Land, Property, Asatru
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.21903Keywords:
Heathenry, Heathenism, Asatru, Asatru Folk Assembly, Legitimization of new religious movementsAbstract
In 2015, the Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA), the flag-carrier of folkish Heathenry around the world, purchased a property in California to
establish its first temple, Odinshof. Since that time, it has purchased additional properties across the United States and established hofs on those properties. As a result, there has arisen some controversy and opposition to the AFA’s presence, even making international news. Critics fear the spread of hate and racism under the guise of religion, while the AFA sees property ownership as protecting its religious freedom. This raises questions about the role of property in Pagan and Heathen religion and for minority religions more broadly. Who belongs? Who gets marginalized? And to whom does religious freedom extend? In the American context, property ownership is fundamental to social belonging. By purchasing property, the AFA is making a claim to belonging and establishing itself as part of the American society.
References
Allen, Felix. “Hate Thy Neighbor: Inside the ‘Whites Only’ Church Sparking Fury after ‘Hate Group’ Uses Nazi Symbols & Carries Out Blood Rituals.” The Sun, January 26, 2021. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13855768/whites-only-church-afa-nazi-symbols-blood-rituals-minnesota/
Anderson, Amanda. “Compass Presents: ‘We Don’t Want to be Known as the ‘Hate Capital of Minnesota.’” Pioneer PBS, October 19, 2020; YouTube video, 4:35. https://youtu.be/rkfAxf5C22M?si=5QuEdxlEgfBjkbd9.
Asatru Folk Assembly. “Sigrblot at Sigrheim 1.” July 24, 2023. YouTube video, 3:09. https://youtu.be/madWwdksveo?si=_TyE0wiSG1KoYhlV.
Bassos, Keith. Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscapes and Languages Among the Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996.
Blomley, Nicholas. “Remember Property.” Progress in Human Geography 29, no. 2 (2005): 125–27. https://doi.org/10.1191/0309132505ph535xx.
Bourdieu, Pierre. “Social Space and Symbolic Power.” Sociological Theory 7, no. 1 (1989): 14–25. https://doi.org/10.2307/202060.
Bratspies, Rebecca M. “The New Discovery Doctrine: Some Thoughts on Property Rights and Traditional Knowledge.” American Indian Law Review 31, no. 2 (2007): 315–40. https://doi.org/10.2307/20070790.
Bugg, Laura Beth. “Religion on the Fringe: The Representation of Space and Minority Religious Facilities in the Rural–urban Fringe of Metropolitan Sydney, Australia.” Australian Geographer 43, no. 3 (September 2012): 273–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049182.2012.706206.
Calico, Jefferson F. Being Viking: Contemporary Heathenism in America. Sheffield: Equinox Press, 2018.
Callahan, Richard J. Jr. “Sensing Class: Religion, Aesthetics, and Formations of Class in the Eastern Kentucky Coal Fields.” In Religion and Class in America Culture, History, and Politics, edited by Sean McCloud and William A. Mirola, 175–96. Leiden: Brill, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004171428.i-222.67.
Cleary, Colin. “What New Grange Hall Means for Us.” Counter-Currents, September 8, 2015. https://counter-currents.com/2015/09/what-newgrange-hall-means-for-us/.
Curtis, Finbarr. The Production of American Religious Freedom. New York: New York University Press, 2016.
Dunn, Anne M. “Pe’Sla, Heart of the Heart: Sacred Black Hills Site Now in the Hands of the Great Sioux Nation.” Twin Cities Daily Planet, December 17, 2012. https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/pesla-heart-heart-sacred-black-hills-site-now-hands-great-sioux-nation/.
“Ex-Philly Mayor Has Regrets 35 Years After Deadly MOVE Bombing.” NBC Philadelphia, May 11, 2020. https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/before-35th-anniversary-of-move-bombing-ex-philly-mayor-has-regrets/2392117/.
Ferguson, Robert. The Vikings: A History. New York: Penguin, 2010.
Flavel, Michael D. “December 2020 Live Chat.” Asatru Folk Assembly. YouTube video, 34:15. https://www.youtube.com/live/Nt-mTqUB96k?si=Qr1yufpX0NnXVTCz.
Flavel, Michael D. “February 2019 Facebook Live Discussion.” Asatru Folk Assembly. June 20, 2019. YouTube video, 29:20. https://youtu.be/Kpgrc-HFc8s?si=38uEjF8VTLuy4wDu.
Flavel, Michael D. “February 2021 Live Chat,” YouTube video, 23:35, posted by Asatru Folk Assembly. https://www.youtube.com/live/46xsK5W4nQQ?si=VpZNFZtePVs2qcVs
Flavel, Matthew D. “New Year’s Day 2019.” Runestone, January 1, 2019. https://runestone.org/new-years-day-2019/.
Flavel, Michael D. “Njörðshof.” Asatru Folk Assembly. YouTube video, January 28. 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCngBSWVxrc.
Flavel, Matthew D., “October Live Discussion.” Asatru Folk Assembly. October 2021. YouTube video, 53:20. https://www.youtube.com/live/De_R9U7Q9GI?si=RedO1wf945l7O7W.
Flavel, Matthew D. “September Live Discussion.” Asatru Folk Assembly. September 1, 2021. YouTube video, 29:15. https://www.youtube.com/live/daStlpsBWTY?si=aAOAaTkUm5GYc_bo.
Greene, Heather. “Pagan ‘Metaphysical’ Shops Navigate Threats from Christian Critics.” Religion News Service. May 7, 2021. https://religionnews.com/2021/05/07/pagan-metaphysical-shops-navigate-threats-from-christian-critics/.
Greene, Heather. “Violence and Sacred Space.” The Wild Hunt, July 12, 2015. https://wildhunt.org/2015/07/violence-and-sacred-space.html.
Harvey, Graham. “Indigenizing in a Globalised World: The Reseeding of Belonging to Lands.” Worldview 20 (2016): 300–10. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685357-02003007.
Höfig, Verena. “Vinland and White Nationalism.” In From Iceland to the Americas: Vinland and Historical Imagination, edited by Tim William Machan and Jón Karl Helgason, 77 –98. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526128768.00012.
Hutton, Alice. “Native American Tribe in Maine Buys Back Island Taken 160 years Ago.” The Guardian, June 4, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/04/native-american-tribe-maine-buys-back-pine-island.
“Iceland to Build First Temple to Norse Gods in 1,000 Years,“ Reuters, February 3, 2015. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-iceland-religion-pagans-idUKKBN0L70FN20150203.
“Inside the ‘Whites Only’ Church in a Small Minnesota Town.” Daily UK News, January 25, 2021. https://dailyuknews.com/us-news/inside-the-whites-only-church-in-a-small-minnesota-town/.
Kiernan, Ben. Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
Lavin, Talia. “White-only Religious Groups Aren’t New to America.” MSNBC, December 18, 2020. https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/white-only-religious-groups-aren-t-new-america-trump-s-n1251624only religious.
Lefebvre, Henri, Stuart Elden, Elizabeth Lebas, and Eleonore Kofman. Henri Lefebvre: Key Writings. New York: Continuum, 2006.
Manson, Pamela. “Whites-only Group Gets Permit to Use Church in Tiny Minnesota Town.” United Press International, December 24, 2020. https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/12/24/Whites-only-group-gets-permit-to-use-church-in-tiny-Minnesota-town/1081608751094/.
McNallen, Stephen A. Asatru: A Native European Spirituality. Nevada City, Calif.: Runestone Press, 2015.
McNallen, Stephen A. “Mt. St. Helena Blot—‘Wotan On The Peaks!’” Wotan Network, January 1, 2018. http://wotannetwork.blogspot.com/2018/01/mt-st-helena-blot-wotan-on-peaks.html.
McNallen, Stephen A. “Newgrange Hall: Hof and Community Center of the Asatru Folk Assembly.” Asatru Folk Assembly, July 29, 2015. You Tube video, 28:27, https://youtu.be/L0d_L2Harbg?si=ebIfVTQDKOPilTdp.
McNallen, Stephen A. ”Óðinshof Dedication, October 10, 2015.” Asatru Folk Assembly. YouTube video, 11:25, https://youtu.be/XvzJhzylxYE?si=JJlCMbsbrhFiGAET.
McNallen, Stephen A. Rituals of Asatru: Volume Three—Rites of Passage. Payson, Ariz.: World Tree Publications, 1992.
“The Northwest Front.” Rose City Antifa, January 27, 2020. https://rosecityantifa.org/articles/northwest-front.
Nunn, Neil. “Toxic Encounters, Settler Logics of Elimination, and the Future of a Continent.” Antipode 50, no. 5 (November 2018): 1330–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12403.
Pálsson, Hermann, and Paul Edwards. The Book of Settlements: Landnámabók. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2006 [1972].
Proctor, Scott, and Maurine Proctor. Expulsion from Nauvoo: Illinois Expresses Regret” Meridian Magazine, April 5, 2004. https://latterdaysaintmag.com/article-1-2532//
Reinan, John, and Paul Walsh. “Minnesota Camp Cancels Booking of Nordic Heritage Group with White Supremacist Bent.” Star Tribune (Minneapolis), September 2, 2016. https://www.startribune.com/camp-courage-cancels-festival-booking-of-nordic-heritage-group/392071771/.
Reinan, John. “White Heritage Religious Group Takes Root in Minnesota: Controversial Asatru Sect is Establishing a Midwest Hub in Swift County.” Star Tribune (Minneapolis), July 17, 2020. https://www.startribune.com/pro-white-religious-group-takes-root-in-small-minnesota-town/571802392/.
Robertson, Lindsay G. Conquest by Law: How the Discovery of America Dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of Their Lands. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. https://academic.oup.com/book/10240.
Sabalow, Ryan. “The Racists Next Door: Inside a California Church that Preaches a Whites-only Gospel.” The Sacramento Bee, November 11, 2021. https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article255292666.html.
Schein, Richard. “Belonging through Land/Scape.” Environment and Planning A 41 (2009): 811–26.
Senvaityte, Dalia. “The Hunt for Lost Identity: Native Faith Paganism in Contemporary Lithuania.” The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Contemporary Paganism 20, no. 2 (2018): 234–60. https://doi.org/10.1558/pom.34718.
Snook, Jennifer. American Heathens: The Politics of Identity in a Pagan Religious Movement. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2015. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvrdf42h.
Sorensen, Sally Jo. “Baldurshof: Third Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly setting up in Murdock, Minnesota.” Bluestem Praire Blog, July 11, 2020. https://www.bluestemprairie.com/bluestemprairie/2020/07/baldurshof-third-hof-of-the-asatru-folk-assembly-setting-up-in-murdock-minnesota.html.
Strmiska, Michael F. “Pagan Politics in the 21st Century: ‘Peace and Love’ or ‘Blood and Soil’?” The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Contemporary Paganism 20, no. 1 (2018): 5-44. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.35632.
Urban, Hugh B. New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements: Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America. Oakland: University of California Press, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520962125.
Waggener, Paul. Liber IV: A Nomad’s Grimoire. Operation Werewolf, 2018.
Wessinger, Catherine. “‘Cult’ Is An Inaccurate, Unhelpful And Dangerous Label For Followers Of Trump, Qanon, And 1/6.” Religion Dispatches. July 19, 2021. https://religiondispatches.org/cult-is-an-inaccurate-unhelpful-and-dangerous-label-for-followers-of-trump-qanon-and-1-6/?fbclid=IwAR0tysNvqRwlvo6zwHGcaPCteOpEnJDQJglQBS44QXVbQEUbpqWMyg_1X_4
Wessinger, Catherine. “The Problem Is Totalism, Not ‘Cults’: Reflections on the Thirtieth Anniversary of Jonestown.” Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple, 2013. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=31459.
Wheeler, G. J. “Witches, Odin, and the English State: The Legal Reception of a Counter-Cultural Minority Religious Movement.” The Journal of Law and Religion. 32, no. 3 (2017): 449–69. https://doi.org/10.1017/jlr.2017.36.
Xander. “The Real Story Behind ‘Camp Courage’ and the AFA.” Huginn’s Heathen Hof, September 8, 2016. http://www.heathenhof.com/the-real-story-behind-camp-courage-and-the-afa/
