Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is the first academic ethnography on magic that has actually been objective in it's portrayal of Paganism. In other words, the author doesn't get caught up in letting her experiences overshadow the importance of actually describing and observing the pagan culture (unlike Magliocco and Greenwood).
Her assessment of pagan culture is fairly balanced. She notes both the positive and negatives aspects of the culture and does so in a positive manner, avoiding any hint of cennsure or judgement. She's simply presenting the facts. Granted this doesn't mean there isn't some subjectivity on her part. Obviously she chose the pagan community because there was a gap in research there and she wants to get tenure, but even with that bias she does a credible job of presenting the pagan community and specifically the festival environment.
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Product Description:
Recent decades have seen a revival of paganism, and every summer people gather across the United States to celebrate this increasingly popular religion. Sarah Pike's engrossing ethnography is the outcome of five years attending neo-pagan festivals, interviewing participants, and sometimes taking part in their ceremonies. Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves incorporates her personal experience and insightful scholarly work concerning ritual, sacred space, self-identity, and narrative. The result is a compelling portrait of this frequently misunderstood religious movement.
Neo-paganism began emerging as a new religious movement in the late 1960s. In addition to bringing together followers for self-exploration and participation in group rituals, festivals might offer workshops on subjects such as astrology, tarot, mythology, herbal lore, and African drumming. But while they provide a sense of community for followers, Neo-Pagan festivals often provoke criticism from a variety of sources-among them conservative Christians, Native Americans, New Age spokespersons, and media representatives covering stories of rumored "Satanism" or "witchcraft."
Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves explores larger issues in the United States regarding the postmodern self, utopian communities, cultural improvisation, and contemporary spirituality. Pike's accessible writing style and her nonsensationalistic approach do much to demystify neo-paganism and its followers.
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