Gods of the Blood

Gardell Mattias Gardell

Description

Racist paganism is a thriving but understudied element of the American religious and cultural landscape. Gods of the Blood is the first in-depth survey of the people, ideologies, and practices that make up this fragmented yet increasingly radical and militant milieu. Over a five-year period during the 1990s Mattias Gardell observed and participated in pagan ceremonies and interviewed pagan activists across the United States. His unprecedented entree into this previously obscure realm is the basis for this firsthand account of the proliferating web of organizations and belief systems combining pre-Christian pagan mythologies with Aryan separatism. Gardell outlines the historical development of the different strands of racist paganism-including Wotanism, Odinism and Darkside Asatru-and situates them on the spectrum of pagan belief ranging from Wicca and goddess worship to Satanism.Gods of the Blood details the trends that have converged to fuel militant paganism in the United States: anti-government sentiments inflamed by such events as Ruby Ridge and Waco, the rise of the white power music industry (including whitenoise, dark ambient, and hatecore), the extraordinary reach of modern communications technologies, and feelings of economic and cultural marginalization in the face of globalization and increasing racial and ethnic diversity of the American population. Gardell elucidates how racist pagan beliefs are formed out of various combinations of conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism, warrior ideology, populism, beliefs in racial separatism, Klandom, skinhead culture, and tenets of national socialism. He shows how these convictions are further animated by an array of thought selectively derived from thinkers including Nietzche, historian Oswald Spengler, Carl Jung, and racist mystics. Scrupulously attentive to the complexities of racist paganism as it is lived and practiced, Gods of the Blood is a fascinating, disturbing, and important portrait of the virulent undercurrents of certain kinds of violence in America today.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• USA
• Ethnic studies
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 27 juin 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822384502
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

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Gods of the Blood

The Pagan Revival and White Separatism

Duke University Press Durham and London 

©  Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper  Designed by Rebecca M. Giménez Typeset in Quadraat by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

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Acknowledgments, vii

Introduction: Globalization, Nationalism, and the Pagan Revival, 

.The Transforming Landscapes of American Racism, 

.The Smorgasbord of the Revolutionary White-Racist Counterculture, 

.The Pagan Revival, 

.Wolf-Age Pagans: The Odinist Call of Aryan Revolutionary Paganism, 

.By the Spear of Odin: The Rise of Wotansvolk, 

.Ethnic Asatrú, 

.Hail Loki! Hail Satan! Hail Hitler! Darkside Asatrú, Satanism, and Occult National Socialism, 

.Globalization, Aryan Paganism, and Romantic Men with Guns, 

Notes, 

Works Cited, 

Index, 

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his study has been long in the making. It all began with a postdoc- toral academic year as a visiting scholar at the department of political white T material for a comparative study of black and whiteracists, collecting science at Syracuse University in central New York, –. During that year, I made my first field journeys into the world of militant separatism that was published in . I had expected to meet with the Ku Klux Klan, militia patriots, skinheads, and national socialists and was surprised to learn of a world beyond the fiery cross of the Hooded Order, populated by Aryan radicals who hailed the ancient Norse gods and goddesses of my native Scandi- navia. Intrigued, I decided to focus on this vibrant but understudied milieu in a new project, the result of which isGods of the Blood. As a historian of religion by profession, I use anthropological methods with fieldwork, interviews, and participant observation. My first gratitude must therefore go to all hospitable folkish pagans who opened their homes for a traveling student of religion and guided me further through the multifaceted landscape of heathens in the United States. I am also very grateful to all other heathen ideologues and activists who agreed to share their worldview and prac- tice with me during long hours of taped interviews or informal discussions. Some prefer to remain anonymous and may thus only receive my token of appre- ciation collectively. Others are possible to thank in person, and I sincerely extend my gratitude to David Lane, Ron McVan, Katja Lane, Michael Moynihan, Anna- bel Lee, Edred Thorsson, Robert N. Taylor, Valgard Murray, Stephen and Sheila McNallen, Robert Ward, Reinhold and Cathy Clinton, Richard Kemp, Frank Silva, Thórsteinn Thórarinsson, Wyatt Kaldenberg, Nathan Zorn Pett, Christina Robertson, Håkan and Brian Södergren, Michael Lujan, Max Hyatt, Elton Hall, and Else Christensen. Without you, the present study would not have been possible.

I am also greatly indebted to the multitude of nonpagan Aryan activists who accommodated me and/or granted me interviews, including John Baumgard- ner, Don Black, Richard G. Butler, Louis Beam, Willis Carto, David Duke, Randy Duey, Gerald Gruidl, Matt Hale, George Hawthorne, Michael Hoffman II, Kirk Lyons, Debbie Mathews, Tom Metzger, Jack Mohr, Troy Murphy, Neal Payne, William Pierce, Derek Stenzel, David Tate, Chuck Tate, John Trochman, Ted R. Weiland, Gay Yarbrough, and Ernst Zündel. A disparate group of people—who are for various reasons outside the milieus of American pagans or racial activists, yet are related to the scene as heathens, observers, black separatists, or occultists—provided me with insights and in- formation. My extended thanks also goes to Don Webb, Osiris Akkebala, Silis X. Muhammad, Laird Wilcox, Carl Abrahamsson, Benedikte Lindström, Mikael Hedlund, Troy Friscella, Adam Parfrey, Kevin Coogan, Magnus Söderman, and Hendrik Möbus. Also crucial to my research was the generous aid offered by the staff at the department of political science at Syracuse University and the Spencer librarians at the University of Kansas at Lawrence where the Wilcox Collection of Contem- porary Political Movements, the foremost collection of radical Aryan material, is located. Significant in that it provided an inspiring scholarly milieu was the Center for Research in International Migration and Ethnic Relations, Stockholm University. Among my most valued colleagues whose encyclopedic knowledge in many ways has enriched my understanding of the scene, I am especially grateful to Professors Michael Barkun and David Bennet at Syracuse University; Jeffrey Kaplan at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh; Bron Taylor at the Univer- sity of Wisconsin at Oshkosh; Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke at the University of Oxford; Stefan Arvidsson at Lund University; and Heléne Lööw, Erik af Edholm, and Charles Westin at Stockholm University. Barkun, Kaplan, Westin, Moyni- han, and Goodrick-Clarke also provided constructive criticism after having read parts of the manuscript, thereby contributing greatly to whatever merit the present study may have. Also important in this respect were Reynolds Smith, Sharon Parks Torian, Leigh Anne Couch, and their co-workers at Duke Univer- sity Press. Any faults, however, are all mine. Without the wonderful hospitality and friendship lavishly shown by Americans across the country, my years in the United States would not have been the great experience it proved to be, and I especially want to send my appreciation to Sherry, Melissa, and Orion Begnell; Jeff Ditz; Ingrid Kock; and Mark, Carol, and Emma Kaufman. I also wish to gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by

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the Humanistisk-Samhällsvetenskapliga Forskningsrådet and Forskningsråds- nämnden in Sweden, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation in the United States, support that made possible my research and helped put milk on my children’s breakfast table. Without support from my extended family of brothers and sisters back in sub-arctic Sweden, who always were there for me, providing insights, ideas, friendship, and laughs, I would not have seen this through. Among others I really need to thank are Anna-Klara Bratt, Thomas Hvitfeldt, Maria Hedman, Dirk Grosjean, Saman Ali, Börje Bergfeldt, Sanna Hedenborg, Jonas Lundborg, Thomas Persson, Bella Frank, Magnus Hörnkvist, Alexa Wolf, Rasmus Fleis- cher, Ulf B. Anderson, Adrienne Sörbom, and Anna Lindner. In additon to their friendship, Hvitfeldt and Sörbom contributed constructive criticism for which I am especially grateful. Initiates of the cultic, Ekens Gäll and Bajen Fans have in other respects supplied electrifying experiences during the years. However, most of all, my innermost feelings of appreciation and affection go to my im- mediate family: my children, Linus, Emma, Moa, Ida, Sofia, Stefan, Kim, and Amanda; and my beautiful wife, Anna-Karin. Your love and support has been an abundant source of comfort and joy. Kim and Amanda, who came to life during the course of the research, and Emma, who at times accompanied me during my journeys across the North American continent, have been very special parts of making this study.

Note on Sources

Primary sources for this study fall into two main categories: information gathered during fieldwork and material produced by white racist and pagan ideologues. As an anthropologist of religion, I have conducted extensive field research in the subcultures of white power activism, Aryan heathendom, and euro-tribal paganism. Staying with leading activists and their families, conduct- ing taped interviews with key persons, participating in day-to-day business, ob- serving ceremonial practice and political activities, and engaging in formal and informal discussions with leaders and adherents, I was always open about my identity as a researcher and about the aims of the study I was undertaking. Obvi- ously, this put certain limitations on knowledge production. All activists cited in this study were aware that what they said or did might be publicized. For every informant who wanted it, anonymity was granted herein. Although a wealth of information was gathered during informal conversa- tions, I have primarily used quotations from taped interviews rather than field

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