Dear colleagues:
The Societe' Internationale d'Etnologie et Folclore (SIEF) will meet in Derry, Ireland from June 16-20, 2008.
We are looking for additional papers for a panel I have proposed entitled "Reclaiming Europe's Pagan Heritage." The abstract appears below. Please note I am thinking broadly about pagan reclamations, looking for political, economic and cultural examples beyond Neo-Pagan religions (although of course I am also interested in those).
Panel Proposal: Reclaiming Europe's Pagan Heritage
Throughout Europe, municipalities, voluntary associations and individuals are reclaiming Europe's imagined pagan past. Reclamation, part of the process of tradition, involves re-imagining and re-appropriating previously disclaimed practices and ideas, often with the goal of establishing identity. While some form of re-imagining history is a constant feature of identity creation, the pagan leitmotif is enjoying widespread diffusion in the early 21st century, as authenticity and localization are projected into a distant historical era. A few examples will suffice to illustrate this. In June 2006, the City of Rome sponsored a festival on the banks of the Tiber River dedicated to reviving the spirit of the city's pagan past. "Shadows from the Realm of Wolves" was designed by Italian and American artists to evoke the myth of the founding of the city. The river was lined with almost 3000 torches, recalling the practices of Dionysian revelers in Rome's ancient past. Along th!
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left bank, composers, artists and musicians plied their arts in a dusk-to-dawn sound and light show featuring a projection of a she-wolf jumping into the river to save Rome's legendary founders, Romulus and Remus. The event drew thousands of tourists and Romans eager to reclaim the long-neglected river banks. Meantime, in the United Kingdom, a group of Druids is holding a solstice ceremony at Stonehenge . the 8th since the custom was "revived" in 1998. Actually, there is no evidence that the heritage site was ever used by the religious officials of the Celtic tribes; but since the 17th century, popular folklore has associated the monument with Druids, and modern Druids had lobbied to celebrate there since the 1970s. Ethnologists Jenny Blain and Robert Wallis have described how other British heritage sites have become loci of contested interpretations and performances, as contemporary neo-pagans' interests clash with those of archeologists bent on preserving the nation's !
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terial heritage. Eagerness to join the EU and cash in on the expanding heritage tourism market led the mayor of Lagina, a town in central Turkey, to invite representatives of contemporary pagan religions to witness the re-dedication of a recently discovered temple to the goddess Hecate in 2005. This event featured the dramatic recreation of an alleged ritual by a group of students from a nearby university.
This panel seeks to explore how European pagan heritages are currently being reclaimed; to understand the similarities and differences between various forms of pagan reclamation; to comprehend how "Europe" is imagined in these reconstructions; to address the role of ethnology and related disciplines in the construction of these imagined pasts; and to link these processes to larger economic, political and cultural movements such as globalization/ localization. It welcomes submissions focusing on tourist events, museums and museification of culture, the heritage preservation industry, as well as contemporary neopagan groups and movements.
To submit a paper, please go directly to the SIEF website:
www.ulster.ac.uk/sief2008
Deadline is March 17, 2007.
Sabina Magliocco
Professor
Department of Anthropology
California State University
18111 Nordhoff St.
Northridge, CA 91330-8244
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