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This paper presents ethnographic examples of religious home décor and attendant personal narratives described by primarily working and middle-class white Neo-Pagans in Texas who practice and identify with traditions with European ethnic foci. This data is analyzed to identify how such symbols and beliefs are used by adherents to reconfigure, re-mark, and revalorize European identities and ancestors in ways that re-anchor their identities in response to the unmooring impacts of globalization, while attempting to mitigate charges of white racism. KEYWORDS: whiteness, ethnicity, globalization, Neo-Paganism, altars
This paper presents an analysis of ethnographic data gathered from informants for my dissertation research1 on how Eurocentric Neo-Pagan options might mitigate the dilemma of unmoored identity experienced by these primarily working and middle-class white adherents in the US (Furth 2015). I offer details about home altars and other religious home décor described by the Druid Jill2 and others among my dozens of informants in Texas who identify with Neo-Pagan traditions or "paths" with specific European ethnic foci. These examples represent the kinds of material culture and beliefs many of my informants described when talking about how they construct and assign ethnic and religious meanings to certain aspects of material culture. I analyze this data to identify how these material elements and attendant narratives are used by adherents to reconfigure, re-mark, and revalorize their European white identities and ancestors in ways that re-anchor their identities in response to the unmooring impacts of globalization, while attempting to mitigate charges of white racism.
Ethnicity and Race in Neo-Pagan Traditions
"Pagan" and "Neo-Pagan" describe a broad religious and spiritual category that includes many emergent, nature-based, polytheistic, pantheistic, and animistic traditions that often draw inspiration from history, archaeology, and folklore (Berger, Leach, and Shaffer 2003; Magliocco 2001, 2004). These labels are polysemic and applied differently or not at all by believers (Strmiska 2005a:4). Some shun the label "Neo-Pagan" because they believe it undermines claims of authenticity (Shnirelman 2002:199-200), while others use it to define their own and related traditions (e.g., Bonewits 2007). Adherents have re-appropriated these terms from Christian culture to differentiate their predominantly Europeanbased traditions from Native American or other indigenous religious traditions, and to explicitly mark their identities as nonChristian (Strmiska 2005a:7, 11-13). The term "Heathen" has been similarly re-appropriated...