A Field Guide to Modern Pagans in Hamilton, Ontario by Neil
Jamieson-Williams © 2008 Australopithecine Press ISBN
978-1894602112 146 Pages Paperback $19.95 (U.S.) Available from
www.Lulu.com
Every once in awhile I get a chance to step into the world of academia,
which I enjoy. I am, by no stretch of the imagination, an academic, so
such
excursions broaden my perceptions. About a year and a half ago I had the
op****tunity to review Toward an Academic Study of British Wicca, which
gave
me an appreciation of the origins of British Wicca. Now this book offers
a
look into Canadian Paganism.
More im****tantly, the author lays out procedures for those who will follow
him. He explains a variety of ways to collect data, while at the same
time
explaining why hard facts and numbers will be difficult to come by. He
took
years to ac***ulate the data contained in this small book. In spite of
the
fact that he scrupulously ****elded the identities of his respondents he
has
spoken with, he still manages to convey a significant amount of
information.
This book provides a snapshot of the Modern Pagan community in the
Hamilton,
Ontario, Canada region. While this is a small geographic area, and it
isn't
wise to generalize from such a small sample area, the techniques used can
be
expanded to obtain information over a wider area.
Essentially, the value of this work lies not in the comments made about
the
various groups (most of them are extremely small groups with minimal
effect
on the local community), but in the detailing of various ways of gathering
the information and how to interact specifically with minority religious
groups.
As he is quick to point out, the Modern Pagan community is in an almost
constant state of flux, not only in Canada, but elsewhere in the Western
world. He draws no conclusions from his research, although he does offer
some of his own thoughts as regards the Modern Pagan population (which he
clearly indicates are, at best, guesstimates.
This is a work which will have a moderately limited appeal, unfortunately.
It may, however (and this is a personal desire on my part) spark enough
interest in others to pursue and expand upon this work. It will never be
possible to deliver the definitive work on Modern Pagans, due to the
constant evolution of the culture, but the more attention that is paid to
its development, the better understood it can become. Understanding why
people choose this belief system; how they interact with each other and
the
surrounding culture; and what their hopes and fears are can (with any luck
at all) help those hopes to materialize and the fears to diminish.
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