Ásatrú and Anthropology

Several people have been asking for copies of papers I've written dealing with a social-science view of present-day Heathenry or Ásatrú, and on more recent work I've done on experiential anthropology particularly of seiðr and shamanism. In this web-site corner I have put several papers . Also links to some off-site material.

On this site in html:

(access via table, below, headed 'onsite articles' - please read notes first)

A version of a paper given at a conference on The Middle Ages in Contemporary Perspective (or some such title) in 1996, which you may also find interesting. It deals with how people draw on discursive versions of "The Middle Ages" in the creation of Earth-Centred Religion today, whether Wicca, Ásatrú, Druidism, or some other type.
A paper on Heathen Communities, from the 1997 Qualitative Research Methods conference.
The first of a number of papers discussing Seidhr or Spae-working, and paradoxes implicit in the anthopological discussion of this. This one was given from a Re-enchantments conference in Winchester, September 1997. Note that this isn't the most recent version -- it's been revised extensively since. It also forms the basis for part of the first chapter from my book on Seidr, that Routledge will be publishing in autumn 2001.

An earlier paper isn't in html -- it's available as identity.zip and identity.sit.) This paper was (partly) given at the Canadian Anthropology Society conference as part of the Learned Societies' meetings at Memorial University of Newfoundland, June 1997. These are Microsoft Word 6 documents: identity.sit is stuffed for Mac users (actually it's a self-extracting file but the web-site wouldn't let me use .sea as a terminator -- try double-clicking on it when you've downloaded it) and identity.zip is, obviously, zipped for IBM users. Note that these are quite old so may or may not work!

A more up-to-date version is available, titled Presenting Constructions of Identity and Divinity: Ásatrú and Oracular Seidhr, in a textbook on Field Methods. Doing Ethnographic Research: Fieldwork Settings, published by Sage, 1998, edited by Scott Grills. I recommend using this version!

Please note before clicking!

These papers are "spoken for" -- the Middle Ages one forms the framework for a co-authored chapter which we hope may come out in a volume of papers on Paganisms, if a publisher likes the idea. The Communities paper may also be part of this. In other words, please feel free to use them, but if quoting for any published or other purpose please contact me first. Also please don't use the "Identity and divinity" paper, in its entirety, with a class -- buy the book and get the up-to-date version.

More recent material...

More recent material isn't here yet. Articles are either just printed, in press, out 'on review', being negotiated with publishers, or in revision... I have to be careful about copyrights. Particularly with the material on experiential anthropology, I want to be careful... So if you're interested in this, email me.

Look out for the issue of Shaman that came out in fall 1999 as it has a fairly comprehensive article of mine on Seiðr.
ONLINE! Article in internet journal DISKUS, 2000. Speaking Shamanistically
See Journal of Contemporary Religion, 15(3) (October 2000) for an article on The Ergi Seidman on seiðr and gender, by myself and Robert Wallis.
I have various articles in The Pomegranate - on seidr (1998), gender and seidr (1999, co-authored) and magic and the everyday (2000) (url in links below).
Ecstasy and Neo-shamanism in North European Paganism: Nine Worlds of Seid-magic Should be available from Routledge in autumn 2001.
Articles in conference proceedings volumes - forthcoming: these include:
Shamans, Stones, Authenticity and Appropriation: Contestations of Invention and Meaning. In R.J.Wallis and K Lymer (eds.) New Approaches to the Archaeology of Art, Religion and Folklore: A Permeability of Boundaries?. British Archaeological Reports (out May 2001).
Magic, healing, or death? Issues of Seidr, 'balance', and morality in past and present. In G. Carr and P Baker (eds.) Medical Archaeology and Anthropology, Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Blain, J. and Wallis, R.J. Seiðr, gender and transformation: from the sagas to the new millennium. In Proceedings of the Viking Millennium Symposium (held Sept. 2000, Newfoundland).

Please send comments, reports on downloading problems, etc, to my email, jenny.blain'at'freeuk.com. Thank you.

Onsite articles:

Middle-Ages conference paper	Constructing Heathen Communities
On the knife-edge: Seiðr-working and the Anthropologist
identity.sit	identity.zip

A few useful links

return to Journeys index page

return to Home Page for this website.

link to The Virtual Pomegranate, home page of a Nature Religions' scholars journal, produced by a group of academically-inclined pagans in the US and Canada, with contributions from Europe also. They've been good enough to publish several things I've written, including an early version of the work on gender and Seiðr, coauthored with another Robert Wallis.

Some images from my research, from various events I've been at, and from Iceland.

More images at Journey, time and trance. This is a 'PhotoLoft' site, so I've set it to open in another window. If it doesn't, use the back button on the browser to get back here. These images are currently all from Kilmartin. This may change if I get more time to work on this site!

Link to my personal webpage.

Last revised 22 April 2001.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page