Some of the most recent articles from open access anthropology journals (beta)
In this article I explore the evolving relationship the Finnish poet and journalist Aarni Kouta had to the mythological character of Lucifer over his lifetime. Kouta was a prominent figure in the early-twentieth-century Finnish cultural sph…
How do practitioners learn to recognize divine presence? Drawing on apprentice ethnography in the Court of Aine, a Swedish Wiccan coven—four interviews and some twenty ritual occasions—this article argues that revelation is best understood …
In this article I examine how Elsa Heporauta (1883–1960) produced, interpreted and circulated esoteric knowledge in early-twentieth-century Finland, situating her work within a vibrant esoteric milieu. Drawing on archival notebooks, manuscr…
This article examines the historical formation and contemporary significance of Kirishitan shrines (Kirishitan jinja) in Nagasaki Prefecture. Rather than viewing Kakure Kirishitan survival primarily as the preservation of Christian practice…
The focus of the article is Duchess Hedwig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp and her involvement in Freemasonry, specifically through her lodge of adoption, which operated within the Stockholm royal castle in the late eighteenth centu…
In this article I engage with the video works Sentimentum and Fantomi by the Finnish visual artist Venla Helenius, departing from the conceptual frameworks of esotericism and critical post-humanism. In these video works, different epistemol…
The Tattarisuo Mystery was a sensationalized witchcraft case in Finland in the early 1930s. At its centre was a group of displaced working-class individuals, called by the press the Tattarisuo coven, who sought through magical rituals to re…
In Finland, kirtan—communal call-and-response singing rooted in Indian devotional traditions—has become a diverse practice across both new religious movements and contemporary spirituality. This article asks how culturally learned symbols c…
This article examines how identity motives shape siblings’ disaffiliation from the Conservative Laestadian revival movement in a Sweden-Finnish context, highlighting apostasy as a multifaceted identity process marked by renegotiation betwee…
This study investigates polemical representations of enemies in early Christian Greek literature (1–600 CE) through the framework of Cultural Attraction Theory. It begins with the identification of recurring categories of accusations—such a…
This article critically reassesses the accounts of the supposed custom of infanticide, particularly female infanticide (in Arabic, wa’d al-banāt), among pre-Islamic Arabs, arguing that this notion emerged during the Umayyad era as an imagin…
The aim of this article is to synthesize existing knowledge in a novel way by looking through a social psychological lens at historical manifestations of antisemitism and its most recent variant, presented as a case study which tracks its d…
Identities (and social identities) are studied in many different disciplines and approached with different theoretical tools and concepts. This special issue grew out of the need to enhance dialogue between disciplines and expand our common…
This review article explores the applicability of the Social Identity Approach (SIA) in historical research, focusing on research and sources from the Early Modern era, particularly the context of the Lutheran Reformation. The study argues …
In the early 1900s, the Swedish noblewoman Tyra Kleen (1874–1951) was a highly productive artist, author, suffragette and occult seeker. Although Kleen’s esoteric and feminist interests have to a limited extent been considered in previous r…
Seeking to establish “psychical history” as a category of Victorian occult science, this paper explores the consequences that emerge when belief in spirit phenomena converges on the historical imagination. To do so, a study of the Bygone Da…
This essay revisits art as an alternative epistemology that probes the parameters of the real and the complicated entanglements between humans and non-humans from an eco-feminist perspective. It builds upon the work of Leonora Carrington an…
The essay considers the seeker as weaver and positions relationality as central to the experiences of many at the intersections of esotericism and modern art. It invokes the metaphor of weaving to envision a non-static, dislocated and limin…
In this article I examine how ecological and esoteric knowledge intersects in the works of the contemporary Icelandic artist Gabríela Friðriksdóttir. Drawing from diverse traditions and practices, such as alchemy, Neopaganism, tarot, numero…
This article explores a group of contemporary magical artists who are inspired by feminist new materialist thought. In the work of these contemporary artists, magic is defined less by the transmission of traditions and initiatory wisdom or …
This article proposes that approaching the work and practice of the British-born Mexican artist Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) and other women working at the intersection of art and esotericism necessitates revisiting some fundamental assum…
This article explores esoteric potentiality—the perceived possibility of accessing the otherworldly—through a hermeneutic framework that integrates artist intent, the photographic image and audience reception. The Finnish artist Hanne Kiive…
This article examines the trans-disciplinary œuvre and hosting activities of the Swiss-based artist and archivist, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn (1881–1962), founder of the Eranos Conferences and creator of the Eranos Archive. Drawn from my doctoral p…
As a scholarly approach, “lived theology” is still a loose and evolving paradigm not yet fully developed as a research field, and where definitions and methods are still open to discussion. This reflective text suggests a theoretical and the…
The existing literature on the role of religion in addressing xenophobia in South Africa has focused predominantly on Christianity, despite documented evidence of the involvement of other religions in campaigns against it. Our study is based…