AltaMira Press
Pages: 256
Trim: 6¾ x 9¼
978-0-7591-0522-5 • Hardback • September 2004 • $137.00 • (£105.00)
978-0-7591-0523-2 • Paperback • September 2004 • $55.00 • (£42.00)
Jenny Blain is Senior Lecturer, School of Social Science and Law, Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Douglas Ezzy is Senior Lecturer, Sociology, University of Tasmania, Australia. Graham Harvey is Lecturer in Religious Studies, Open University, UK.
1 Preface
2 Introduction
3 Part I: Performance and Reflexivity
4 Bardism and the Performance of Paganism: Implications for the Performance of Research
5 Methods of compassion or pretension? The challenges of conducting fieldwork in modern magical communities
6 The Deosil Dance
7 Part II: Challenging Objectivity, Theorising Subjectivity
8 Psychology of religion and the study of Paganism
9 Drugs, Books, and Witches
10 Gleanings From the Field: Leftover Tales of Grief and Desire
11 Religious Ethnography: Practising the Witch's Craft
12 Part III: Embodying Relationships, Community and History
13 At the Water's Edge: An Ecologically-Inspired Methodology
14 Thealogies in Process: Re-searching and Theorising: Spiritualities, Identity and Goddess-talk
15 Living with Witchcraft
16 Part IV: Re-locating the Researcher
17 Between the Worlds: Autoarchaeology and neo-Shamans
18 Tracing the in/authentic seeress: from seid-magic to stone circles
19 Pagan Studies or the Study of Paganisms? A case study in the Study of Religions
20 Index
21 About the contributors
Researching Paganisms successfully portrays the multiplicity of its subject matter. This collection provides a solid place to begin one's explorations of pagan studies and—at the same time—addresses theoretical and methodological issues that will inform future discussions about the role of the academy in the study of contemporary religious traditions as well as the relevance of religion in contemporary societies. Contributions are all first-rate.
— Stephen D. Glazier, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
An interesting set of essays on the study of 'neo-paganism'…a useful reflection on the prejudices, preoccupations, instincts, emotional and personal traits which we all bring to our studies-a useful tool for self-analysis.
— René V.L. Wadlow; Transnational Perspectives
Researching Paganisms is an important book not only for scholars and students of contemporary Western Paganism, but also for all social scientists and religious scholars who do ethnographic research. Some of the best-known and some newer scholars of contemporary Paganism on three continents explore the role of the ethnographer in mystery religions, the way in which their research has changed them and their perspective, and how their research may have influenced those they study. This book would make a wonderful addition to any social science methods class both for the issues and questions it raises and because all the chapters are written as engaging first-person narratives.
— Helen Berger, West Chester University, Author of A Community of Witches and Voices from the Pagan Census