Staroverstvo and Its (Contemporary) Others
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.25857Keywords:
Staroverstvo, Paganism, contemporary Paganism, Slovenia, Native FaithAbstract
This paper aims to present the basics of a social and also religious phenomenon called Staroverstvo (“Old Faith,” Ancient Faith”) (often, Naravoverstvo or Rodnoverstvo), as written and described in the works of Pavel Medvešcek (1933–2020). I incorporate the concept of Other to display the marginality of Medvešcek’s interlocutors, as shown in the 2015 book Iz nevidne strani neba: Razkrite skrivnosti staroverstva (From the invisible side of the sky: unveiled secrets of Staroverstvo).The latter kept their religion, often described as a way of life, as a secret far into the second half of the twentieth century. I then extend the concept of Other to a contemporary understanding of Staroverstvo (Old belief), in which the dichotomy of Pagan vs Christian often occurs, and the dominant position of the Roman Catholic Church as a coloniser of the varied religious space both in the past and today. In this way, Staroverstvo is seen as the diametrical opposite of the capitalist, colonial West, from which modern science has emerged. I observe how the distrust of scientific research emerged and ask the question: If Medvešcek’s interlocutors were the Other in society at the time, how does Otherness reflect in contemporary interpretations/views of Staroverstvo? The article is the result of three years of fieldwork in Western Slovenia (the Posocje region, the Cerkno Hills region, the Karst region) as well as in Slavia Friulana (Friuli Venezia Giulia region in eastern Italy, along the border with the Republic of Slovenia), where a fragment of the Slovenian minority is still present. The methodological basis consists of participant observation and four semi-structured interviews with believers, followers, and researchers of Staroverstvo.
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