{"id":11916,"date":"2020-11-30T21:20:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T04:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11916"},"modified":"2020-12-01T16:53:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T23:53:23","slug":"is-contemporary-druidry-an-indigenous-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11916","title":{"rendered":"Is Contemporary Druidry an &#8216;Indigenous&#8217; Religion?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ubQC33GKfbM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I mentioned in yesterday&#8217;s post my sadness at missing one of the Indigenous Religious Traditions sessions at the American Academy of Relligion&#8217;s online annual meeting this year. (There is another one though). &#8220;Indigenous&#8221; is a word of power, like &#8220;decolonize..&#8221;((In the 1990s, every grad student in humanities wanted to &#8220;foreground the hegemony.&#8221; Now it&#8217;s &#8220;decolonize the [blank] body,&#8221; or something like that.))<\/p>\n<p>Enter Leeds Trinity University PhD student Angela Puca. (She just passed her doctoral oral exam \u2014 &#8220;viva&#8221; to the Brits \u2014 with flying colors, says <a href=\"https:\/\/research-information.bris.ac.uk\/en\/persons\/ronald-e-hutton\">Ronald Hutton,<\/a> who was her external examiner,&#8221; so I suppose she is only waiting on the formalities now.<a href=\"https:\/\/research.leedstrinity.ac.uk\/en\/persons\/angela-puca(b7e1d837-6d99-47cc-85f1-f170a03d3404).html\"> She has been a graduate teaching assistant in the Dept of Theology and Religious Studies at Leeds Trinity University in the UK.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>She has been researching the way t<a href=\"https:\/\/research.leedstrinity.ac.uk\/en\/publications\/witch-and-shaman(566feb54-99bd-412e-a18e-f23701aedfda).html\">he term indigenous is employed in rehabilitating Italian witchcraft in light of contemporary Paganism<\/a>, among other things. And in her copious free time, she has created a YouTube channel of short lessons and discussions in Paganism: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCPSbip_LX2AxbGeAQfLp-Ig\"><em>Angela&#8217;s Symposium<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Indigenous,&#8221; she admits, is a political classification invoked to protect the rights of certain colonized minority peoples.<\/strong> Colonization has happened throughout history and has affected almost all peoples at some point. But the term is limited when used to talk about religion, she points out. Some people are characterized as &#8220;indigenous&#8221; and others, who have lived on the same land for centuries, are not, yet they may have experienced cultural and religious colonization, e.g., what <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charlemagne\">Charlemagne<\/a> did to the Saxons.((Carole Cusack, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.equinoxpub.com\/POM\/article\/view\/9994\">Pagan Saxon Resistance to Charlemagne\u2019s Mission: \u2018Indigenous\u2019 Religion and \u2018World\u2019 Religion in the Early Middle Ages<\/a>,&#8221; <em>The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies <\/em>13, no. 1 (2011) 33\u201351.))<\/p>\n<p>But &#8220;indigenous traditions&#8221; are not necessarily walled gardens. They can import and transform outside influences and just as importantly, they can export and share their own ways. She follows <a href=\"https:\/\/research.leedstrinity.ac.uk\/en\/persons\/suzanne-owen(c708dcbb-9f2c-4b28-96e8-88d4c4249a53).html\">Suzanne Owen<\/a> in building an argument that today&#8217;s European Druidry can be seen as indigenous, for it relates to t&#8221;he land, the people, and that which has gone before.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Is a YouTube video an &#8220;oral tradition&#8221;? Discuss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I mentioned in yesterday&#8217;s post my sadness at missing one of the Indigenous Religious Traditions sessions at the American Academy of Relligion&#8217;s online annual meeting this year. (There is another one though). &#8220;Indigenous&#8221; is a word of power, like &#8220;decolonize..&#8221;((In the 1990s, every grad student in humanities wanted to &#8220;foreground the hegemony.&#8221; Now it&#8217;s &#8220;decolonize [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":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":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[88,14,377,163,299,229,276],"class_list":["post-11916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-britain","tag-druidry","tag-indigenous-religion","tag-italy","tag-pagan-studies","tag-pomegranate","tag-religious-studies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-36c","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1254,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1254","url_meta":{"origin":11916,"position":0},"title":"In Which We Use &#8216;the I-Word&#8217; at the AAR","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Attendance at this year's American Academy of Religion annual meeting was down somewhat, an AAR staff member told me: about 5,000 instead of 7,000-8,000. He attributed the drop to the economy, not to the fact that the meeting was held in Montreal. I certainly heard no complaints about the venue.Although\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10259,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10259","url_meta":{"origin":11916,"position":1},"title":"Paganism(s) Grow in Costa Rica","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Carrying on Ronald Hutton's observation from some years back that Wicca (whatever exactly Wicca is) has become a world religion, here is an article on Costa Rican Wiccans, Druids, Asatruar, and other Pagans. So they are are \"world religions\" now. Costa Rica\u2019s indigenous communities have long practiced animism, but it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Asatru\"","block_context":{"text":"Asatru","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=asatru"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1114,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1114","url_meta":{"origin":11916,"position":2},"title":"Pagan Studies at AAR 2009","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"For lack of an original post today, here are the \"calls\" for the sessions at next November's American Academy of Religion meeting in Montreal that involve Pagan Studies.At some time I want to discuss here where our little sub-discipline might be going, but it won't be today -- I just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4359,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4359","url_meta":{"origin":11916,"position":3},"title":"Pagans Preparing for Collapse","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Archdruid John Michael Greer and the Four Quarters Sanctuary figure in this article on \"doom time religion.\" Based on my limited experience, a strong religious emphasis might hold a communal group together. Otherwise, the people you need are not always the ones who want to live in the commune. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":990,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=990","url_meta":{"origin":11916,"position":4},"title":"Gallimaufry with Bar Graphs","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 Learn all about American religious affiliation from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life -- until you get to us. We are in the \"Other Faiths\" category under (sigh) \"New Age.\" Notice how the Jews and Hindus score highest in education, the evangelical Protestants and JW's lowest.\u2022 Utra\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3913,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3913","url_meta":{"origin":11916,"position":5},"title":"One Week Left for AAR Paper Proposals","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The deadline for proposals for the 2012 American Academy of Religion annual meeting is Tuesday, March 13. Here are the suggested topics for the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group: For a possible cosponsored session with the Indigenous Religious Traditions Group, we invite papers on the intersection of contemporary indigenous traditions and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11916","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=11916"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11929,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11916\/revisions\/11929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}