siv ellen kraft - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Uploads
Papers by siv ellen kraft
Religions
Arctic Shaman Circle was founded in Oslo in November 2018. This article discusses what the Circle... more Arctic Shaman Circle was founded in Oslo in November 2018. This article discusses what the Circle’s founding document refers to as “spiritual activism”, and how this was translated into action over the year that followed. I will follow one case in particular, which concerns plans for a power plant at the base of the mountain Aahkansnjurhtjie in the South Sámi area. Aahkansnjurhtjie is a sacred Sámi mountain, the shamans claim, and should be protected accordingly. My focus is on the learning processes that have emerged as the shamans have explored and argued the case, locally and nationally. I examine the negotiations that have happened along the way, in a political climate that has so far been hostile to religious arguments of any sorts, and in this example, involves a group that is contested among the Sámi. Finally, I look at the role of “indigeneity” in regard to claims, performances and responses to these particular concerns, as these have played out in different parts of the Sám...
Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion
Based on local newspaper coverage of a Mandela solidarity concert in Tromsø in June 2005, the art... more Based on local newspaper coverage of a Mandela solidarity concert in Tromsø in June 2005, the article discusses the importance of mega events in relation to place construction, with particular emphasis on ritual aspects. Mega events are shaped by a global discourse, which emphasizes the uniqueness of place and locality. Through the staging of mega events, people are provided with opportunities for thinking about themselves adn their locality, for experienceing the pictures and messages presented, and for representing them to the world. Such opportunities are not limited to mega places and centres of the world order. This was the case of a mega event in a small place, and a place moreover, that has traditionally been designated the primitive backyard of the Norwegian periphery. The concert stories drew upon such established images, but revised them as indicative of uniqueness and authenticity. Constructed in contrast to world centres in general and 'Norwegian-ness' in particu...
Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion
In March 2008, the university library in Tromsø celebrated the opening of what they referred to a... more In March 2008, the university library in Tromsø celebrated the opening of what they referred to as an ‘indigenous room’. A collection of Sami literature was moved from its previous geographical and cultural context to what is today considered the more relevant company of American Indians, Australian aborigines and African peoples. Indicative of the increasing institutionalisation of the Sami as an indigenous people, the debate over what it means to be ‘indigenous’ is today important to Sami research, political strategies, cultural activities and religious creativity. In an attempt to take such innovations seriously, the article discusses some of the religious dimensions of Sami nation-building resulting from the ongoing processes of indigenisation. More specifically, I deal with a project structured by the international grammar of nation-building, which shares in the qualities of a civil religion and is at the same time shaped by ‘indigenous spirituality’. Although a fairly recent c...
Numen
This article addresses emergent religious formations at protest scenes in the broader context of ... more This article addresses emergent religious formations at protest scenes in the broader context of indigenous organization and identity-building. Our central example is the Standing Rock protest in North Dakota, 2016–2017, a local encampment-based event that quickly expanded into an international indigenous peoples’ movement. We argue that religion was a key register in the camps, during direct actions, and in solidarity actions around the world, primarily expressed through a limited selection of key terms: water is sacred, water is life, Mother Earth, and ceremony. We argue, moreover, that these terms, and “ceremony” in particular, were a crucial medium of inter-group and up-scaled cultural translations, allowing local identities to come forth as a unified front. Invoking Standing Rock religion(s) as an instance of the broader category indigenous religion(s), we suggest that these identity formations belong to a globalizing indigenous religious formation, anchored in, yet distinct fr...
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2016
This chapter provides an overview of the research field of New Age. After presenting a brief rese... more This chapter provides an overview of the research field of New Age. After presenting a brief research history, the second part of the chapter discusses undeveloped areas and contested issues in need of future research. Five areas are singled out for scrutiny: 1) the concept of New Age and a general model of religion; 2) the delimitation of New Age and how it relates to religious processes, secularization and functional differentiation in contemporary societies; 3) the global and the local, especially the historical and contemporary processes of cultural and religious embedding and translation of New Age concepts and practices; 4) mediation, especially how media-dynamics are crucial to the overall shape and characteristics of New Age; 5) the need to analyze social and organizational forms.
Western Esotericism in Scandinavia, 2000
Nordic Neoshamanisms, 2015
Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning, 2016
Din Tidsskrift For Religion Og Kultur, Apr 10, 2010
Din Tidsskrift For Religion Og Kultur, 2011
Din Tidsskrift For Religion Og Kultur, 2011
Handbook of Nordic New Religions, 2015
Handbook of the Theosophical Current, 2013
Controversial New Religions, 2014
Numen, 2002
Once defined as a "mishmash of religions," syncretism has been referred to as a meaning... more Once defined as a "mishmash of religions," syncretism has been referred to as a meaningless, derogatory and essentialistic term which should be banned from the fields of religio-historical research. Written in defence of the category, this article provides a review of problematic aspects and recent attempts to deal with them. Particularly useful in this concern, anthropologists Rosalind Shaw and Charles Stewart have suggested a demarcation between "syncretism" (as the politics of religious synthesis) and "anti-syncretism" (as attempts to protect religious boundaries). Taking their tools as a starting point, this article discusses shifting tendencies in the history of Theosophy. The Theosophical Society started out, it is argued, as a hyper-syncretistic religion, while at the same time promoting anti-syncretism on behalf of other religions. More recently, these strategies have been replaced by efforts to protect boundaries and demarcate its Blavatskian r...
Religions
Arctic Shaman Circle was founded in Oslo in November 2018. This article discusses what the Circle... more Arctic Shaman Circle was founded in Oslo in November 2018. This article discusses what the Circle’s founding document refers to as “spiritual activism”, and how this was translated into action over the year that followed. I will follow one case in particular, which concerns plans for a power plant at the base of the mountain Aahkansnjurhtjie in the South Sámi area. Aahkansnjurhtjie is a sacred Sámi mountain, the shamans claim, and should be protected accordingly. My focus is on the learning processes that have emerged as the shamans have explored and argued the case, locally and nationally. I examine the negotiations that have happened along the way, in a political climate that has so far been hostile to religious arguments of any sorts, and in this example, involves a group that is contested among the Sámi. Finally, I look at the role of “indigeneity” in regard to claims, performances and responses to these particular concerns, as these have played out in different parts of the Sám...
Religions
Arctic Shaman Circle was founded in Oslo in November 2018. This article discusses what the Circle... more Arctic Shaman Circle was founded in Oslo in November 2018. This article discusses what the Circle’s founding document refers to as “spiritual activism”, and how this was translated into action over the year that followed. I will follow one case in particular, which concerns plans for a power plant at the base of the mountain Aahkansnjurhtjie in the South Sámi area. Aahkansnjurhtjie is a sacred Sámi mountain, the shamans claim, and should be protected accordingly. My focus is on the learning processes that have emerged as the shamans have explored and argued the case, locally and nationally. I examine the negotiations that have happened along the way, in a political climate that has so far been hostile to religious arguments of any sorts, and in this example, involves a group that is contested among the Sámi. Finally, I look at the role of “indigeneity” in regard to claims, performances and responses to these particular concerns, as these have played out in different parts of the Sám...
Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion
Based on local newspaper coverage of a Mandela solidarity concert in Tromsø in June 2005, the art... more Based on local newspaper coverage of a Mandela solidarity concert in Tromsø in June 2005, the article discusses the importance of mega events in relation to place construction, with particular emphasis on ritual aspects. Mega events are shaped by a global discourse, which emphasizes the uniqueness of place and locality. Through the staging of mega events, people are provided with opportunities for thinking about themselves adn their locality, for experienceing the pictures and messages presented, and for representing them to the world. Such opportunities are not limited to mega places and centres of the world order. This was the case of a mega event in a small place, and a place moreover, that has traditionally been designated the primitive backyard of the Norwegian periphery. The concert stories drew upon such established images, but revised them as indicative of uniqueness and authenticity. Constructed in contrast to world centres in general and 'Norwegian-ness' in particu...
Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion
In March 2008, the university library in Tromsø celebrated the opening of what they referred to a... more In March 2008, the university library in Tromsø celebrated the opening of what they referred to as an ‘indigenous room’. A collection of Sami literature was moved from its previous geographical and cultural context to what is today considered the more relevant company of American Indians, Australian aborigines and African peoples. Indicative of the increasing institutionalisation of the Sami as an indigenous people, the debate over what it means to be ‘indigenous’ is today important to Sami research, political strategies, cultural activities and religious creativity. In an attempt to take such innovations seriously, the article discusses some of the religious dimensions of Sami nation-building resulting from the ongoing processes of indigenisation. More specifically, I deal with a project structured by the international grammar of nation-building, which shares in the qualities of a civil religion and is at the same time shaped by ‘indigenous spirituality’. Although a fairly recent c...
Numen
This article addresses emergent religious formations at protest scenes in the broader context of ... more This article addresses emergent religious formations at protest scenes in the broader context of indigenous organization and identity-building. Our central example is the Standing Rock protest in North Dakota, 2016–2017, a local encampment-based event that quickly expanded into an international indigenous peoples’ movement. We argue that religion was a key register in the camps, during direct actions, and in solidarity actions around the world, primarily expressed through a limited selection of key terms: water is sacred, water is life, Mother Earth, and ceremony. We argue, moreover, that these terms, and “ceremony” in particular, were a crucial medium of inter-group and up-scaled cultural translations, allowing local identities to come forth as a unified front. Invoking Standing Rock religion(s) as an instance of the broader category indigenous religion(s), we suggest that these identity formations belong to a globalizing indigenous religious formation, anchored in, yet distinct fr...
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2016
This chapter provides an overview of the research field of New Age. After presenting a brief rese... more This chapter provides an overview of the research field of New Age. After presenting a brief research history, the second part of the chapter discusses undeveloped areas and contested issues in need of future research. Five areas are singled out for scrutiny: 1) the concept of New Age and a general model of religion; 2) the delimitation of New Age and how it relates to religious processes, secularization and functional differentiation in contemporary societies; 3) the global and the local, especially the historical and contemporary processes of cultural and religious embedding and translation of New Age concepts and practices; 4) mediation, especially how media-dynamics are crucial to the overall shape and characteristics of New Age; 5) the need to analyze social and organizational forms.
Western Esotericism in Scandinavia, 2000
Nordic Neoshamanisms, 2015
Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning, 2016
Din Tidsskrift For Religion Og Kultur, Apr 10, 2010
Din Tidsskrift For Religion Og Kultur, 2011
Din Tidsskrift For Religion Og Kultur, 2011
Handbook of Nordic New Religions, 2015
Handbook of the Theosophical Current, 2013
Controversial New Religions, 2014
Numen, 2002
Once defined as a "mishmash of religions," syncretism has been referred to as a meaning... more Once defined as a "mishmash of religions," syncretism has been referred to as a meaningless, derogatory and essentialistic term which should be banned from the fields of religio-historical research. Written in defence of the category, this article provides a review of problematic aspects and recent attempts to deal with them. Particularly useful in this concern, anthropologists Rosalind Shaw and Charles Stewart have suggested a demarcation between "syncretism" (as the politics of religious synthesis) and "anti-syncretism" (as attempts to protect religious boundaries). Taking their tools as a starting point, this article discusses shifting tendencies in the history of Theosophy. The Theosophical Society started out, it is argued, as a hyper-syncretistic religion, while at the same time promoting anti-syncretism on behalf of other religions. More recently, these strategies have been replaced by efforts to protect boundaries and demarcate its Blavatskian r...
Religions
Arctic Shaman Circle was founded in Oslo in November 2018. This article discusses what the Circle... more Arctic Shaman Circle was founded in Oslo in November 2018. This article discusses what the Circle’s founding document refers to as “spiritual activism”, and how this was translated into action over the year that followed. I will follow one case in particular, which concerns plans for a power plant at the base of the mountain Aahkansnjurhtjie in the South Sámi area. Aahkansnjurhtjie is a sacred Sámi mountain, the shamans claim, and should be protected accordingly. My focus is on the learning processes that have emerged as the shamans have explored and argued the case, locally and nationally. I examine the negotiations that have happened along the way, in a political climate that has so far been hostile to religious arguments of any sorts, and in this example, involves a group that is contested among the Sámi. Finally, I look at the role of “indigeneity” in regard to claims, performances and responses to these particular concerns, as these have played out in different parts of the Sám...