Researching Paganisms

Jenny Blain is Senior Lecturer, School of Social Science and Law, Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Douglas Ezzy is Senior Lecturer, Sociology, University of Tasmania, Australia. Graham Harvey is Lecturer in Religious Studies, Open University, UK.

• 1 Preface 2 Introduction 3 Part I: Performance and Reflexivity 4 Bardism and the Performance of Paganism: Implications for the Performance of Research 5 Methods of compassion or pretension? The challenges of conducting fieldwork in modern magical communities 6 The Deosil Dance 7 Part II: Challenging Objectivity, Theorising Subjectivity 8 Psychology of religion and the study of Paganism 9 Drugs, Books, and Witches 10 Gleanings From the Field: Leftover Tales of Grief and Desire 11 Religious Ethnography: Practising the Witch's Craft 12 Part III: Embodying Relationships, Community and History 13 At the Water's Edge: An Ecologically-Inspired Methodology 14 Thealogies in Process: Re-searching and Theorising: Spiritualities, Identity and Goddess-talk 15 Living with Witchcraft 16 Part IV: Re-locating the Researcher 17 Between the Worlds: Autoarchaeology and neo-Shamans 18 Tracing the in/authentic seeress: from seid-magic to stone circles 19 Pagan Studies or the Study of Paganisms? A case study in the Study of Religions 20 Index 21 About the contributors

Researching Paganisms successfully portrays the multiplicity of its subject matter. This collection provides a solid place to begin one's explorations of pagan studies and—at the same time—addresses theoretical and methodological issues that will inform future discussions about the role of the academy in the study of contemporary religious traditions as well as the relevance of religion in contemporary societies. Contributions are all first-rate.