Creation and Innovation in Australian Paganism

Authors

  • Lynne Hume University of Queensland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/arsr.v20i1.45

Keywords:

religion, Australia, Pacific, academic study

Abstract

This article gives a brief account of the background to contemporary Paganism, its emergence in Australia, discusses some of its key players and publications, and then discusses the increasing focus on Paganism as a nature religion. It demonstrates how practitioners have had to employ innovation and a re-working of the myth cycle because of the particular environments within which they ?nd themselves. The southern hemisphere raises some unique problems which have to be reconciled, and Aboriginal Australian spirituality, with its deep connections with the land, has had an effect on this innovation as well.

Author Biography

  • Lynne Hume, University of Queensland
    Lynne Hume, Associate Professor, is an anthropologist at The University of Queensland, in the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics. She has published extensively in the areas of contemporary spirituality, indigenous religion, women and religion, and altered states of consciousness. Her monographs include: Witchcraft and Paganism in Australia (1997); Ancestral Power: The Dreaming, Consciousness and Aboriginal Australians (2002); Portals: Opening Doorways to Other Realities through the Senses (in press 2006). She has also co-edited two books: Anthropologists in the Field: Cases in Participant Observation, with Jane Mulcock, and Popular Spiritualities: the Politics of Contemporary Enchantment with Kathleen McPhillips.

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Published

2007-04-01

How to Cite

Hume, L. (2007). Creation and Innovation in Australian Paganism. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 20(1), 45-58. https://doi.org/10.1558/arsr.v20i1.45