Oldal 65 [65]
RELIGION AND ECOLOGY 63
in historical churches (Beyer 1998:17). In Beyer’s view, the term is a useful analytical
abstraction, which can be applied to the description of any religious belief and
practice whose adherents regard nature as the manifestation of the divine, sacred,
transcendental, spiritual force — whatever you may call it” (Beyer 1998: 11).8
Equally frequent is the use of the term native faith in this discourse. Studying
Eastern European neo-paganism, Adrian Ivakhiv concluded: “East European
practitioners mainly call native faith that which western researchers categorize as
paganism” (Ivakhiv 2005: 195). Native faith, native tradition, ‘ancient Hungarian
tradition or ‘heritage of our ancestors’ are used in the social sciences and everyday
life. There are thus several different terms for describing groups close to neo¬
paganism in Central and Eastern Europe, and these designations often obscure
their ties to similar traditions elsewhere in the world, while also alluding to the
differences characteristic of the two regions.” Ivakhiv also stresses that the concept
of nature, too, has different interpretations and connotations in contemporary
Western versus CEE nature religions, and first of all neo-paganism. In his view,
the dominant understanding of nature in the West is that it is an entity in its own
right, while in CEE, nature is closely connected to the human being and the nation
and vice versa: the people, the nation is closely tied to the local environment (see
Ivakhiv 2005). Taking this as the point of departure, he discusses the problematic
aspects of the term: he argues that the concept of nature must not be taken as
unambiguously this or that. Rather, it must be seen as a constantly evolving
definition, the outcome of construction, bricolage and discursive fighting (Ivakhiv
2005: 196).
The above themes are not only important conceptual questions in scholarly
discourse, nor are they arbitrary word games. Instead, they shed light on the subtle
differences that also influence the attitude to nature. An excellent example is that
of the Indian environmental historian, Ramanchandra Guha’s surprise at the
differences. In India, his experience was that the environmental movements were
concerned first of all with questions of social justice. Their subject and goal were
equal access to natural resources, hence they were centered on the human being.
Later, in the United States, he met with a wholly different environmentalism in
whose focus stood not the human being but the animals, plants, and non-human
actors of nature and their rights (Guha 2000). Innumerable examples could be
cited from anthropological literature as well, but suffice it here to refer to Csaba
Mészaros’s work. He has shown, on the basis of his field work in Siberia, the huge
differences in meaning between climate change in a Siberian community and in
Western thought (Mészáros 2019).
To return to the phenomenon of eco-spirituality and nature belief: social
scientific, mostly cultural, anthropological investigations have revealed that no
homogeneous nature belief and related practice can be found even during the
study of a single group. Nature religions are characterized by plurality and bricolage.
Religiosity that comes closest to neo-paganism/nature religion/native faith and its
8 To the theme, see also Harvey 2014; Letcher 2003; Pearson — Roberts -Samuel 1998.
" On the question of terminology, see Simpson — Filip 2013.
In addition to terminological differences, there are considerable ideological deviations between
Central and Eastern European and Western European - let us call them — neo-paganisms. Its
antecedents, causes and character are examined, by, for instance: Altamurto — Simpson (eds.)
2013; Szilagyi -Szilärdi 2007; Wiench 2013; Hobbes — Povedäk 2014.