historical reenactment; Hungary; Kurultaj; neo-shamanism; neopaganism; re-enchantment; ritual; ritual objects; History; Sociology and Political Science
Abstract :
[en] This article explores how ancestry is displayed in the Kurultaj festival where historical reenactment clubs, contemporary Pagan leaders and their followers, politicians, physical anthropologists, and archaeologists as well as folk ensembles gather to celebrate present-day Hungarians’ purported Central Asian origins. Considering this event as an instance of re-enchantment closely connected with the Pagan revival, the article’s objective is twofold. On the one hand, it attempts to understand how Pagan conceptions of the past exceed the strict limits of groups engaged in (re)creating pre-Christian religious beliefs and practices, reaching a wider public and interweaving spirituality with politics and historical sciences. On the other hand, it suggests that the Pagan revival, as re-enchantment, might be characterized not only by the sociological, economic, historical, and ideological background of the persons and groups that instigate it but also by the new forms of rituality that compose it.
Research Center/Unit :
Institute of Sociological Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague
Disciplines :
Anthropology
Author, co-author :
Teisenhoffer, Viola ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Institut de recherche en Sciences Sociales (IRSS) > IRSS: Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale et Culturelle ; Institute of Sociological Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic ; Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités (EPHE-PSL), France
Language :
English
Title :
Pagan revival, re-enchantment, and new forms of rituality in Hungary: the case of the Kurultaj festival
Publication date :
15 November 2023
Journal title :
Religion
ISSN :
0048-721X
eISSN :
1096-1151
Publisher :
Routledge
Special issue title :
‘Re-enchantment’ and Religious Change in Former Socialist Europe
The research presented here benefited from fundings from the LabEx Hastec (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes/Paris Sciences & Lettres), between 2017 and 2018, as well as from the ERC CZ project ‘ReEnchEu’ (n. LL2006), led by Dr. Alessandro Testa between 2020 and 2022 at the Department of Sociological Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague, and funded by the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. I am very grateful to Michael Houseman, Marika Moïsseff, Michael Stausberg and the anonymous reviewer who have carefully read and helped improve this text with their insightful comments and suggestions. I also warmly thank Riki Papp for the inspiring discussions and for taking photos of the tree of life for me and Miroslav Mavra for his proofreading.
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