Barbara Jane Davy | University of Waterloo, Canada (original) (raw)

Papers by Barbara Jane Davy

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2023

An investigation of Winterfinding, a harvest feast, as conducted by Vindisir Kindred, a small gro... more An investigation of Winterfinding, a harvest feast, as conducted by Vindisir Kindred, a small group of contemporary Heathens in southwestern Ontario, shows how the development of ecological conscience is involved in ritual practices that negotiate meaning and environmental values. Ritual practices such as this that include animal sacrifice can embody an ecological conscience through physical practices that embed tacit learning of how to relate with others, human and otherwise. Ritual feasting and practices of making offerings in this community of contemporary Heathens is in the process of negotiating ecological relations. Participating in such practices can contribute to the formation a pro-environmental disposition and orientation, although what this means for participants continues to evolve.

Nova Religio

Ancestor veneration need not entail a focus on biological ancestry, but inclusive Heathens are tr... more Ancestor veneration need not entail a focus on biological ancestry, but inclusive Heathens are troubled that white supremacists are attracted to Heathenry because of a perceived connection between ancestor veneration and pride in ancestry. The Canadian Heathens of Raven’s Knoll identify themselves as inclusive, and endeavor to exclude racists from their groups and events. Previous research has often distinguished between folkish (often racist) versus universalist (not racist) practitioners of Heathenry or Ásatrú. Inclusive Heathens welcome people of all backgrounds so long as they do not discriminate against others on the basis of spurious categories such as race, gender, or sexual orientation. Inclusive Heathens venerate a variety of ancestors, not just ancestors of blood or biological ancestors, but also ancestors of affinity or imagination, and ancestors of place. This contributes to a sense of relatedness and moral community beyond the intrahuman, and the development of ecologic...

The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, 2022

Primary data gathering for this work included participant observation research at the procession ... more Primary data gathering for this work included participant observation research at the procession of Nerthus at Well and Tree Gathering in May of 2018 and 2019 at Raven’s Knoll, a privately-owned campground and dedicated Pagan festival site in eastern Ontario. It draws upon a larger research project on inclusive Canadian Heathen ritual practices and environmental values. Well and Tree Gathering includes Pagans of various types, but is largely run by Heathens, and prominently features the Heathen deity Nerthus. Practitioners conduct a reconstructionist revival of the procession of Nerthus based on Tacitus’ description of such events in Germania, which included human sacrifice. Contemporary Heathens revere Nerthus as a primordial power, process her veiled figure through the campground, and give her offerings in a sacred body of water. Giving these offerings operationalizes the values of inclusion and sharing, and contributes to the formation of ecological conscience through relational ontology.

Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture and Ecology, 2021

Rationalist approaches to environmental problems such as climate change apply an information defi... more Rationalist approaches to environmental problems such as climate change apply an information deficit model, assuming that if people understand what needs to be done they will act rationally. However, applying a knowledge deficit hypothesis often fails to recognize unconscious motivations revealed by social psychology, cognitive science, and behavioral economics. Applying ecosystems science, data collection, economic incentives, and public education are necessary for solving problems such as climate change, but they are not sufficient. Climate change discourse makes us aware of our mortality and prompts consumerism as a social psychological defensive strategy, which is counterproductive to pro-environmental behavior. Studies in terror management theory, applied to the study of ritual and ecological conscience formation, suggest that ritual expressions of giving thanks can have significant social psychological effects in relation to overconsumption driving climate change. Primary data gathering informing this work included participant observation and interviews with contemporary Heathens in Canada from 2018-2019. Keywords climate change discourse-ecological conscience formation-ecological habitus-pro-environmental behavior-terror management theory

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture

This work investigates what motivates environmental action through developing a case study on how... more This work investigates what motivates environmental action through developing a case study on how ecological conscience forms in the ritual practices of a new religious movement. I conducted a two-year ethnographic study with a community of contemporary Heathens in eastern and southwestern Ontario to investigate how ritual practices are related to the formation of conscience in the group. I used participant observation and interviews to investigate how ritual is related to conscience formation, and how it can generate a sense of obligation to others, including nonhuman others. I draw on social psychology (especially terror management theory), cognitive science, anthropology, ritual studies, and philosophy to describe and interpret three ritual practices, each of which involve some sort of gift giving. First I discuss high sumbel, a ritual of sharing drinks and giving gifts, then Dísablót, an example of ancestor veneration in which offerings (a type of gift) are given to the dead, an...

World, 2020

Environmentalists have long warned of a coming shock to the system. COVID-19 exposed fragility in... more Environmentalists have long warned of a coming shock to the system. COVID-19 exposed fragility in the system and has the potential to result in radical social change. With socioeconomic interruptions cascading through tightly intertwined economic, social, environmental, and political systems, many are not working to find the opportunities for change. Prefigurative politics in communities have demonstrated rapid and successful responses to the pandemic. These successes, and others throughout history, demonstrate that prefigurative politics are important for response to crisis. Given the failure of mainstream environmentalism, we use systemic transformation literature to suggest novel strategies to strengthen cooperative prefigurative politics. In this paper, we look at ways in which COVID-19 shock is leveraged in local and global economic contexts. We also explore how the pandemic has exposed paradoxes of global connectivity and interdependence. While responses shed light on potential lessons for ecological sustainability governance, COVID-19 has also demonstrated the importance of local resilience strategies. We use local manufacturing as an example of a possible localized, yet globally connected, resilience strategy and explore some preliminary data that highlight possible tradeoffs of economic contraction.

Ethics & the Environment, 2007

The main threads of Emmanuel Levinas's theory of ethics, developed in his philosophical works, To... more The main threads of Emmanuel Levinas's theory of ethics, developed in his philosophical works, Totality and Infinity (1969), and Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence (1998), instruct that ethics require transcendence of being and nature, which he describes in terms of a transcendence of animality to the human. This apparent devaluation of the nonhuman would seem to preclude the development of Levinasian environmental ethics. However, a deconstructive reading of Levinas recognizes a subtext that interrupts the main threads of his argument running against the inclusion of nonhuman others in ethics. Through a critical reconstructive reading of Levinas, I develop an ethic extraneous to Levinas's transcendent ethics, an ethic outside his "otherwise than being."

TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies

health sciences, history THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW utpjournals.press/chr Offering a comprehe... more health sciences, history THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW utpjournals.press/chr Offering a comprehensive analysis on the events that have shaped Canada, CHR publishes articles that examine Canadian history from both a multicultural and multidisciplinary perspective.

The Pomegranate, 2005

... Being at Home in Nature: A Levinasian Approach to Pagan Environmental Ethics. Barbara Jane Da... more ... Being at Home in Nature: A Levinasian Approach to Pagan Environmental Ethics. Barbara Jane Davy. Abstract. Pagans have accused Judaism ...

Trumpeter, Jul 2, 2003

and currently serves as President of the Environmental Studies Association of Canada. Her researc... more and currently serves as President of the Environmental Studies Association of Canada. Her research interests include Levinasian and environmental ethics, and nature religion.

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2006

Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, 2007

The author has granted a nonexclusive licence allowing the National Library of Canada to reproduc... more The author has granted a nonexclusive licence allowing the National Library of Canada to reproduce, loan, distribute or sell copies of this thesis in microform, paper or electronic formats. The author retains ownership of the copyright in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Your file Vainr rdliirencB Ow me Nme r B f B m a 3 L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive pennettant a la Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduire, prster, distribuer ou vendre des copies de cette these sous la forme de microfichelfilm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique. L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci ne doivent Stre imprimes ou autrement reproduits sans son autorisation.

Books by Barbara Jane Davy

Contemporary Paganism emerged in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s as a new religious movement, alth... more Contemporary Paganism emerged in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s as a new religious movement, although practitioners understood themselves to be participating in a witchcraft tradition extending back into medieval—if not prehistoric—times.

In recent decades, Pagan Studies has emerged through a plethora of sophisticated anthropological, sociological, and historical studies, and this new three-volume collection from Routledge’s Critical Concepts in Religious Studies series brings together the best foundational and cutting-edge scholarship in one ‘mini library’.

Volume I addresses the emergence of Paganism as a religion. It collects scholarly analyses of the historical evolution of Paganism, and is organized under topics including debates of historical accuracy, influences on the development of Paganism, and the process of routinization in the religion. The second volume addresses the importance of environmentalism in contemporary Paganism, including work on how Pagans think about the natural world, environmental ethics, and related political activism. The final volume addresses the importance of gender issues and feminism in contemporary Paganism, and collects the best research on topics including immanence, embodiment, self-image, and sexuality.

Paganism is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

Pagan Studies is maturing and moving beyond the context of new religious movements to situate its... more Pagan Studies is maturing and moving beyond the context of new religious movements to situate itself in within of the study of world religions. Introduction to Pagan Studies is the first and only text designed to introduce the study of contemporary Paganism as a world religion. It examines the intellectual, religious, and social spheres of Paganism through common categories in the study of religion, which includes beliefs, practices, theology, ritual, history, and role of texts and scriptures. The text is accessible to readers of all backgrounds and religions and assumes no prior knowledge of Paganism. This text will also serve as a general introduction to Pagan Studies for non-specialist scholars of religion, as well as be of interest to scholars in the related disciplines of Anthropology, Sociology and Cultural Studies, and to students taking courses in Religious Studies, Pagan Studies, Nature Religion, New Religious Movements, and Religion in America. The book will also be useful to non-academic practitioners of Paganism interested in current scholarship.