{"id":11548,"date":"2020-06-20T16:59:41","date_gmt":"2020-06-20T22:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11548"},"modified":"2020-06-20T16:59:41","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T22:59:41","slug":"interview-with-an-american-pagan-studies-scholar-in-latvia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11548","title":{"rendered":"Interview with an American Pagan Studies Scholar in Latvia"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Long-time Pagan studies scholar Michael Strimska has been in Latvia<\/a> the last few months on a Fulbright<\/a>, teaching at Riga Stradii\u0161 University.<\/a> He edited the volume Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives\u00a0<\/a><\/em> and guest-edited a recent\u00a0 issue of The Pomegranate<\/em> devoted to Paganism and politics.<\/a><\/p>\n

The university has published an interview with him \u2014 here is a sample:<\/p>\n

What would you say are the main differences between Swedish, or Nordic, and Latvian and Lithuanian paganism?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s interesting. The biggest differences are in the source materials they have to work with. In the Scandinavian countries, what they have left over from the old pagan days, from the original pagan times, is literature. They have a lot of texts that were primarily written down in Iceland (mainly by Christian monks, strangely enough). These texts give a lot of information about the gods and tell stories about people who practiced the religion, but they don’t have any music. Old styles of music were forbidden by the authorities, particularly by Christian authorities. In the Baltic case it’s almost the opposite. Here you don’t have so much rich mythological literature, or rather, you don’t have it put into a form that’s very attractive and accessible. The Scandinavian written materials are very attractive, enjoyable, accessible, and obviously have worldwide appeal. In the Baltic case, while there’s not that kind of rich literary foundation, what you have here is the music, the folk songs, and that tradition is obviously very, very strong and appealing here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole interview here.<\/a><\/p>\n

You can also visit the entry on Dievturi, the revived ( since 1925) Latvian old religion, at the World Religions and Spirituality database.<\/a><\/p>\n

It is quite detailed, with a chronology, bios of important figures, and a bibliography. It ends on this note:<\/p>\n

The contemporary neo-pagan movement in Latvia is characterized by conflicting aspects. On the one hand, in pagan activities, a desire is expressed to juxtapose oneself and one\u2019s national views against globalization trends, which do not conform to the unhurried and contemplative lifestyle of traditional cultures. On the other hand, the latest trends reveal that in Latvia too, paganism is following a similar trajectory to Anglo-American paganism. Respectively, it is gaining New Age features: scientific terminology and a self-reflexive character is entering pagan discourse. In the near future, paganism in Latvia is dependent on its capacity to respond to the challenges of the era. However, looking further into the future, there is some doubt about the existence of \u201ctraditional\u201d Dievturiba as something that is capable of survival. This is because Dievturi currently exist on the periphery of social life in Latvia and are providing vitally important answers only to members of the movement. They have never exceeded a thousand members, and there are currently only a few hundred.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long-time Pagan studies scholar Michael Strimska has been in Latvia the last few months on a Fulbright, teaching at Riga Stradii\u0161 University. He edited the volume Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives\u00a0 and guest-edited a recent\u00a0 issue of The Pomegranate devoted to Paganism and politics. The university has published an interview with him \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[131,201,134,5,79,4],"class_list":["post-11548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-europe","tag-latvia","tag-norse","tag-paganism","tag-politics","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-30g","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5210,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5210","url_meta":{"origin":11548,"position":0},"title":"The Secret Police as Ethnographers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The next issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies will be devoted largely to new forms of Paganism in the Baltic countries, if all goes as planned. One article that I have been reading is entitled \"The Dievturi Movement in the Reports of the Latvian Political Police,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Europe\"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=europe"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11803,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11803","url_meta":{"origin":11548,"position":1},"title":"Book to Explore Paganism in Early Modern Lithuania","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I post a lot about old and new Pagan movements in the Baltic nations, a region that I have never visited, although some of my family members have.((One of my older sisters lived the last couple of years of her life in Kaunas, Lithuania, but that had nothing to do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Latvia\"","block_context":{"text":"Latvia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=latvia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/shrine.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/shrine.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/shrine.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7137,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7137","url_meta":{"origin":11548,"position":2},"title":"Shai Feraro on Canaanite Reconstructionism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Israeli scholar Shai Feraro talks about Canannite (i.e., Pagan) reconstructionism in present-day Israel. This is an excerpt from his presentation at the recent conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism in Riga, Latvia. (Wish I could have been there.) He makes a reference to the \"Canaanites\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8564,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8564","url_meta":{"origin":11548,"position":3},"title":"New Pagan Temple in Latvia","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A new Pagan (Dievturi) temple has been built in Latvia, according to this article (in Latvian). Relying on Google Translate, I read, Crowded opening event alongside Latvian pagan exile pagan representatives and sanctuary creation of the people involved was also attended by other ancient white dievest?bas common to both the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Latvia\"","block_context":{"text":"Latvia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=latvia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/neskaties.lv\/2017\/05\/uz-salas-daugava-atklata-galvena-dievturu-svetnica-5914710d210f3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/neskaties.lv\/2017\/05\/uz-salas-daugava-atklata-galvena-dievturu-svetnica-5914710d210f3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/neskaties.lv\/2017\/05\/uz-salas-daugava-atklata-galvena-dievturu-svetnica-5914710d210f3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7744,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7744","url_meta":{"origin":11548,"position":4},"title":"Paganism Close Under the Surface","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In central and eastern Europe, and maybe elsewhere, there is a tradition to end a group hunt for deer, boar, and other animals with a ceremony. I have never seen the like in America, but then all my hunting has been with individualistic Westerners \u2014 which is not to say\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"hunting\"","block_context":{"text":"hunting","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=hunting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7724,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7724","url_meta":{"origin":11548,"position":5},"title":"Core Books in Pagan Studies","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently completed an article on contempoary Paganism for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, so when it appears, I can at least say that I have been published by Oxford UP. Yay me. But is there still a market for academic encyclopedias in this day when undergrads must be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"magical religion","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/magical-religion.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11548"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11554,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11548\/revisions\/11554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}