Competing Narratives of Gender Essentialism, Heteronormativity, and Queerness in Wiccan Ritual and Theology
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Critically Evaluate the Understanding of Gender As Discourse
Vol. 1, No. 2 International Education Studies Critically Evaluate the Understanding of Gender as Discourse Changxue Xue College of Foreign languages, Yanshan University Qinhuangdao 066004, China Tel: 86-335-805-8710 Email: [email protected] Abstract In this paper, the author explores the different views on gender and the nature of gender as discourse. Furthermore, the author argues that discursive psychology’s views on gender are convincing and explain more than other perspectives of gender. Keywords: Gender, Essentialism, Constructionism Since the 1950s, an increasing use of the term gender has been seen in the academic literature and the public discourse for distinguishing gender identity from biological sex. Money and Hampson (1955) defined the term gender as what a person says or does to reveal that he or she has the status of being boy or girl, man or woman (masculinity or femininity of a person). Gender is a complex issue, constituents of which encompass styles of dressing, patterns of moving as well as ways of talking rather than just being limited to biological sex. Over the years, the perception of the issue ‘gender’ has been changing and developing from essentialism to social constructionism. Essentialism suggests that gender is a biological sex, by contrast, social constructionism suggests that gender is constructed within a social and cultural discourse. Due to its complex nature, gender intrigues numerous debates over the extent to which gender is a biological construct or a social construct. Social constructionists employ discourse analysis as a method for research on gender identity. Discursive psychology is one of most important approaches within discourse analysis in the field of social psychology. -
An Ethnographic Inquiry of a Coven of Contemporary Witches James Albert Whyte Iowa State University
Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1981 An examen of Witches: an ethnographic inquiry of a coven of contemporary Witches James Albert Whyte Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Anthropology Commons, New Religious Movements Commons, and the Other Religion Commons Recommended Citation Whyte, James Albert, "An examen of Witches: an ethnographic inquiry of a coven of contemporary Witches" (1981). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 16917. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/16917 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. An examen of Witches: An ethnographic inquiry of a coven of contemporary Witches by James Albert Whyte A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department: Sociology and Anthropology Maj or: Anthropology Signatures have been redacted for privacy Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1981 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 WITCHCRAFT 10 WITCHES 23 AN EVENING WITH THE WITCHES 39 COVEN ORGANIZATION 55 STRESS AND TENSION IN THE SWORD COVEN 78 THE WITCHES' DANCE 92 LITERATURE CITED 105 1 INTRODUCTION The witch is a familiar figure in the popular Western imagination. From the wicked queen of Snow White to Star Wars' Yoda, witches and Witch like characters have been used to scare and entertain generations of young and old alike. -
Wicca 1739 Have Allowed for His Continued Popularity
Wicca 1739 have allowed for his continued popularity. Whitman’s According to Gardner, witchcraft had survived the per- willingness to break out of hegemonic culture and its secutions of early modern Europe and persisted in secret, mores in order to celebrate the mundane and following the thesis of British folklorist and Egyptologist unconventional has ensured his relevance today. His belief Margaret Murray (1862–1963). Murray argued in her in the organic connection of all things, coupled with his book, The Witch Cult in Western Europe (1921), that an old organic development of a poetic style that breaks with religion involving a horned god who represented the fertil- many formal conventions have caused many scholars and ity of nature had survived the persecutions and existed critics to celebrate him for his innovation. His idea of uni- throughout Western Europe. Murray wrote that the versal connection and belief in the spirituality present in a religion was divided into covens that held regular meet- blade of grass succeeded in transmitting a popularized ings based on the phases of the moon and the changes of version of Eastern theology and Whitman’s own brand of the seasons. Their rituals included feasting, dancing, sac- environmentalism for generations of readers. rifices, ritualized sexual intercourse, and worship of the horned god. In The God of the Witches (1933) Murray Kathryn Miles traced the development of this god and connected the witch cult to fairy tales and Robin Hood legends. She used Further Reading images from art and architecture to support her view that Greenspan, Ezra, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Whit- an ancient vegetation god and a fertility goddess formed man. -
Anthropology 424: the Supernatural in the Modern World
Supernat.10 Fall 2010 Anthropology 424: The Supernatural in the Modern World Instructor: Dr. Magliocco Phone: 677-3331; 677-4930 Office: 240D Sierra Hall Email: [email protected] Office hours: MW 2:00 – 4:00 PM and by appointment I. Objectives The “supernatural” is a category of beliefs, phenomena and experiences unique to Western cultures which developed as a result of Enlightenment discourses separating notions of the rational from the irrational. Yet despite stigmatization by church and state structures in the West, and predictions that supernatural belief would vanish as populations became more educated, supernatural practices and beliefs are still very much alive. This course explores why and how this happened. We will examine supernatural and occult traditions as they appear in the context of religion, narrative, folk healing, folk drama, ritual and media accounts and presentations. We will also study how scholars from various disciplines have approached these topics. This course does not attempt to prove or disprove the existence of supernatural phenomena. Rather, it takes an ethnographic, phenomenological approach to this issue, focusing on people’s lived experience and their attempts to make sense of it. Students will be encouraged to explore the relationship between scientific belief and supernatural belief in the context of the contemporary post-modern landscape. As a result of this course, students will be able to: • Demonstrate critical knowledge and understanding of the concept of the “supernatural” in Western discourse; -
Constructing the Witch in Contemporary American Popular Culture
"SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES": CONSTRUCTING THE WITCH IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE Catherine Armetta Shufelt A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2007 Committee: Dr. Angela Nelson, Advisor Dr. Andrew M. Schocket Graduate Faculty Representative Dr. Donald McQuarie Dr. Esther Clinton © 2007 Catherine A. Shufelt All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Dr. Angela Nelson, Advisor What is a Witch? Traditional mainstream media images of Witches tell us they are evil “devil worshipping baby killers,” green-skinned hags who fly on brooms, or flaky tree huggers who dance naked in the woods. A variety of mainstream media has worked to support these notions as well as develop new ones. Contemporary American popular culture shows us images of Witches on television shows and in films vanquishing demons, traveling back and forth in time and from one reality to another, speaking with dead relatives, and attending private schools, among other things. None of these mainstream images acknowledge the very real beliefs and traditions of modern Witches and Pagans, or speak to the depth and variety of social, cultural, political, and environmental work being undertaken by Pagan and Wiccan groups and individuals around the world. Utilizing social construction theory, this study examines the “historical process” of the construction of stereotypes surrounding Witches in mainstream American society as well as how groups and individuals who call themselves Pagan and/or Wiccan have utilized the only media technology available to them, the internet, to resist and re- construct these images in order to present more positive images of themselves as well as build community between and among Pagans and nonPagans. -
Deus Ex Machina? Witchcraft and the Techno-World Venetia Robertson
Deus Ex Machina? Witchcraft and the Techno-World Venetia Robertson Introduction Sociologist Bryan R. Wilson once alleged that post-modern technology and secularisation are the allied forces of rationality and disenchantment that pose an immense threat to traditional religion.1 However, the flexibility of pastiche Neopagan belief systems like ‘Witchcraft’ have creativity, fantasy, and innovation at their core, allowing practitioners of Witchcraft to respond in a unique way to the post-modern age by integrating technology into their perception of the sacred. The phrase Deus ex Machina, the God out of the Machine, has gained a multiplicity of meanings in this context. For progressive Witches, the machine can both possess its own numen and act as a conduit for the spirit of the deities. It can also assist the practitioner in becoming one with the divine by enabling a transcendent and enlightening spiritual experience. Finally, in the theatrical sense, it could be argued that the concept of a magical machine is in fact the contrived dénouement that saves the seemingly despondent situation of a so-called ‘nature religion’ like Witchcraft in the techno-centric age. This paper explores the ways two movements within Witchcraft, ‘Technopaganism’ and ‘Technomysticism’, have incorporated man-made inventions into their spiritual practice. A study of how this is related to the worldview, operation of magic, social aspect and development of self within Witchcraft, uncovers some of the issues of longevity and profundity that this religion will face in the future. Witchcraft as a Religion The categorical heading ‘Neopagan’ functions as an umbrella that covers numerous reconstructed, revived, or invented religious movements, that have taken inspiration from indigenous, archaic, and esoteric traditions. -
CONTRIBUTORS Peg Aloi Has an MFA in English and Currently Teaches in the Department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College
CONTRIBUTORS Peg Aloi has an MFA in English and currently teaches in the Department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College, and at the Massachusetts College of Art. Her most recent book, The New Generation Witches: Teenage Witchcraft in Contemporary Culture (2007 Ashgate Press), was co-edited with Hannah Johnston, with whom she is currently collaborating on two more books: The Celluloid Bough: Cinema in the Wake of the Occult Revival and The Glass Cauldron: A History of Witches on Television. Peg is also a fi lm critic for the Boston Phoenix and an award-winning poet. Helen A. Berger, professor of sociology at West Chester University, is the author of three books: A Community of Witches; Voices from the Pagan Census (with Leach and Shaffer); Teenage Witches (with Douglas Ezzy), and editor of Magic and Witchcraft: Contemporary North America. She is currently engaged in a community study of the religious and spiritual life of Asheville, NC. Jenny Blain is Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Sciences at Sheffi eld Hallam University. Recent publications on shamanism, seidr, Heathenry and paganisms include Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic (Routledge 2002), Researching Paganisms (Blain, Ezzy & Harvey, Altamira 2004) and numerous articles and chapters, including ‘Now many of those things are shown to me which I was denied before’: Seidr, shamanism and journeying, past and present, for Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses in 2005. Her book with Robert Wallis on Sacred Sites Contested Rites/Rights was published by Sussex Academic Press in 2007. Henrik Bogdan, Ph.D., Department of Religious Studies and Theology, University of Gothenburg, is the author of Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation (SUNY, 2007) and numerous articles on various aspects of his three main areas of research: Western esotericism, New Religious Movements, and Masonic Initiatory Societies. -
2006 AEN Conference Special Issue
SPECIAL ISSUE ––– 2006 AEN CONFERENCE VOLUME V ISSUE 1 2010 ISSN: 1833-878X Pages 27-34 Olivia Caputo Water and Stone: The Re-Enactment of the Masculine in the Pagan ‘Reclaiming’ Tradition ABSTRACT This paper seeks to explore models of masculinity present within the contemporary spiritual community of the Reclaiming Collective in San Francisco, United States of America. The Reclaiming Collective is part of the wider contemporary Goddess spirituality movement, a movement which promotes the importance of changing patriarchal images of the divine through focus on the Goddess. Through an analysis of both the writings of Starhawk, the most read and published member of the collective, and the discussions and articles with the collective's long-running journal Reclaiming Quarterly this paper reveals the conflict between patriarchal and more radical models of masculinity. It concludes that the fluidity of gender promoted within the Reclaiming Collective stimulates members to understand masculinity as positive, anti-sexist and multifaceted. BIOGRAPHY Olivia Caputo is a PhD candidate at The University of Queensland's School of History Philosophy Religion and Classics. Her research involves critique of gender theory in the writing of two pioneers of the feminist Goddess movement, Carol P. Christ and Starhawk. Olivia has travelled to both the U. S. and the U. K. to gather material about contemporary Goddess communities such as the Reclaiming Collective in San Francisco and the Priestesses of Avalon in Glastonbury. She has presented papers at the Alternative 27 Expressions of the Numinous conference in 2006 and at the Association for Research on Mothering conference in 2007. Her other research interests include community radio, sustainable agriculture and the alternative D. -
Gender/Sex Diversity Beliefs: Heterogeneity, Links to Prejudice, and Diversity-Affirming Interventions by Zachary C
Gender/Sex Diversity Beliefs: Heterogeneity, Links to Prejudice, and Diversity-Affirming Interventions by Zachary C. Schudson A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology and Women’s Studies) in the University of Michigan 2020 Doctoral Committee: Professor Sari van Anders, Co-Chair Professor Susan Gelman, Co-Chair Professor Anna Kirkland Associate Professor Sara McClelland Zach C. Schudson [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1300-5674 © Zach C. Schudson ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the many people who made this dissertation possible. First and foremost, thank you to Dr. Sari van Anders, my dissertation advisor and co-chair and my mentor. I have never met someone more committed to social justice through psychological research or to their students. Your expansive, nuanced thinking about gender and sexuality, your incredible, detailed feedback on everything I wrote, your lightning-quick, thoughtful responses whenever I needed anything, and your persistence in improving communication even when it was difficult all make me feel astoundingly lucky. Despite the many time and energy-intensive challenges you have faced over the last several years, you have done everything you can to facilitate my success as a scholar, all the while showing deep care for my well-being as a person. Thank you also to Dr. Susan Gelman, my dissertation co-chair, for your incredible support these last feW years. Your intellectual generosity is truly a gift; I feel smarter and more capable every time we speak. Thank you to Drs. Sara McClelland and Anna Kirkland, members of my dissertation committee and my teaching mentors. -
Surviving and Thriving in a Hostile Religious Culture Michelle Mitchell Florida International University, [email protected]
Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 11-14-2014 Surviving and Thriving in a Hostile Religious Culture Michelle Mitchell Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FI14110747 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the New Religious Movements Commons Recommended Citation Mitchell, Michelle, "Surviving and Thriving in a Hostile Religious Culture" (2014). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1639. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1639 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN A HOSTILE RELIGIOUS CULTURE: CASE STUDY OF A GARDNERIAN WICCAN COMMUNITY A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in RELIGIOUS STUDIES by Michelle Irene Mitchell 2014 To: Interim Dean Michael R. Heithaus College of Arts and Sciences This thesis, written by Michelle Irene Mitchell, and entitled Surviving and Thriving in a Hostile Religious Culture: Case Study of a Gardnerian Wiccan Community, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this thesis and recommend that it be approved. _______________________________________ Lesley Northup _______________________________________ Dennis Wiedman _______________________________________ Whitney A. Bauman, Major Professor Date of Defense: November 14, 2014 The thesis of Michelle Irene Mitchell is approved. -
Inheritor of a Dying World, We Call Thee to the Living Beauty
Performance and Spirituality Number 1 (2009) “YOU’VE GOT TO GROW OR GO”: INITIATION, PERFORMANCE, AND REALITY TELEVISION JASON WINSLADE Initiation. The chain of Latin roots reaches back to inire (to go into, enter upon). We begin at initium (an entrance, a beginning) and proceed to initiare (to originate, initiate). Our destination is initiatonem (participation in secret rites). In this brief etymology, we get a sense of beginnings, of origins, of starting a particular action or event, a chain of events, of tradition, but with a touch of the mysterious, of secrecy. Yet this secrecy implies both speaking and not speaking, since the term initiation in phonetics refers to one of the two mandatory aspects of sound production in the human body, the other being articulation. Allow me to articulate. In this context, initiation is the action by which airflow is created through the vocal tract. So it is the act of creating speech, a speaking that at once must be silenced when brought into the realm of ritual initiation, where individuals participate in secret rites, beginning their study of the ineffable, whether it be in the religious, esoteric, or communal sphere. To add a further level, the term initiation is also used in chemistry, indicating a chemical reaction that triggers one or more secondary reactions. So an initiation causes a chain reaction. It creates a process. It does something. Further, it does something through speech. It performs. Ideally, initiation also transforms. It allows for a deeper negotiation between the known and the unknown, offering a seemingly privileged view of the universe to the worthy candidate. -
Race and Essentialism in Gloria Steinem
Scholarly Commons @ UNLV Boyd Law Scholarly Works Faculty Scholarship 2009 Race and Essentialism in Gloria Steinem Frank Rudy Cooper University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- William S. Boyd School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub Part of the Law and Gender Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, and the Law and Race Commons Recommended Citation Cooper, Frank Rudy, "Race and Essentialism in Gloria Steinem" (2009). Scholarly Works. 1123. https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub/1123 This Article is brought to you by the Scholarly Commons @ UNLV Boyd Law, an institutional repository administered by the Wiener-Rogers Law Library at the William S. Boyd School of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Race and Essentialism in Gloria Steinem Frank Rudy Cooper* I. INTRODUCTION A. The Story of My Discovery ofAngela Harris The book that I have referred to the most since law school is Katherine Bartlett and Roseanne Kennedys' anthology FEMINIST LEGAL THEORY. 1 The reason it holds that unique place on my bookshelf is that it contains the first copy I read of Angela Harris's essay Race and Essentialism in Feminist Legal Theory.2 My edition now has at least three layers of annotations. As I reread it today, I recall my first reading. I encountered the essay in my law school feminist theory class. Up to the point where we read Harris's article, I was probably a dominance feminist, having found Catherine MacKinnon's theory that women are a group bound together by patriarchal domination to be simpatico with my undergraduate training.