Articles in the volume continue the trajectory of thinking of Vernacular Religion (as outlined by Primiano) as religion per se, religion/spiritual seeking as lived, highly individual, creative, polyphonic, context sensitive, dynamic, and ambiguous. This presents vernacular religion as contesting, expanding, reformulating in pragmatic ways institutional formulations of religion, and locus of authority. In addition, Vernacular Knowledge can be considered ‘other than’ mainstream/ institutional/ scientific/ political/ social/ secular ‘orthodoxy’. It appears in multiple genres and vehicles of expression that are shared and shaped communally but individually articulated and actualised. Vernacular religion/vernacular knowledge/ alternative beliefs emerge in many contexts – in relation to institutional religion, vis-à-vis secularism, state sponsored atheism, scientific rationalism, official medicine, etc. In contrast to institutionally established doctrines with monological voicing the expressive field of the vernacular is always heteroglot. Dominant discourses, with claims to hegemonic authority, generate dissent – a variety of alternative ideas, and therefore the notion of homogenous worldview, dominating any social groups and time periods, is misleading. The distinction between official and vernacular discourses is not absolute but relative, depending on the social positions of individuals, their goals and agendas. However, there is a major difference between prestigious and powerful institutionalised truths and vernacular discourses, as the latter do not form unitary systems nor centralised forces of opposition to official doctrines. Instead, folklore manifests endless variation and creativity.

Official and vernacular discourses can swap places when revolutions happen and new regimes take over. When Estonia restored its independence, official holidays of the Soviet rule lost their institutional grounds and authorized meanings. Several of them continued to be celebrated informally and some have acquired new meanings since, while also giving rise to new commemorative practices. Observed officially in Russia but ignored or disapproved of by the Estonian state, these vernacular holidays are characterised by ambiguity. The most visible and controversial vernacular holiday of this kind in contemporary Estonia is Victory Day or the 9th of May that was introduced after WWII to commemorate Nazi Germany’s capitulation to the Soviet Union. Informal Victory Day celebrations in Estonia gathered momentum in 2007 in response to controversies surrounding a WWII memorial known as the “Bronze Soldier” and the government’s decision to relocate it from the centre of Tallinn. The article describes and analyses vernacular Victory Day practices and discourses in Tallinn, drawing on author’s long-term ethnographic fieldwork. The focus lies on the ability of individuals and groups to generate their own messages that contest the authority of monologues produced by the Estonian and the Russian state.

The system of the Soviet ideology created not only official narratives about sacred leaders, but also ‘patterns of silence’, when Soviet citizens could not discuss aloud Stalin’s personal features, his private life and details of his biography. Such situation pushes people to create alternative “uncensored” biographies of Stalin. In the post-Soviet time making such an “alternative biography” became an important part in the process of the reassessing the Soviet past. This alternative biography was constructed due to the traditional folklore mechanisms and included much elements as representations of Stalin with fix fingers (a Devil’s sign), with beast’s teeth (symptom of the shape-shifter) and so on. The proposed paper reveals the elements of this “alternative biography”, how it was constructed, and for what reason it is still functioning.

In the middle of the XX century, one of the most celebrated Belarusian writers, Vladimir Korotkevich, wrote a novel dedicated to the national uprising of 1863. The book was planned to be published in three parts: the first two parts were about the organizers of the uprising, their childhood, education, and preparation for the protest, while the third one was planned to be dedicated to the uprising per se. According to the official version, the third part was never written: it appeared as a short novel, which didn’t justify the hopes of the readers and was not very successful. However, as stated by intellectuals, the third part of the book existed but was stolen by the KGB, and is still kept in the closed archives; its publication may cause ethnic consolidation and democratic changes in contemporary Belarus. Departing from the example of this lost book, I will proceed to similar cases, e. g. search for another Belarusian relic – Cross of Saint Euphrosyne lost in the XX century; and further relate it to other narratives debunking Soviet evil and blaming Soviet authorities for today’s Belarusian cultural and political decline. They emerge in the context of Belarusian belated search for ethnic identity and become one of the few tools available in the struggle for democracy. This paper analyses action undertaken by searchers of stolen masterpieces, stories rising around them, and hopes laid on how Belarus might change in case they are found.

Humour’s ambivalent relationship to authority presents one of the most interesting challenges to the scholarship on the subject. Does humour succeed in challenging the dominant social or ideological system in which it appears? Does it, on the contrary, merely serve to sustain the status quo by channelling revolutionary energy into jokes? This chapter examines the multiple functions of humour in the countercultural movement of ecological spirituality based on the Ringing Cedars of Russia book series of Vladimir Megre. Conservative readings of Megre’s books are often challenged by critical opinions and alternative interpretations expressed in humorous form. At the same time, these jokes ensure the stability and vitality of the movement itself, enabling internal criticism without challenging its main tenets. The chapter addresses this contradiction by emphasizing a third function of humour, which becomes apparent in the context of contemporary spiritual seeking. Humour, here, can serve as a strategy of determining individual relationships to various doctrines, as people carve their own paths on the alternative spirituality scene.

As the traditional Hasidic way of life was extinguished by the Holocaust, the last “authentic” form of Jewish mysticism came to a close, Gershom Scholem argued in his momentous book Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941, p. 34): ”it has become again what it was in the beginning: the esoteric wisdom of small groups of men out of touch with life and without any influence in it.” Nevertheless, practices stemming from Kabbalah and Jewish mystical sources have since the turn of the millennium become more popular than ever inside as well as outside Jewish communities in Europe and North America, relocating and reframing traditional practices for a late-modern, urban, liberal and liquid spiritual milieu. But are such vernacular practices to be seen as “authentic” continuations of the tradition, or merely as vulgar commodifications? Here, the views of contemporary researchers differ significantly. This article focuses on the contemporary practice of nigunim – the wordless melodies that Hasidic Jews have been dancing and chanting for ages as an embodied prayer practice. The nigunim practice is currently experiencing a renaissance as part of an experience-based, un-dogmatic, emotionally saturated and border-crossing form of Jewish spirituality. For this article, ethnographic material has been gathered among Jews from progressive milieus in London to shed light on the practice. The focus on music, body, experience and emotions in contrast to dogmas, institutions, hierarchies and words form the nexus of the analysis, and the article suggests that the dichotomy between “authentic” and “vulgarised” practice can be overcome by applying a vernacular religious perspective.

This paper explores the power of the visual to contest and subvert dominant religious beliefs and doctrines. Through an exploration of Inochentism and Archangelism, ‘home-grown’ religious movements in twentieth and twenty first century Moldova, I trace the power of visual media, when combined with folk narratives, prophesy and visionary literature, to contest state and church authority, embody the sacred and transform belief. The two movements discussed, driven underground by nationalist and communist regimes in Romania and Soviet Moldova, deployed visual media in the form of vernacular icons, photographs and photomontages, as powerful tools for critique and as a means of mobilizing belief during periods of intense persecution by the state. Based on a series of interviews with members of these movements between 2011 and 2014, on secret police archival sources and on Soviet propaganda publications, I examine how, under the pressure of state atheist ideology and political oppression, relations between divine and human, this world and the next, and the material and immaterial were re-imagined, re-presented and embodied by Moldovan village people.

Black Madonnas are found in some of the most famous Christian shrines in Europe. For example, Montserrat in Spain, Loreto in Italy and Le Puy in France are all home to black Madonnas. The figure of the black Madonna is also popular in the goddess-feminist spirituality movement. Within the fields of goddess and feminist spiritualities, there is a substantial body of works in the form of books, articles and websites dedicated to the exploration of the phenomenon. Within this field,the black Madonna is presented as a figure ofsexual, political and spiritual liberation from the patriarchy of the Church. The black Madonna is positioned as an alternative to the more familiar white representation of the Virgin Mary, who is considered to represent Church hierarchy, obedience and passivity. This article will consider the following: It suggests that the literature created by goddess/feminist spirituality movement can be seen as type of feminist vernacular knowledge. However, issues arise when this rubs up against other sorts of vernacular knowledge or understandings. Who are the ‘folk’ when it comes to looking at the ways in which the figure of the black Madonna is interpreted and incorporated into religious practices? The paper will therefore consider some of the issues raised by examining the concept of folk or vernacular religion in relation to empirical work conducted at a black Madonna shrine. This particular shrine challenged some of the existing assumptions regarding these figures and their place in both Christianity and alternative spiritualities.In thinking on the ways in which both goddess feminists and Anglican Christians engage with the figure of the black Madonna, this article will suggest that the feminist folk and Christian folk are both being creative in terms of how they bring together various strands and elements of religious practices.

The recent work of Donna Freitas (2009;2013) on the relationship of spirituality and sexuality in the lives of contemporary American undergraduates has inspired this study of the religious beliefs and practices of an individual Roman Catholic believer and his vernacular understanding and enactment of “Catholic” space and place. The study of vernacular religion has assisted a switch in emphasis from former scholarly concentrations on polarities of “official” and “unofficial” religion and their conflicts and influences to reflections on the centrality and relationship between the individual and community in the creation, recreation, and negotiation of religious beliefs and practices in everyday life. This article is centered on that relationship and tension within the life of a contemporary conservatively religious Roman Catholic undergraduate student who resists what he sees is the secularizing, non-devout, non-observant, and irreligious life styles and personal choices of same-age peers residing in community around him. Responding to his perception of the non-traditionalist dimensions of twenty-first century post Vatican II Catholicism, this student has constructed in his dormitory room a sacred space comforting to and compatible with his lifestyle and spirituality, what one friend responding to its preponderance of religious imagery and objects has deemed “the Upper Room.” This student’s single dorm room accommodation in the midst of a traditional American collegiate residence has been religiously re-imagined as a sacred monastic or shrine-like sanctuary which soothes and supports with Catholic iconography while also protesting and contesting the behaviors and sinful choices of his Catholic peers living around him. Images of the space will accompany the study and interview perspectives of my consultant.

Assam is an ethnically diverse state in North Eastern India with dynamic religious scenery. The cultural identity of the Assamese people, who have dominated the region, is closely connected with the neo-vaishnava saint and writer Shankaradeva (1449-1568) who initiated the bhakti movement, challenged the caste system and Tantric goddess worship. His most famous disciple was saint Mādhavadeva (1489-1596), the author of the popular devotional song book (Nam-ghosh). Shankaradeva’s birth place in Ali-Pukhuri near Bordowa has become a major pilgrimage centre; however, there is no exact historical evidence about Mādhavadeva’s childhood home. In ancient sources the place has vaguely been identified as Letekupukhuri near the town of Nārāyanpur. Soon after India gained independence in 1947, claims were made by local people in Nārāyanpur area that they have discovered the birth place of Mādhavadeva, as it had been revealed to them through dreams and other miraculous evidence. This happened a few decades after the Assamese followers of neo-vaishnava movement had again settled in the region that had been abandoned in wars and covered by forests. As a consequence of these revelations two competing shrines emerged at the distance of one kilometre from each other, both known as the historical birth places of Mādhavadeva. The two centres are run by different neo-vaishnava institutions whose doctrines and rituals contradict each other. The article discusses vernacular and institutional strategies of the adherents of the two shrines in making arguments of faith. Without making attempts to find out the historical truth the article analyses traditional narratives and oral histories as verifications of belief and disbelief. It is based on fieldwork interviews, conducted in the area in 2009, 2011 and 2014.

In the nowadays politically fragmented territory of ethnic Tibet, Amdo Tibetans occupy the northeastern area of the Tibetan plateau, now included in the Chinese province of Qinghai. From the thirteenth century onwards, this vast area of grasslands and mountain peaks has been under the discontinuous rule of Mongols. A clear trace of this foreign occupation is still detectable in the oral descriptions of the landscape and the belief narratives retold in the nomadic county of Zekok in southeastern Qinghai Province. Based on ten oral narrations, recorded between 2011 and 2014 in Zekok about the Mongol ancestry of a local Tibetan protector god, I aim to explore the narrative strategies implemented in deconstructing the historical Mongol presence in the area and reconstructing it into a belief narrative. By analysing the relationship between the autochthonous Tibetan agency of a protector god with the advent of the Mongol army, this paper explores how these narratives contribute to elaborate the Mongol presence in Amdo within a Tibetan cultural frame. These belief narratives show how by transposing an historical event into a legendary setting, Mongols’ foreign identity has been first stereotyped and then gradually incorporated in the Tibetan landscape.

Folklorists have long recognized and documented New Age folk beliefs. They can be found in everyday talk about meditation and premonitions to stories of spiritual experiences and amateur fortunetelling of all kinds. And, like all folklore in the 21st century, we can easily find these folk beliefs and practices circulating online. In fact, excellent scholarship has now shown how quickly and naturally all common folkloric forms went digital. However, we are just beginning to explore the implications of all this folklore going online. Online communities have empowered us to find other people who share the same interest we do. Today, it is easier share beliefs about spiritual beliefs even as religious expression seems increasingly individualized and idiosyncratic. In these digitally empowered vernacular webs, the authority of shared beliefs can be magnified by the perception that everyone in the online community shares the same beliefs. Online forums dedicated to discussing specific topics offer a good opportunity to observe how powerful vernacular authority can grow in a digitally empowered vernacular web. Here, New Age folk beliefs can be seen to take on the role of vernacular resistance to what is perceived as the unjust dominance by institutions both religious and otherwise, and this form of online folkloric empowerment raises important questions about how we as a society should value the idiosyncratic, anti-institutional, but potentially powerful folk-cultures like that of New Age apocalypticism. Using the computational methods to topically map online New Age forums, I have found the informal discussions revolve around discrete set of diverse but recurring topics. In each of these topics we can see a vernacular resistance to perceived institutional dominance. In discussions of ancient Mayan prophecy, this resistance is obvious in rumors and exchanges of beliefs that specifically assert right knowledge of an this ancient culture that is different from that of the current culture or experts on Mayan history. It is less obvious in discussions of spiritual practices and individual preparation for different kinds of global transformations, but these prepping discourse center on the fundamental belief that the existing institutions both governmental and religious have failed to recognize the fact of an impending spiritual transformation. In each of these as well as many other topics this study is tracking, individuals are using their ability to locate like-minded others and create highly specific webs of vernacular communication to foster a complex and vibrant spiritually infused prepping culture. While this ability to create their own culture is surely a form of empowerment, it also perpetuates a sense in this community of individuals who have right knowledge to which most of us do not have access. Approaching this belief matrix, how can we critically engage this culture? How can we contribute to the larger understanding of folk belief in a digital age?

This article builds upon my notion that there are several vernacular voices within the UFO subculture. These voices are located on a scale of expertise that ranges from a curious bystander to a professional expert. I claim that inside this continuum three separate vernacular groups can be distinguished: First, there are amateurs, who share a strong interest in UFO subculture; who are aware of the key UFO narratives and who may or may not have their own experiences. Second, there are lay experts, who are invested in the subculture; who participate in discussions inside it and who have gained a recognized expertise either by studying the phenomenon or having personal UFO experiences. Finally, there are professional experts who have built up their expertise into a profession and who willingly share their knowledge and experiences both within the subculture and outside it. In Finland, a well-known example of professional experts is Rauni-Leena Luukanen-Kilde, a best-selling author and lecturer on ufology, parapsychology and conspiracy theories. What makes her case even more interesting and important for my study is the fact that she comes from the institutional sphere: She has a degree in medicine and she has worked as a medical doctor in Lapland, also as a chief medical officer. She retired, after a car accident, in 1985 and moved to Norway in 1992 where she currently lives. She appeared frequently in Finnish media in 1980’s and 1990’s as an UFO expert but withdrew from publicity in late 1990’s. In 2012 she made a comeback and since that she has been giving public lectures and interviews. She argues that small elite is running the world and aiming to destroy most of the humanity by the means of natural catastrophes and microchips that make one act like a robot. The elite is also covering up contemporary space travels and presenting originally benevolent extraterrestrials malevolent. In this article, I will ask how Luukanen-Kilde’s authority is constructed and contested within the Finnish UFO subculture.

Pauses constitute the text, the poses are the essential part of performance, the elusive impulse gives birth to various expressions. In this article my attempt is to bring the non-verbal part of contemporary vernacular thinking into focus joining it to the web of stories and practices. The focus on the bodily aspect comes easily out form the discussed material itself: feeling and sensing the places are essential part of dowsing practice. Interpretations of bodily impulses exceed the limit of interest in the particular tradition, rather forming an important language that connects different ideas and practices of contemporary spirituality. Lying the authority on the senses sees the human body as the instrument for clairvoyance: the possibility to apprehend the supernatural reality intuitively as instant as non-mediated cognition, which is the foundation for further actions and generalisations. Practice itself: finding the unseen (the underground water streams, tubes, wires, also the lines and spots of supernatural energy) with the forked twig, metal rods or pendulum is a subject of different use as well as vernacular (among them scientific-sceptical) debates. The method usually serves the complementary to other forms of knowledge, although, the role of the authority, an experienced (professional) dowser or psychic is significant. In the range of this tradition the importance and use of the maps is discussed. The map that takes into account sensual (supernatural) parameters mixes different domains of authority: the purpose (research into paranormal, planning of the buildings or residential area), the position of the medium (the one who draws the map or holds the map), the practice and use of the maps (maps as the guides for different actions and inquiry). The material of study comes from Estonia, Tallinn, dominantly from the activity of Estonian Geopathic Association.

In previous publications I explored reasons why it has been so difficult to mobilise ‘new age’ beliefs and practices as an identifiable ‘new religion’ or ‘new religious movement’ despite their robust presence in modern societies. I focused on the relative lack of the necessary organisational features to sustain and authorise a stable formation, the fissiparous effects of the multiple authorities operating within the field, and the discursive effect of the ‘world religions’ paradigm which undermines the status of new age and related vernacular expressions. In this chapter I analyse the workings of the ‘knowledge economy’ underpinning new age beliefs and practices. Drawing on data from new age texts and personal testimonies, I explore the principles of everyday epistemological practices, focusing on the ‘how’ rather than the ‘what’ of knowledge production in the uncertain field known as ‘new age spirituality’. I want to argue that, despite clear evidence that new age practitioners are socialised into a collective logic of practice, the ‘market’ in new age ideas and beliefs, and the epistemological principles required for practitioners to operate successfully within it, create a centrifugal effect. The result is a form of epistemological relativism which, like the socialisation of practitioners, is relative and qualified. This helps to explain the fuzzy ‘hallmark’ of new age representations which can be understood as the effect of the conflicted, incomplete and unresolved dynamic between individual and group (at the social level), and particular and universal (at the cognitive level), rather than constituting a unique substantive problem. In other words, new age spirituality is not a ‘special case’ but a particular instance of the operating logic of a wider vernacular knowledge economy. The centrifugal effect of this relativistic epistemology further explains the structural ‘failure’ of the new age/holistic/mind-body-spirit ‘movement’. But in doing so, paradoxically it supports the ethnological vitality of vernacular knowledge, since the same mechanisms which explain why it has been such a headache to organise an authoritative and replicating movement from new age ‘elementary forms’, account for its enduring attraction for ‘individuals’ within and across more formative formations.

Spiritualism in Britain traditionally has had a marginal and ambivalent relationship with various aspects of mainstream society: the law, the institutional Christian Church, and secular worldviews. Key beliefs such as the communion of spirits, the ministry of angels, the continuous existence of the human soul, and by extension the ability to communicate with deceased loved ones, have caused it to be denounced and derided for decades. However, it has nonetheless existed as a constant if somewhat neglected phenomenon in British religious and spiritual life, providing comfort, hope, healing and alternative sources of experience and authority not only for its members, but for those of other religious persuasion or none who have been drawn to it, often in times of crisis. This chapter explores both the domestic and gendered aspects of Spiritualism (which have perhaps contributed to its neglect or undervaluing as a religious phenomenon), and the ways in which it quietly contests authority.

Some recent scholarship has attempted to treat newly emergent broadly neo-pagan religious observation as primarily a matter of practice rather than theology. While this allows for some investigation into the eclectic aspects of observation, it also tends to sideline the practitioners’ own thinking about their belief and its construction. Ghost belief offers a helpful case study for considering the interplay of belief and practice. It can be found across denominational groups, quite often in antagonism to the official doctrines of the religion, and vernacular eschatological thinking can quite often inform moves towards a newer syncretic practice. Similarly, the current academic enthusiasm for metaphors of ‘haunting’, ‘spectrality’, and ‘ghosts’ often proceeds by the deliberate exclusion of ethnographic data. Basing myself on recent fieldwork data, I will here examine the relationship between the thinking and practice I encountered around ghost belief. I will also look at the ways informants described their beliefs and practices. From this I will aim to place informants back at the centre of any consideration of these questions, and offer some suggestions for understanding the relationship between formal and informal spiritual beliefs.

The Khasi ethnic community comprise about 1.2 million and they inhabit the state of Meghalaya in North Eastern India. They are composed of five main sub communities namely, Khynrian, Pnar, Bhoi, War and Lyngngam. I will focus on the Lyngngam sub group who further divide themselves into the Lyngngam, Muliang and Nongtrai and they live in West Khasi Hills District. For the sake of clarity, I will use the term Lyngngam to refer all three sub groups, unless specifically mentioned. The most important life event of Lyngngam people is death. Various rituals performed after death are place and context dependent. Perhaps the most well-known after-death ritual is the Phor Sorat which is performed only after divination is carried out, and according to some, the last recorded ceremony was performed in 1992. The Lyngngam are now almost 100 percent Christian converts and death rites follow the Christian burial rites as consequence. However, dying, death and after-death experiences as the most important rite of passage exists in the culture’s comprehension of life, death and beliefs about the afterlife which predates the new religion and is transmitted through the oral tradition and beliefs associated with this. People who have died come back to life if they are unable to cross the river of forgetfulness (Umbylleiñ), and dead bodies reanimate in order to demand human heads if their spirit is unsatisfied. On one hand Christian precepts are utilised in a manner so as to rationalise traditional practices and understandings of death. And on the other hand, the native epistemology is still adhered to (with regards to death rituals) in contradiction with the official religion. As a result of fieldwork carried out over the space of four years among the Nongtrai and the Nonglang inhabited areas, with narratives also collected about the Lyngngam funerary rites, multiple variants of death rituals, customs and beliefs were collected. This article will focus on the Lyngngam traditional death practices and how they are translated to accommodate Christianity. It is only in the realm of the vernacular – belief, religion, practice and narrative – that the individual creates meaning for his/herself. In the light of such contradictory meaning-making, the community has evolved a vernacular realm where the official religion and traditional belief are expressed in an alternative spiritual space.

Contemporary Mongolian devilry inserts a variety of locuses connected with demonological narratives: natural objects, haunted houses, abandoned roads, cemeteries, etc. In the rural tradition one of the most popular topics devoted to “guideltei gazar” or “gazarin guits” – “area with movements, restless activity”. It is a special, marked in local traditions, fixed places with “bad reputation”, something like “haunted places” or “ghost-places”. These places can include different small areas generally in the steppe. The results of passing such places for people could be various – problems with a transport, problems with business and health and even death. These places are regarded in Mongolian traditions as a kind of demonic possession and at the same time as a demonic creature itself. According to some beliefs the cause of its existence and bad influence are referred to bones, remains of deceaseds, buried under those places. The revised materials allow to presume that the basis of the topic about “restless place” related with the changes in ritual practices and reflected a conflict between different funeral traditions and ideas connected to them.