Since the mid-twentieth century, religious movements identifying themselves as Paganism, shamanism, native faiths and others have experimented with two forms of indigeneity. One arises from claims to be reviving or re-presenting previously hidden religious practices from ancestral or pre-Christian times. The other form of indigeneity is found in lessons learnt (directly or indirectly) from Indigenous peoples (especially Native Americans and/or Siberians). In the last decade in particular these two trends have sometimes fused in what we call "indigenizing movements". This book tests the interpretive and methodological value of this. "Indigenizing" was coined by Paul C. Johnson in a discussion of lowland South American and Caribbean religious traditions as the opposite end of a continuum from "universalizing". The continuum recognises tendencies to emphasise resonance with and relevance to local and ancestral traditions (indigenizing) and tendencies to stress universality or global engagement. These need not be dualistically opposed and are most likely to be matters of stress. Those who conceive of themselves and their cultures as maintaining and enhancing discrete ethnic, cultural or religious communities may represent one trajectory. Others not only assert that they have something to say to the rest of the world but may also seek to revise "local ancestral" traditions in the light of more global traditions. We might recognise a tension here between "Indigenous" and "World" religions but the contributors to this volume contest the value of that categorisation of what are, in reality, more dynamic and fluid realities. The chapters test a differently conceived tension: that between indigenizing and universalizing. This experimentation is propelled by examining European originated movements in which engagements with Indigenous animistic, shamanistic or "nature venerating" traditions are employed in self-conceptions and in the discourses of identity formation, maintenance and dissemination. Seven main chapters test aspects of our key theme by focusing on specific movements or phenomena. These are followed by a responsive afterword considering the effects of applying a notion coined for the critical examination of Indigenous South American and Caribbean religions to the different context of European movements. The book aims to enhance understanding and enrich debate not only about evolving European movements but also about the concept and practice of Indigeneity, indigenizing and of scholarly practices in relation to such phenomena.

Pagan and Native Faith movements have sprung up across Europe in recent decades, yet little has been published about them compared with their British and American counterparts. Though all such movements valorize human relationships with nature and embrace polytheistic cosmologies, practitioners’ beliefs, practices, goals, and agendas are diverse. Often side by side are groups trying to reconstruct ancient religions motivated by ethnonationalism—especially in post-Soviet societies—and others attracted by imported traditions, such as Wicca, Druidry, Goddess Spirituality, and Core Shamanism. Drawing on ethnographic cases, contributors explore the interplay of neo-nationalistic and neo-colonialist impulses in contemporary Paganism, showing how these impulses play out, intersect, collide, and transform.

The Routledge International Handbook of Heritage and Politics surveys the intersection of heritage and politics today and helps elucidate the political implications of heritage practices. It explicitly addresses the political and analyses tensions and struggles over the distribution of power. Including contributions from early-career scholars and more established researchers, the Handbook provides global and interdisciplinary perspectives on the political nature, significance and consequence of heritage and the various practices of management and interpretation. Taking a broad view of heritage, which includes not just tangible and intangible phenomena, but the ways in which people and societies live with, embody, experience, value and use the past, the volume provides a critical survey of political tensions over heritage in diverse social and cultural contexts. Chapters within the book consider topics such as: neoliberal dynamics; terror and mobilisations of fear and hatred; old and new nationalisms; public policy; recognition; denials; migration and refugeeism; crises; colonial and decolonial practice; communities; self- and personhood; as well as international relations, geopolitics, soft power and cooperation to address global problems. The Routledge International Handbook of Heritage and Politics makes an intervention into the theoretical debate about the nature and role of heritage as a political resource. It is essential reading for academics and students working in heritage studies, museum studies, politics, memory studies, public history, geography, urban studies and tourism.

Shamanism is thriving as an exotic import and a hidden native tradition in Italy today. This ethnographical work uncovers two faces of Italian shamanism. The first is trans-cultural shamans who creatively adapt rituals and beliefs from indigenous cultures worldwide. Second, extensive fieldwork shows how regional folk magic practices of segnatoriand segnatrici constitute a little-known but enduring form of native Italian shamanism. By documenting these parallel worlds, contemporary magic workers appear to be the heirs of ancient local healing traditions. Offering rare insights into vernacular religion, this book vividly portrays shamans' past and present on the Italian peninsula.

Now that we have entered the Anthropocene, the geological age in which humans have altered the natural world to such an extent that nature and culture can no longer be separated, the modern dichotomies of mind versus body and culture versus nature have become implausible and need to be replaced. In Grounding God, Arianne Conty argues that it is in the field of religion where we can find a new ontology better suited for the Anthropocene. Conty calls this new religious ontology the grounding of the sacred, in that it seeks to deconstruct the binaries of modernity and provide in their place a revalorization of the immanent earth and the more-than-human beings that inhabit it. Such a grounding of the sacred is a potent means to overcome the exploitation and desecration of the earth and its nonhuman beings and, to provide in its stead, an inclusive cosmopolitics that extends mind into matter and culture into nature. Tracing such a grounding in the Christian, Buddhist, neopagan, and animist traditions, Conty seeks to elaborate an interdisciplinary ecosophy, one that uses philosophy, anthropology, and religious studies to provide new values for the present age.

From the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s resistance against the Dakota Access pipeline to the Nepalese Newar community’s protest of the Fast Track Road Project, Indigenous peoples around the world are standing up and speaking out against global capitalism to protect the land, water, and air. By reminding us of the fundamental importance of placing Indigenous politics, histories, and ontologies at the center of our social movements, Indigenous Resurgence positions environmental justice within historical, social, political, and economic contexts, exploring the troubling relationship between colonial and environmental violence and reframing climate change and environmental degradation through an anticolonial lens.

An unprecedented undertaking by academics reflecting an extraordinary vision of world history, this landmark multivolume encyclopedia focuses on specific themes of human development across cultures era by era, providing the most in-depth, expansive presentation available of the development of humanity from a global perspective. Well-known and widely respected historians worked together to create and guide the project in order to offer the most up-to-date visions available. A monumental undertaking. A stunning academic achievement. ABC-CLIO's World History Encyclopedia is the first comprehensive work to take a large-scale thematic look at the human species worldwide. Comprised of 21 volumes covering 9 eras, an introductory volume, and an index, it charts the extraordinary journey of humankind, revealing crucial connections among civilizations in different regions through the ages. Within each era, the encyclopedia highlights pivotal interactions and exchanges among cultures within eight broad thematic categories: population and environment, society and culture, migration and travel, politics and statecraft, economics and trade, conflict and cooperation, thought and religion, science and technology. Aligned to national history standards and packed with images, primary resources, current citations, and extensive teaching and learning support, the World History Encyclopedia gives students, educators, researchers, and interested general readers a means of navigating the broad sweep of history unlike any ever published.