Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 92 pages
- Published by: University Press of Mississippi January 28, 2002
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1578063914
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1578063918
-
Book Dimensions:
8.1 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
- Weighs: 4.8 ounces
Product Description
Fire-cat masks, earth mother icons, henna tattoos, ankhs, and water altars--these objects may sound like the inventory in an ancient druid's sanctuary. But they are part of the sacred reliquary created by contemporary artists and practitioners of Neo-Pagan ritual.
Calling themselves "witches" and "pagans" and drawing inspiration from pre-Christian polytheistic worship, the practitioners of Neo-Paganism have often been misunderstood by outsiders. In the uninitiated, their art and iconography have inspired fear.
In featuring the works of ten artists, Sabina Magliocco's
Neo-Pagan Sacred Art and Altars unlocks the meanings of this religion's creativity and symbolism and makes its sacred nature understandable to non-specialists.
A stunning array of color plates and halftones will touch the imagination of insiders and outsiders alike, revealing the imaginative skills of some of the movement's most celebrated artists, as well as amateurs working at home with family and friends.
These masks and altars, earrings and necklaces create one of the Neo-Pagan movement's most striking features--its ritual art. Yet this is one of the first books to focus on these spiritual objects rather than on the sociology and psychology of the followers. The odd array of costumes and jewelry, as well as the juxtaposition of neo-primitive and medieval-looking styles, troubles outsiders and contributes to the movement's undeserved reputation for attracting eccentrics. Yet its sacred art is part of one of the most flourishing contemporary traditions in the United States.
Sabina Magliocco is an assistant professor of anthropology at California State University (Northridge). Her previous book,
The Two Madonnas: The Politics of Festival in a Sardinian Community (1993), won the 1994 Chicago Folklore Prize. She has been published in such periodicals as
Journal of American Folklore,
Western Folklore, and
Fabula.
From the Inside Flap
Mystic meanings behind the flourishing art of modern-day pagans and witches
Reader ReviewsAt a recent conference I attended a talk on "NeoPagan Sacred Art & Altars" by Sabina Magliocco who was speaking from her monograph. Ms. (Dr.?) Magliocco is an assistant professor at CSU Northridge (in Southern California). This fascinating book describes the Wiccan and NeoPagan aesthetic as viewed by an academic (this is definitely a book whose intended audience is scholars and folklorists). The art described ranges from community art (altar building, fine art, statue creation) to the personal (costuming, jewelry making, henna tattooing). There are black and white pictures and also color plates in the back of the book which will give you some small idea of the beauty of the art discussed. One of the main topics is altar building, both in the sense of the altar as a liminal space between the worlds and as an intuitively assembled collection of natural and crafted objects to express an emotion or harmonize with a natural force. I learned a new word - "bricolage", which Merriam-Webster defines as "construction or something constructed by using whatever comes to hand". Magliocco uses this word especially to describe festival-built altars and other multi-person creations. She interviews artists and altar builders with sympathy and insight. Another theme is the juxtaposition of natural and human images (both iconographically and in terms of natural objects and human/artist created objects) in Pagan art, which she describes as violating the boundaries between human/animal and cultural/natural. Looking around my home and temple I can say that I am a participant in the artistic movement she describes. I am looking around me with new eyes thanks to reading it. The book is an intriguing read for those interested in NeoPagan material culture.
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