Contemporary Germanic/Norse Paganism and Recent Survey Data
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.30714Keywords:
Contemporary Paganism, Germanic Paganism, Heathen, Norse PaganismAbstract
In order to address the lack of quantitative studies pertaining specifically to contemporary Germanic/Norse Pagans, the following article relates the data and conclusions of a recently conducted research survey on those adhering to the various traditions dedicated to the pre-Christian Germanic/Norse deities. The survey, which garnered just under three thousand respondents, was distributed globally in order to gain a broader perspective of the demographics and beliefs of those identifying as "Heathen". The research served as part of graduate studies anthropological fieldwork conducted at the University of Amsterdam, and includes a diverse range of demographic data as well as philosophical analysis. The approach of the article utilizes a comparative reference format, with the goal of highlighting macro-trends and challenging existing stereotypes. The conclusions drawn from the data dismiss any attempts to simplify or relegate contemporary Germanic/Norse Pagans to ideologies of bigotry or exclusion. Additionally, the demographic portrait of "Heathenry" proves to be anything other than marginal. Instead, the survey results display an eclectic range of backgrounds and beliefs that shape the complexity of Heathen discourse and organization. These results call for a critical re-analysis of those identifying as contemporary Germanic/Norse Pagans, what they believe, and how those beliefs are being presented.References
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Ward, Brian W., James M. Dahlhamer, Adena M. Galinsky, and Sarah S. Joestl. “Sexual Orientation and Health Among U.S. Adults: National Health Interview Survey, 2013.” National Health Statistics Reports 77, 15 July 2014.
Williamson, George S. The Longing for Myth in Germany: Religion and Aesthetic Culture from Romanticism to Nietzsche. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
York, Michael. “New Age Commodification and Appropriation of Spirituality.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 16, no. 3 (2001): 361–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537900120077177.
Asprem, Egil. “Heathens Up North: Politics, Polemics, and Contemporary Norse Paganism in Norway.” The Pomegranate 10, no. 1 (2008): 41–69. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v10i1.41.
Bittarello, Maria B. “Western Suspicion of Polytheism, Western Thought Structures, and Contemporary Pagan Polytheisms.” Journal of Religion in Europe 3 (2010): 68–102. https://doi.org/10.1163/187489209X478319.
Blain, Jenny. “Seidhr and Seidhrworkers: Recovering Shamanic Practices in Contemporary Heathenism.” The Pomegranate 6 (1998): 6–18.
Blain, Jenny. “Men and ‘Women’s Magic’: Contested Narratives of Gender, Seidhr, and ‘Ergi.’” The Pomegranate 9 (1999): 4–16.
Blain, Jenny. “‘Now Many of Those Things Are Shown to Me Which I Was Denied Before’: Seidr, Shamanism And Journeying, Past and Present.” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 34, no. 1 (2005): 81–98.
Chase, Christopher. ““Be Pagan Once Again”: Folk Music, Heritage, and Socio-sacred Networks in Contemporary American Paganism.” The Pomegranate 8, no. 2 (2006): 146–60. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.8.2.146.
Cragle, Joshua M. “A World Full of Heathens: Towards Understanding Perceptions of History, Society, and Self Amongst Contemporary Germanic Pagans.” MA thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2015.
Davidsen, Markus A. “What is Wrong with Pagan Studies?” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 24 (2012): 183–99. https://doi.org/10.1163/157006812X634881.
Dobratz, Betty A. “The Role of Religion in the Collective Identity of the White Racialist Movement.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 40, no. 2 (2001): 287–301. https://doi.org/10.1111/0021-8294.00056.
Granholm, Kennet. “The Rune Gild: Heathenism, Traditionalism, and the Left-Hand Path.” International Journal for the Study of New Religions 1, no. 1 (2010): 95–115. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v1i1.95.
——. “‘Sons of Northern Darkness’: Heathen Influences in Black Metal and Neofolk Music.” Numen 58 (2011): 514–44. https://doi.org/10.1163/156852711X577069.
Hedenborg White, Manon, and Inga B. Tollefsen. “Introduction: Gender in Contemporary Paganism and Esotericism.” The Pomegranate 15.1–2 (2013): 7–11. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v15i1-2.7.
Jorgensen, Danny L., and Scott E. Russell. “American Neopaganism: The Participant’s Social Identities.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 38, no. 3 (1999): 325–38. https://doi.org/10.2307/1387755.
Kraemer, Christine H. “Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Paganism.” Religion Compass 6, no. 8 (2012): 390–401. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2012.00367.x.
Lewis, James R., and Inga B. Tollefsen. “Gender and Paganism in Census and Survey Data.” The Pomegranate 15, no. 1–2 (2013): 61–78. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v.15i1-2.61.
Michael, George. “David Lane and the Fourteen Words.” Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 10, no. 1 (2009): 43–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/14690760903067986.
Oboler, R. “Negotiating Gender Essentialism in Contemporary Paganism.” The Pomegranate 12, no. 2 (2010): 159–84. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v12i2.159.
Reece, Gwendolyn. “Contemporary Pagans and Stigmatized Identity.” The Pomegranate 18, no. 1 (2016): 60–95. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v18i1.27917.
——. “Prevalence and Important of Contemporary Pagan Practices.” The Pomegranate 16, no. 1 (2014) 35–54. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v16i1.20231.
Saunders, Robert A. “Pagan Places: Towards a Religiogeography of Neopaganism.” Progress in Human Geography 37, no. 6 (2013): 786–810. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132512473868.
Smith, Michael J. Think Again! Thinking Like a Heathen in the Modern Era. Henniker, NH: Harvest-Moon Publishing, 2004.
Snook, Jennifer. American Heathens: The Politics of Identity in a Pagan Religious Movement. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2015.
——. “Reconstructing Heathenry: The Construction of an Ethnic Folkway as Religio-ethnic Identity.” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 16, no. 3 (2013): 52–76. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2013.16.3.52.
Solli, Brit. “Queering the Cosmology of the Vikings: A Queer Analysis of the Cult of Odin and the ‘Holy White Stones.’” Journal of Homosexuality 54, no. 1–2 (2008): 198–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918360801952085.
Strmiska, Michael. “Ásatrú: The Rebirth of Nordic Paganism?” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 4, no. 1 (2000): 106–32. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2000.4.1.106.
Strmiska, Michael F., and Baldur A. Sigurvinsson. “Asatru: Nordic Paganism in Iceland and America.” In Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Michael F. Strmiska, 127–75. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2005.
Strmiska, Michael. “Putting the Blood Back into Blot: The Revival of Animal Sacrifice in Modern Nordic Paganism.” The Pomegranate 9, no. 2 (2007): 154–89. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v9.i2.3921.
Tacitus, Cornelius. The Agricola and The Germania. La Vergne: Digireads.com Publishing, 2008.
Von Schnurbein, Stefanie. “Tales of Reconstruction. Intertwining Neo–Paganism and Old Norse Scholarship.” Critical Research on Religion 3, no. 2 (2015): 148–67. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050303214567671.
Ward, Brian W., James M. Dahlhamer, Adena M. Galinsky, and Sarah S. Joestl. “Sexual Orientation and Health Among U.S. Adults: National Health Interview Survey, 2013.” National Health Statistics Reports 77, 15 July 2014.
Williamson, George S. The Longing for Myth in Germany: Religion and Aesthetic Culture from Romanticism to Nietzsche. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
York, Michael. “New Age Commodification and Appropriation of Spirituality.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 16, no. 3 (2001): 361–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537900120077177.
Published
2017-07-06
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Cragle, J. M. (2017). Contemporary Germanic/Norse Paganism and Recent Survey Data. Pomegranate, 19(1), 77-116. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.30714
