| Description |
1 online resource |
| Contents |
1. Becoming Heathen -- Mapping the Neopagan Landscape -- American Heathenry 101 -- American Heathenry in Scholarship and the Media -- The Influence of "the Political" -- Researching American Heathenry -- 2. Fleeing the Cross and the Pentacle: Resistance and Opposition in the Maintenance of Collective Identity -- Not Like Them: Constructing Identity Through the Not-Self -- Resisting Oppression: Opposition to the Mainstream -- Negotiating Authenticity: Opposition to the Alternatives -- Boundaries in Contradiction -- 3. Neo-Heathens and Reconstructionists: The Project and Problems of Constructing a Heathen Nomos -- Authenticity Wars: Innovation Versus Historical Accuracy -- The (De)Construction of Community and Equality -- Heathen Practices: Creating a Socioreligious Foundation -- Heathen Fluff: Contested Realms of Authenticity -- The Hammer Rite: (In)Authenticity and Community Practice -- The Nine Noble Virtues: Authenticity and Community Norms -- The Loki Debate -- Patron Deities and Spiritual Seekers -- 4. Cyber Hofs and Armchair Vikings: Building Community through Social Networks (but Not without Problems) -- Religion and Virtual Spaces -- The Influence of the Virtual on Modern Heathenry -- Formal Heathen Organizations: Politics and Bureaucracy -- Local Tribes -- Diffuse Groups -- The Virtual Hof -- Virtual Battles and Community Politics -- 5. Valkyries and Frithweavers: Women's Shifting Roles--from Warriors to Domestic Caretakers -- Reframing Gender and Resistance -- Reading History: Finding a Place for Heathen Women -- Navigating Gender: The Masculine Ethic -- No Fluffy Bunnies Allowed -- Politicizing Gender: Feminism Meets Antifeminism -- Resistance to Patriarchy -- Frith and Domesticity: The Sacred Mundane -- Wisewomen: Seidkonas and Völvas -- 6. Honoring the Ancestors: Dealing with Issues of Race, Ethnicity, and Whiteness in Constructing an Ethnic Folkway -- Who Gets to Be Heathen? Race, Ethnicity, and Belonging -- "White" Ethnic Identity -- Negotiating Racism, Pride, and Faith -- American Heathenry as an Indigenous Tradition -- Honoring the Ancestors: Constructing Bloodlines -- American Heathenry as a Spiritual System -- Tribalism: Depoliticizing American Heathenry -- American Heathenry as an Ethnic Folkway -- Navigating Race: The Folkish versus Universalist Dichotomy -- Identity: Textual Constructions of Antiracism and Belonging -- 7. The Long Journey -- The Conundrum of American Reconstructionist Faith -- Collective Identity and Belonging -- When Heathens Go Virtual -- Challenging Notions of Gender -- Examining Whiteness and the "Folk." |
| Summary |
American Heathens is the first in-depth ethnographic study about the largely misunderstood practice of American Heathenry (Germanic Paganism). Jennifer Snook--who has been Pagan since her early teens and a Heathen since eighteen--traces the development and trajectory of Heathenry as a new religious movement in America, one in which all identities are political and all politics matter. Snook explores the complexities of pagan reconstruction and racial, ethnic and gender identity in today's divisive political climate. She considers the impact of social media on Heathen collectivities, and offers a glimpse of the world of Heathen meanings, rituals, and philosophy. In American Heathens, Snook presents the stories and perspectives of modern practitioners in engaging detail. She treats Heathens as members of a religious movement, rather than simply a subculture reenacting myths and stories of enchantment. Her book shrewdly addresses how people construct ethnicity in a reconstructionist (historically-minded) faith system with no central authority |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
English |
|
Print version record |
| Subject |
Paganism -- United States
|
|
Group identity -- United States
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Sociology of Religion.
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
|
|
BODY, MIND & SPIRIT -- Spirituality -- Paganism & Neo-Paganism.
|
|
RELIGION -- Comparative Religion.
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General.
|
|
Group identity
|
|
Paganism
|
|
United States
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9781439910986 |
|
1439910987 |
|
