Only Slavic Gods: Nativeness in Polish Rodzimowierstwo

Abstract

Includes index. The Evolution of the Wheel of the Year in Witchcraft Magazine. This volume explores how Pagans negotiate local and global tensions as they craft their identities, both as members of local communities and as cosmopolitan "citizens of the world." Based on cutting edge international case studies from Pagan communities in the United States, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Malta, it considers how modern Pagans negotiate tensions between the particular and universal, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, ethnicity and world citizenship. The burgeoning of modern Paganisms in recent decades has proceeded alongside growing globalization and human mobility, ubiquitous Internet use, a mounting environmental crisis, the re-valuing of indigenous religions and new political configurations. Cosmopolitanism and nationalism have both influenced the weaving of unique local Paganisms in diverse contexts. Pagans articulate a strong attachment to local or indigenous traditions and landscapes, constructing paths that reflect local socio-cultural, political, and historical realities. However, they draw on the Internet and the global circulation of people and universal ideas. This collection considers how they confound these binaries in fascinating, complex ways as members of local communities and global networks. Acknowledgments; Contents; Notes on Contributors; List of Figures ; Chapter 1: Introduction. "We Are the Weavers, We Are the Web": Cosmopolitan Entanglements in Modern Paganism; Notes; References; Chapter 2: Appropriating, Romanticizing and Reimagining: Pagan Engagements with Indigenous Animism; Introduction; Definitions and Disclaimers; Animism; Indigenous; Paganism, Animism and Indigenous Culture; Cultural Appropriation; Romanticizing; Reimagining; Elective Animism; Indigeneity, Animism and Modernity; Conclusion; Notes; References. Chapter 3: Heathens in the United States: The Return to "Tribes" in the Construction of a PeoplehoodHeathenry, Whiteness, and "Tribes"; Tribalism and the Appeal to Indigeneity; Tribalism as a Solution to the Folkish Versus Universalist Debate; Tribalism as Resistance to Globalization: A Contra-Ưcase to Cosmopolitanism; Conclusion; Notes; References; Chapter 4: Only Slavic Gods: Nativeness in Polish Rodzimowierstwo; Concentric Circles of Nativeness; Nativeness and Polish Culture; Political Nativeness and Nationalism; Catholicism, Rodzimowierstwo, and Nationalism; Return to Culture; Conclusion. NotesReferences; Chapter 5: Obsessed with Culture: The Cultural Impetus of Russian Neo-pagans; Early Slavic Heritage: Where and How to Search for It?; The Search for Ancestors: Choices and Their Consequences; Discussion; Notes; References; Chapter 6: Multiple Nationalisms and Patriotisms Among Russian Rodnovers; Russian Nationalism; Russian Rodnoverie and Nationalism; The Survey in Maloyaroslavets; The Understanding of Motherland (Rodina) in the Survey; Discussion; Notes; References. Chapter 7: Blood Brothers or Blood Enemies: Ukrainian Pagans' Beliefs and Responses to the Ukraine-Russia CrisisIntroduction; Ukraine-Russia Crisis; Ukrainian Pagans and Russia: A Brief Overview5; Sylenko's Runvira and Russia; Kurovskyi's Ancestral Fire and Russia; Personal Narratives and Pagan Consciousness Continuum; Beliefs and Politics; Between Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism; Notes; References; Chapter 8: Canaanite Reconstructionism Among Contemporary Israeli Pagans; Yonatan Ratosh and Canaanism: The 1940s-1950s; Canaanite Reconstructionism among Contemporary Israeli Pagans; Conclusions. NotesReferences; Chapter 9: Pagan Identity Politics, Witchcraft, and the Law: Encounters with Postcolonial Nationalism in Democratic South Africa; Introduction; Embracing Postcolonial Nationalism; The Rainbow Years: 1996-2007; Decolonizing Witchcraft; The Fading of the Rainbow: 2007-2015; Redebating Witchcraft; Conclusion; Notes; References; Chapter 10: Cosmopolitan Witchcraft: Reinventing the Wheel of the Year in Australian Paganism; Pagan Ritual in Australia; The First Australian Witches: The 1980s; Inverting Northern Hemisphere Practice; More Complex Adaptations.