Published this year in the UK and US, Sex, Death and Witchcraft, by Douglas Ezzy, explores a controversial Pagan festival Faunalia and develops a new relational theory of culture. We talked briefly with the author about his new book:
1. What particular areas of religious studies interest you and why?
The book is both a rich ethnographic account of controversial Pagan festival and a provocative reflection on the role of emotions, symbols, and ritual in theories of religion. The festival involves “a recreation of the Witches' sabbat … It's R-rated, it contains adult themes, nudity and sex references”, according to Harrison – one of the festival participants I interviewed. The theory develops what Graham Harvey and I are calling “relational theory” in the study of religion.
I’m interested in studies of religion that expose the way we find meaning and purpose in life. I’m particularly interested in religious responses to difficult and confronting life situations. These expose aspects of being human that are harder to see in everyday situations are a sort of “breaching experiment” to use Harold Garfinkel’s term. The religious breaching experiments expose the centrality of relationships, emotions, practices and symbols. These are central to both religion, and to what it is to be human.
2. How would you describe your book in one sentence?
In one sentence: The book develops a theory of the role of symbols, emotions, and performance in religious practice, illustrated through an ethnographic account of a Pagan festival involving theatrically elaborate rituals that explore sex and death.
3. When did you start researching for this book?
The project was conceived in 2003. I conducted the research in 2005. I then spent a long time working out how to theorise the data. My initial attempts focused on the shock value: “Oh wow! 80 people dancing naked around a bonfire!” I soon realised that behind the confronting nature of the rituals were some very mundane, but profoundly challenging issues about how we understand what it is to be human: we fear and desire sex; we are deeply ambivalent about loss, death, and dying. These aspects of the rituals always fascinated me, but it took a long time to work out how to write about them in a way that focused on the theoretical issues that they point to.
4. What’s the meaning behind the title?
The title of the book references the two main rituals at the festival. The first is a death rite, in which participants role play their own death. The ritual is a re-enactment of the Greek myth of Persephone’s descent into the Underworld. The second rite is highly erotic. Participants dance naked around a bonfire and interact with an hermaphroditic deity called “Baphomet”.
5. Which part of writing a book have you enjoyed most?
The book moves between description and theory. Some sections are largely narrative, based on participant accounts. I find these sections very emotionally engaging – they provide a rich sense of the experience of the rituals. Other sections are very theoretical. It is these theoretical sections that I found most satisfying intellectually. I have come to understand religious ritual and its purpose in a much more sophisticated way.
6. Any tips for people reading the book?
The Introduction is deceptively descriptive. The book becomes quite theoretically sophisticated in the later chapters. The book is best read in the order that it is written. It is tempting to flick forward to the description of the sex rite, and if people choose to do this, then that is OK. Theoretically, these sections will take on greater significance if they are contextualised by the earlier chapters.
7. Where will your research go from here?
My current research builds on the relational approach to religion developed in this book. I’m particularly interested in the role of emotions and ritual in shaping our response to climate change. I expect the next decades to be particularly challenging for the world as the economic impacts of climate change begin to have an impact. I hope that we can work out creative and compassionate responses to the grief and loss that this will create.
8. If you could have dinner with one person, living or dead, who would it be?
Paul Ricoeur and Jessica Benjamin are two of the most significant influences on my thought. Ricoeur’s hermeneutics helped me see beyond the narrow methodological atheism that constrains much of academia. Benjamin’s concept of mutual recognition still challenges me, both intellectually and practically. I’d love to talk through some of their ideas with both of them over a beer and an evening meal.
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