Religion as a Discursive Technique: The Politics of Classifying Wicca

Abstract

This article demonstrates how the category of religion functions as a discursive technique in social formation. The Finnish Wicca movement, which failed to obtain the status of a registered religious community in Finland at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is used as an example of how classifying a group as religious includes a range of social interests and power relations among practitioners themselves, in society in general and also among scholars of religion. The positions and power relations are negotiated partly in and by the discourse on religion. By describing and analysing one particular case, the article suggests that, if the category of religion has become more ambivalent, the study of 'religion' as a discursive technique is an important task for scholars of religion.

Getting on Each Other’s Nerves: Marking Territory and Policing Borders in Failure and Nerve in the Academic Study of Religion: Essays in Honor of Donald Wiebe

“…Recent studies by Teemu Taira (2010) and Tisa Wenger (2009), focusing on the adoption and deployment of the concept "religion" by Wiccans and Pueblo Indians respectively, well illustrate "what our work begins to look like when we make this switch to examining not religion but the discourse on religion" (McCutcheon 2012: 88ni8). And finally, with this shift in focus, the problem that Arnal and Braun detect lurking at the heart of religious studies simply melts away.…”

Making space for discursive study in religious studies

“…In a recent article, I have examined how the use of the word 'religion' has functioned as a discursive technique in Finnish society (Taira 2010). I focused on the attempt to legalise the status of Wiccans as a religious association in Finland at the beginning of 21st century (see also Hjelm 2006).…”

Neo-Paganism, Native Faith and indigenous religion: a case study of Malta within the European context

“…Modern Finnish Pagans started out trying to revive or reconstruct Finnish folk religion from the late 1970s, borrowing elements from Finnish folklore for their practice (Hjelm : 36). Since the mid‐1990s, however, Wiccans have also been a part of the Finnish scene, now numbering approximately 500 practitioners (Taira ). While many of their roots are British, they also ‘attempt to rehabilitate some parts of the pre‐Christian Finnish tradition’ (Taira : 392).…”

“…Since the mid‐1990s, however, Wiccans have also been a part of the Finnish scene, now numbering approximately 500 practitioners (Taira ). While many of their roots are British, they also ‘attempt to rehabilitate some parts of the pre‐Christian Finnish tradition’ (Taira : 392). The Flemish Wiccan community discussed by van Gulik (, forthcoming) draws from Celtic mythology and has also developed a local version of Wicca, ‘Greencraft’.…”