Tom Kaye of the University of Oslo presents "towards a pagan ontology" at the Pre-Christian Religions of the North Conference, hosted in Oslo on the 10th of November 2023.

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Sacred versus Profane. A clear and well entrenched dualism which rests at the heart of the study of past religions, inhabiting both the archaeological and historical approaches. The whole discipline is replete with dualistic modes of thought. Such a model pervades the majority of theory, from concept of “liminal space” to that of the Other-World model set out by stalwarts in the study in pre-Christian religion such as Jens Peter Schjødt, John Lindow and Simon Nygaard. This has certainly achieved much, but the issue arises as to how relevant these dualist modes of thought are to a polytheistic religion that actively defies such dogmatic and easy categorisations.

Indeed, many of these theories and models which one encounters within the field arise from a fundamental assumption at the heart of the field, a certain equivocation of religion with culture. That is religion is a subset of culture, a human creation, which exists separate from “nature” in what is typically labelled as the Nature – Culture divide. Or put simply, religion is separate from the material world that is “out there” and shared by all, as a product of a specific subset of humanity and their shared imagination. As such all manner of social constructivist and essentialist models can be applied onto religions of the past as they all fundamentally share an identical material world that exists “out there” and is objectively measurable. However, this divide is fundamentally a production of a modern Cartesian and Christian inspired system of thought which I seek to present as having no grounds to be applied to the pre-Christian past. In this presentation I will question the validity of studying and understanding Norsemen according to our own fundamental assumptions about the world and reality that are present not only the individual scholar but in the wider discipline as through its dualist approaches. That is, I present that a fundamental obstacle to understanding pre-Christian religion is of an ontological nature – the fundamental assumptions and classifications we make about the world.

I argue that a solution can be found in the recent Ontological Turn seen in anthropology espoused by key theorists such as Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Martin Holbraad. Drawing off the non-dualism of Phillipe Descola, these approaches give primacy to their respective objects of study as a news means of theorising key assumptions or categories about the world. That is, one turns their object of study to supply an ontology for them as opposed to the typical assumptions of the scholar and their subject. As such I seek to present a turn towards a pagan ontology formulated off the source base that allows for new understandings and perspectives that differ on a fundamental level. Such would allow us to reconceptualise key elements and components such as sacrifice.

This to see different things within the pre-Christian past on its own terms, rather than the seeing things differently of reflexive approaches within the field.

See other videos from this year's Student Conference on Pre-Christian Religion here:
COMING SOON

See videos from the previous Student Conference on Pre-Christian Religion here:

The frenzied warbands of Odin - Tom Kaye:
   • The Cult of Odin: Ecstatic Warbands o...  

An Introduction to Pre-Christian Frisian Religion - Hilbert Vinkenoog:
   • Pre-Christian Paganism in Early-Medie...  

An Analysis of the Viking's Paganism - Jonathan Fischler:
   • Pagan Themes in The Viking (1928) | U...  

Music Used:
Impact Allegratto - Kevin MacLeod
The Pyre - Kevin MacLeod

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