This week’s interview is with Dr Jefferson F. Calico, an associate professor at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky. Dr Calico completed his PhD research at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky in 2013, for which he conducted fieldwork among American practitioners of Heathenry, a modern Pagan religion whose adherents seek to reconstruct the pre-Christian traditions of Europe’s linguistically Germanic communities. This research provided the data for his subsequent book, Being Viking: Heathenism in Contemporary America (Equinox, 2018), which is one of two important works on American Heathenry that have appeared over the past decade, the other being American Heathens: The Politics of Identity in a Pagan Religious Movement (Temple University Press, 2015) by Dr Jennifer Snook, who was previously interviewed here back in March. In this interview, Dr Calico discusses how he first came to be interested in Heathenry, his experiences conducting ethnographic research, and the impact of growing ideological polarisation on the U.S. Heathen community.
[EDW]
For readers who may not be familiar with the topic, could you give us an idea
as to what the modern Pagan religion of Heathenry is?
[JFC] Heathenry
is a new religious movement/milieu that looks to ancient Norse and Germanic
cultures for inspiration in creating contemporary approaches to life,
spirituality, and the world.
From
a historical perspective, the “modern Pagan religion of Heathenry” can be
traced back to a particular set of people and religious awakenings in the early
1970s. I look at this historical process in chapter one of Being Viking:
For these early adherents, the religious
entrepreneurs of Asatru, the Norse heritage, history, customs, and stories
suddenly and powerfully took on more than historical and cultural significance.
They awakened to a new life-way, a paradigm that could transform life, a
roadmap for the creation of a new culture. The Christian age was over. The time
had come for the old gods to reassert themselves amongst their human kin in the
reconstruction of an ancient religio-cultural community. (Being Viking,
58)
Ideologically,
Heathen and Heathenry or Heathenism are umbrella terms
covering a diverse array of more specific approaches. That diversity encompasses
differences in orientation along political/social lines (this spectrum is the
one of which most observers are aware), but also differences in theological, cultural,
ethical, and aesthetic opinions and approaches. For American Heathenry, I think
that my book Being Viking and Jennifer Snook’s book American Heathens
both describe some of that diversity among Heathens.
What
makes it Heathen—rather than historical re-enactment or Vikings fandom
for instance—is a shared spiritual core. This includes texts (the Lore), Gods,
ancestors, nature spirits often called “land vaettir” (because Heathen LOVE to
use words derived from Old Norse and other Germanic languages. Really, a Heathen
gathering isn’t complete if someone doesn’t drop some Old Norse or
Anglo-Saxon), concepts, runes, time, and rituals—derived from the pre-Christian
cultures of northern Europe.
As
I said to a writer from “How Stuff Works” [https://people.howstuffworks.com/paganism.htm]
Heathens look at these pre-Christian traditions of the past as repositories of
ancient sacred wisdom and lifestyles that connected humans and their
communities to the cosmos and to each other in ways that are holy and sacred. For
Heathens, reconnecting to these spiritual resources—the ancient wisdom, beings,
and forces—is a return to a fully human life – living “tru.” The old ways (Forn
Sed or forn siðr) established relational networks to these resources and
beings that nourished human life and produced thriving. In Being Viking,
I devote chapter four, “Spears and Shieldwalls,” to a discussion of this
Heathen concept of life. Rather than the “coming home” idea that been used to
describe Pagan conversion, I would use “re-connecting” to talk about how
Heathens relate to their religious system.
[EDW]
Where did your interest in Heathenry come from and what led you to pursue your
doctoral research on this new religious movement? Did you have a longstanding research
interest in new and alternative religions?
[JFC] I
can look back into my personal history and see how many moments played into my
craft and practice. I have been interested in religion and culture for as long
as I can remember and was encouraged to explore these aspects of life through
reading, experiences, and friendships. Living in an Inupiaq community in
northern Alaska opened my eyes to the importance of culture as a human
phenomenon. Stepping into a classroom for the first time to teach world
religions came to be a challenging and deeply creative experience for me.
Many of us have experienced paradigm shifting moments during our educational journeys— those moments of discovery that unfold for us along new and unexpected paths. These moments arise from all sorts of stimuli—disciplined reading, insights from our teachers, and from seemingly random “aha” moments, to name a few. In my own journey, one of those moments came for me in reading Carole Cusack’s Invented Religions (Routledge, 2010; [EDW: Professor Cusack was interviewed here back in 2014]). The cumulative effect of that book rescued me from a previously dismissive attitude about new religious movements and opened a new world of scholarly interest. I had entered my PhD program initially intending to pursue research on Islam. However, a conversation with my supervisor—strangely enough about the 1994 Olympics hosted by Norway—caused me to re-evaluate and drew my attention to the growing presence and influence of Paganism in the contemporary world. As I discuss in the introduction to Being Viking, an offhand question in a graduate seminar stirred my initial curiosity about Heathenry and led to it becoming a major interest. A chance conversation with a friend, Dr Thad Horrell, while walking to an American Academy of Religion (AAR) venue in San Diego led to a new line of inquiry and research that helped me to better understand the tributaries of American Heathenry. Rather than one over-riding passion, my interests and work have been nudged along by these sorts of important and transformative experiences.
[EDW]
The study of modern Paganism (including the study of Heathenry) has tended to
be dominated by practicing Pagans, but – if I understand correctly – you are
not coming at Heathenry from a practitioner perspective. How do you feel that
this status as an ‘outsider’ impacted your reception when conducting
participant-observation with Heathen groups, and has it impacted your
interactions with other scholars of Paganism?
[JFC] Look,
field work is difficult. It raises all sorts of challenges. When engaged in
field work, all of us who are doing anthropology and ethnography bring aspects
of identity, personal history, and value/ideology differences that must be
negotiated with our host communities and within ourselves. As a guest in
people’s homes and religious events, researchers are being invited into sacred
and intimate settings, so respect and trust is essential. I quickly found that
methodology has ethical implications and in this regard Jone Salomonsen’s work
on methodology was influential for my approach. The relationship with a host
community and different individuals therein is a process, an ongoing effort to
analyze, evaluate, and respond. I do not
think it is categorically different for “insiders” except that the issues and
dilemmas themselves may vary. And the stakes are potentially higher for those
who are devotionally committed to the religions they study. Insiders also experience
a range of responses from their communities and face challenges in negotiating
their presence and their relationships. I think—for some insiders—the
relationship with their religious community is forever changed for better or
worse by their research experience. I do want to push back against a
dichotomizing assumption that “outsider” and “insider” are clearly definable
terms. Both insiders and outsiders can and do take both emic and etic
perspectives during the research process. The methodologies we employ for field
work should weave us through both of these perspectives, thereby complicating
the outsider/insider perspective. That said, the goal for both insiders and
outsiders is always good research.
But
yes as an outsider certain difficulties presented themselves from the outset.
When I was attempting my first field experience with a Heathen group, my
positionality (i.e., the institution with which I was affiliated for my PhD
work) was an immediate red flag to my hosts. This was no surprise to any of us.
There were good reasons for their hesitancy. Any religious group—and
particularly Pagans who have experienced religious persecution from hegemonic
religions—want to protect the integrity of their events, avoid persecution and
exploitation. From my perspective, this was a challenge that I was committed to
working through. And to their immense credit, the group did not simply cut me
off. They were willing to enter into a discussion and negotiation that resulted
in the leadership of that group getting to know me and granting permission to
attend their religious event as a researcher. Several of those leaders went on
to become friends and collaborators and are people whom I greatly respect. As I
moved among Heathen religious communities and groups during field work, similar
vetting processes took place repeatedly. From my perspective, the onus is on
the researcher to establish and maintain working relationships. There are
always people who are going to be suspicious and even hostile, and some people
with whom work is not possible—but that’s okay. For the most part, I found that
Heathen people were careful but hospitable and willing to take a risk with a
stranger as long as trust can be established. I am grateful for the many
Heathens who spoke with me about their religion and shared their thoughts and
experiences.
Regarding
the scholarly community, I feel strongly that we should avoid tribalizing our
fields of study along lines of religious affiliation. As scholars who want to
understand the world more fully, insularity is not a positive trait.
Positionality is important and we need to be serious about how it impacts our
work. However, it should not be a barrier to scholarly inquiry or participation
in scholarly community. Any field of study benefits from participants from a
variety of perspectives. Are there limits to scholarly inclusivity? Of course,
some positionalities do create conflicts of interest. Work that promotes
anti-social, racial, and religious persecution is to be shunned. But generally
speaking, scholarly communities should strive to be generous in whom they
include as constructive participants.
[EDW]
Have you observed changes in the American (or international) Heathen community
since you started your research on the topic in 2010? Obviously, there has been
growing ideological polarisation within U.S. society during the last decade;
has this had a significant impact on Heathenry?
[JFC] The
ideological polarization has dramatically affected Heathenry in the American
context. We have observed a hardening of folkish positions* as well as the
emergence of anti-racist and inclusive Heathen identities – these aren’t new by
any means, but have attained a new degree of prominence. I think that the older
generations of Heathens, even those who were anti-racist, were more likely to
hold a “live-and-let-live” perspective. These early generations of Heathens were
part of building the religion with few adherents, little infrastructure, and resource
scarcity. This situation impacted their understanding of community. However, due
to incidents of racial violence, change in the American culture, and growth of
the Heathen community, ideological positions within Heathenry have also become more
pronounced and Heathens are more willing to draw hard and fast ideological lines
such as Declaration 127 (http://declaration127.com). I see Heathenry
experiencing a couple of “reformations” – an earlier one that sought to weed
out Christian influence in Heathen culture and lore, and a current one that
directly confronts the legacy of racism and neo-Nazi ideology. As an example,
consider the new edition of The Troth’s tome Our Troth (https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/ben-waggoner/our-troth/paperback/product-dd2v8g.html?page=1&pageSize=4)
which contains a new chapter dealing with the influence of Völkisch and Nazi
tributaries on the development of contemporary Heathenry.
The
importance of the internet has only increased in the last decade. Heathenry has
seen the emergence of more extra-organizational voices—influencers with their
own social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Patreon. And on the
far-right of Heathenry, ideologues have shifted toward alternative social media
like Gab and VK as they have been de-platformed from mainstream social media
sites. That is an important structural change. And these voices are often
exploring new ways of being Heathen. Both ideological sides of Heathenry have
seen the growth of new forms of (online) community that are not primarily
religious in nature. More than just getting people together to do a ritual,
Heathens are increasingly exploring cultural and lifestyle issues and thinking
about how these work out in the contemporary world.
[* = EDW: Folkish Heathenry is a wing of the religion that generally argues that Heathen practice should be restricted to members of a putative Northern European/Germanic/Nordic racial group. Typically, it is characterised as being politically right-wing to far-right.]
[EDW]
What has the response to your thesis and book been like? How have Heathens
themselves responded to the work, and what was the response at the primarily
Christian environment where you conducted your doctoral research (Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary)?
[JFC] It
has been rewarding to find Being Viking showing up in bibliographies,
presentations at the AAR, and being used constructively in the research of
other scholars. I hope it will continue to be a springboard for further work.
And I hope it contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of Heathenry as
much more than a hot mess of far-right racism. I think my book has a lot to say
for those who will take some time with it.
I
chose to pursue my PhD in World Religions where I did for a variety of reasons. One of the benefits of that program was being
able to work very closely with my supervisor, Dr James D. Chancellor. He was an
impressive and inspiring ethnographer and researcher, and a great teacher, who
wrote an important work on the new religious movement known as the Children of
God, or The Family (Life in the Family: An Oral History of the Children of
God, Syracuse, 2000).
Generally
speaking, those of us who are researching and writing about Paganism and/or
other socially controversial religious communities—and especially those of us
who do intensive fieldwork with those groups—find ourselves potentially
misunderstood by both our host and home communities. This experience of
mistrust is an old story for all sorts of cross-cultural people. As Mary
Douglas elucidated, doubts and suspicions about purity are frequently raised
against boundary-crossers. Again, it is something that I find myself continually
negotiating.
While
the research for Being Viking began during my dissertation, it grew and
expanded as I moved on from that degree program. So Being Viking is not
a revision of my dissertation. It was a significantly different work. It
reflects my own growth as a researcher and my continued interaction with the
Heathen community. The book was guided by a completely different set of
advisers and editors. Again, I can’t speak too highly of my editors Chas
Clifton, author of Her Hidden Children (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006) [EDW:
interviewed here back in 2012], and Scott Simpson, co-editor of Modern
Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Central and Eastern Europe (Routledge,
2013), and the team at Equinox Publishing. They all made significant
contributions to my life as a scholar.
[EDW]
What do you see as the areas of Heathenry that really require further academic
research?
[JFC] How
is Heathenry contributing to the re-emergence of polytheism in the West? And
what is this polytheism like? How might it be like and unlike the polytheism of
the ancient past and the polytheistic continuity of other world religions?
I
am especially interested in how Heathenry changes the daily life and practices
of people in the real world. How does Heathen practice and ritual create new
networks—religious, social, economic—that build more sustainable ways of life? Scholars
such as Barbara Davies and Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen are exploring these areas in
their work.
As
Heathen culture continues to change, scholars like Jennifer Snook are helping
us to see into the diversity of the Heathen world, looking at how Heathenry
manifests in different political spheres and flows into other subcultures. More
work could be done on the permutations of Heathen identity.
We
need to learn more about the influence of the internet on Heathenry. Scholars such
as Ross Downing have just begun to explore the complex forms that Heathenry is
taking online.
Stephanie
Schnurbein and other scholars have done a lot of work in uncovering and
explicating the völkisch and Traditionalist tributaries to the contemporary
confluence of far-right racism and violence. There is still work to be done in
understanding this.
[EDW]
Are you continuing to pursue research into Heathenry or are you switching focus
to other topics? Have you any forthcoming projects that we should be keeping an
eye out for?
[JFC]
My ongoing research into Heathenry looks at how certain groups have propagated
a white supremacist and nationalist agenda in recent years. In this vein, my
chapter “Performing ‘American Völkisch’” is included in the recently published
book Paganism and Its Discontents: Enduring Problems of Racialized Identity
(Holli S. Emore, Jonathan M. Leader, editors, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2020). I am also presenting work at the American Academy
of Religion along these lines. At the 2020 AAR I presented to the New Religious
Movements Unit on “White Nationalism and the Performance of Religion in
Heathenism” which looked at Heathen internet memes and racist radicalization.
For the upcoming 2021 AAR, I along with other scholars of Heathenry will be
presenting to the Pagan Studies and the Religion and Ecology units on the
impact of blood and soil ideology in Heathenry. Over the years, the AAR has
played an important role in my research process and scholarly life. I have valued and benefited from the
hospitality of the Pagan Studies group and the New Religious Movements group as
spaces to present research and to refine my work.
In
addition to Heathenry, since moving to the Appalachian region, I have a growing
interest in Appalachian religion. I am hoping to pull together a project on
Paganism in Appalachia in the near future.
[EDW] Thank you very much for this additional insight into your work, Dr Calico, and I look forward to your future research on the Pagans of Appalachia!
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