Pagan and Indigenous Communities in Interreligious Contexts
Interrogating Identity, Power, and Authenticity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.32588Keywords:
Interfaith, Interreligious, Contemporary Paganism, Indigenous, Parliament of the World’s Religions, United Religions InitiativeAbstract
This study surveys the relationships between contemporary Pagan and indigenous communities within interreligious contexts and interrogates the description of contemporary Pagan religions as "indigenous European traditions" by some Pagans in these arenas. Contemporary Pagan constructions of authenticity located in claims of "indigeneity" raise a number of questions concerning identity and power, as well as about what defines the contested category of "indigeneity." This essay argues that white (Euro-American and European) Pagans should avoid enhancing their aura of authenticity by employing "indigeneity'"as an identity marker, because to do so distorts and erases the ongoing structural oppressions resulting from the history of European colonialism. It purchases political legitimacy for Pagans on the interfaith stage, but does little to make reparations to generationally traumatized and impoverished indigenous peoples.
References
De La Cadena, Marisol. “Indigenous Cosmopolitics In The Andes: Conceptual Reflections beyond “Politics.’” Cultural Anthropology 25, no. 2 (2010): 334–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2010.01061.x
Delugan, Robin Maria. “Indigeneity Across Borders: Hemispheric Migrations and Cosmopolitan Encounters.” American Ethnologist 37, no. 1 (2010): 83–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01243.x.
Escárcega, Sylvia. “Authenticating Strategic Essentialisms: The Politics of Indigenousness at the United Nations.” Cultural Dynamics 22, no. 1 (2010): 3–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0921374010366780.
Hackett, Rosalind I. J. “Report on the Parliament of the World’s Religions Cape Town, South Africa, December 1-8, 1999.” Council of Societies for the Study of Religion Bulletin 29, no. 2 (2000): 44–48.
Hale, Amy. “John Michell, Radical Traditionalism, and the Emerging Politics of the Pagan New Right.” The Pomegranate 13, no. 1 (2011): 77–97. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v13i1.77.
Harris, Grove. “Pagan Involvement in the Interfaith Movement: Exclusions, Dualities, and Contributions.” Crosscurrents (Spring 2005): 66–76.
Harvey, Graham. Introduction to Indigenous Religious: A Companion, edited by Graham Harvey, 1–19. London: Cassell, 2000.
Hutton, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Magliocco, Sabina. Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Pagans in America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1086/589795.
McCarthy, Kate. Interfaith Encounters in America. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007.
Murray, Margaret. The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962 (1921).
Rydving, Håkan. “Saami Responses to Christianity: Resistance and Change.” In Beyond Primitivism: Indigenous Religious Traditions and Modernity, edited by Jacob K. Olupona, 99–107. New York: Routledge, 2004. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203634509.
Seager, Richard Hughes. The World’s Parliament of Religions: The East/West Encounter, Chicago, 1893. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995. https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/101.4.1182.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Outside in the Teaching Machine. New York: Routledge, 1993.
Strmiska, Michael, and Vilius Rudra Dundzila. “Romuva: Lithuanian Paganism in Lithuania and America.” In Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Michael F. Strmiska, 24–197. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-007-0012-9.
Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. “Decolonization is Not a Metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education, and Society 1, no. 1 (2012): 1–40.
