JÄRELVAADATAV: Euroopa animismid: Paulsoni loengud religiooniuuringutes

7.11.2023 kell 16:15-17:45 – Jakobi 2-114

The concept of animism is deeply rooted in colonial structures. Introduced by the British anthropologist Edward B. Tylor (1871) as the belief in the animation of nature and the existence of spirits, colonial religious studies imagined animism as a ‘failed ontology.’ This ‘primitive religion’ could be found outside of Europe, mainly in Indigenous, Buddhist, and Hindu traditions, but also in segments of European societies that seemed to be untouched by the project of rational, disenchanted European modernity. The lecture situates the early discourse on animism in an ambiguous European setting that is torn between fascination and rejection of animism and related trends in religion and philosophy

8.11.2023 kell 16:15-17:45 – Jakobi 2-114

While postcolonial critique resulted in a rejection of the concept of animism in most academic settings, since the 1980s, the term has gained a lot of traction in new religious and spiritual movements, first in North America and then in Europe. Particularly in nature-based spiritualities such as paganism or shamanism, animism became a positive identity marker for many people, including environmental activists and artists. Scholars, too, revisited the concept of animism and suggested new interpretations that look at animism as a relational approach to the more-than-human world. The lecture describes these developments as a general societal change, which involves ‘discourse communities’ formed by scholars, practitioners, artists, and other actors.

9.11.2023 kell 16:15-17:45 – Jakobi 2-114

The academic and popular work on the concept of animism is clearly linked to a broader change that characterizes European and North American intellectual culture today. The new scholarly interpretations of animism resonate with the ‘relational turn’ across academic disciplines, the arts, and politics. Taking seriously the relationality, entanglement, and situatedness of our knowledges is key for the study of religion as well. As it turns out, the acknowledgment of animism as a European tradition may even contribute to attempts at decolonization and de-Westernization. Against this background, the lecture formulates a few programmatic ideas for the study of religion in the 21st century.