RELIGIONS OF EXPERIENCE Chapter 3. Making Magic: Training the Imagination Chapter 4. Ritual: Between the Worlds Chapter 5. "The Juice of Ritual": Pathways to Ecstasy PART III. BEYOND EXPERIENCE: RELIGION AND IDENTITY Chapter 6. The Romance of Subdominance: Creating Oppositional Culture Chapter 7. "The Heart Is the Only Nation": Neo-Paganism, Ethnic Identity and the Construction of Authenticity Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

「Nielsen BookData」より

[目次]

  • Introduction: The Ethnography of Magic and the Magic of Ethnography PART I. ROOTS AND BRANCHES Chapter 1. The Study of Folklore and the Reclamation of Paganism Chapter 2. Boundaries and Borders: Imagining Community PART II. RELIGIONS OF EXPERIENCE Chapter 3. Making Magic: Training the Imagination Chapter 4. Ritual: Between the Worlds Chapter 5. "The Juice of Ritual": Pathways to Ecstasy PART III. BEYOND EXPERIENCE: RELIGION AND IDENTITY Chapter 6. The Romance of Subdominance: Creating Oppositional Culture Chapter 7. "The Heart Is the Only Nation": Neo-Paganism, Ethnic Identity and the Construction of Authenticity Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

「Nielsen BookData」より

この本の情報

書名 Witching culture : folklore and neo-paganism in America
著作者等 Magliocco Sabina
シリーズ名 Contemporary ethnography series
出版元 University of Pennsylvania Press
刊行年月 c2004
ページ数 268 p.
大きさ 23 cm
ISBN 0812218795
0812238036
NCID BA68932091
※クリックでCiNii Booksを表示
言語 英語
出版国 アメリカ合衆国
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