Cultural Studies paper by Williams, Alina
“The Wise Men from Transylvania and Egypt”: Ritual and Nation in Hungarian Neoshamanism (Accepted)
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
In this paper, I examine the place of neoshamanic ritual in the post-communist Hungarian religious environment, situating it within the broader context of questions of modern Hungarian national identity. This paper explores competing notions of what it means to be both Hungarian and religious in the post-communist period through an analysis of how Hungarian neoshamans deploy the language and symbols of Roman Catholic devotion in Hungary alongside and within shamanic worldviews. This ritual creativity, drawing on Siberian and Turkic shamanisms, Roman Catholicism, and Hungarian táltos culture, is one way in which Hungarian neoshamans are reacting against the repressiveness of the former communist era while seeking to negotiate the shifting boundaries of the practical religious sphere from private to public with rituals that are consciously performed for viewers, both in-person and online. This paper analyzes two examples of neoshamanic practice in Hungary: one, a ritual cleansing of the crown jewels of St. Stephen of Hungary in 2012, and the other, a “táltos Christmas” on the outskirts of Budapest in 2009. By juxtaposing these two cases, this paper demonstrates that the outward-facing, public, and performative practices of Hungarian neoshamans contrast with and challenge the norms of the preceding decades while retaining a connection to perceived “Hungarian-ness” via Roman Catholicism. This approach to performative ritual practice, which draws on Siberian and Turkic shamanisms within an explicitly Hungarian context, results in a conception of Hungarian nationhood that invokes the ancient past while redefining what it means to be Hungarian and religious, today and beyond.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Alina Williams is a graduate student in the department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University specializing in post-Communist Hungarian religion. Her current project examines the relationship between neoshamanic ritual practice and Roman Catholicism in contemporary Hungary, situating it within the broader context of questions concerning national identity and ritual creativity.