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<\/p>\nI am organizing this event Sunday November 28, 14-17.00 at the National Museum of Iceland, \u00dej\u00f3\u00f0minjasafn \u00cdslands.<\/p>\n
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V\u00f6lusp\u00e1 and Nordic Animism for the Anthropocene<\/strong> In conversation with Icelandic scholars Sigr\u00ed\u00f0ur \u00deorgeirsd\u00f3ttir, Emil Maansson & Ole Martin Sandberg (Department of Philosophy), G\u00edsli Sigur\u00f0sson (\u00c1rni Magn\u00fasson Institute for Icelandic Studies), Au\u00f0ur A\u00f0alsteinsd\u00f3ttir (Research Centre on Ocean, Climate and Society), Gu\u00f0bj\u00f6rg R. J\u00f3hannesd\u00f3ttir (University of the Arts), Sigr\u00ed\u00f0ur Gu\u00f0marsd\u00f3ttir (Department of Theology and Religious Studies), Vi\u00f0ar Hreinsson (Icelandic Museum of Natural History), Myrra Leifsdottir (Institute for Sustainability Studies).<\/p>\n Facebook event: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/419597256300828<\/a><\/p>\n In recent years, indigenous scholars, panpsychist philosophers, New Animist anthropologists and a whole host of debaters and thinkers have made Animism a vibrant trend in current ways of relating to nature. Rune Hjarn\u00f8 Rasmussens work applies indigenous scholarship and ontological turn thinking on the rejected knowledge and practices of our North European cultural history. This makes visible the historic rejection of Euro-Traditional Animism which results from the agenda of modernist epistemology of disembodying minds and deanimating matter. Folklore and popular culture are dense with animist knowledge and practice and this implies the possibility of cultural self-reflection in wider populations through which we may re-engage more sustainability oriented and less destructive forms of knowing and of being in the world. This is based on the respect and reciprocity implied in perceiving and relating with the world as a community of persons rather than an exterior resource storage.<\/p>\n Rune has been a prominent voice in reanimating the interest in Nordic Animist practices in recent years. He maintains a youtube-channel<\/a> that combines scholarly debates and popular storytelling, has published the book and corresponding calendars \"The Nordic Animist Year\", and helped create the \"Raven Flag\" as a totemic symbol of kinship between man and nature which has become a symbol amongst others for environmental activists. Rather than idolizing a lost past, he asks what we can do with it in the present. Rejecting the often masculinist and nationalist tendencies in Neo-Paganist milieus he emphasizes an embodied and relational practice of caring for ourselves, for each other, and for the world. See more at nordicanimism.com<\/a><\/p>\n This ethical relationship is ever relevant, especially today as we are facing a biodiversity and a climate crisis, both of which fill many people with grief at the inconceivable loss and an anxiety about what the future might hold. We are not the first to have faced such a crisis. The feeling that the world is coming to and end is passionately expressed in the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1 - the story of Ragnar\u00f6k - which might have been inspired by earlier climatic changes. This grief is also an expression of our care for the world.<\/p>\n In the United Nations Environment Program Report, \"Making Peace With Nature\", Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres says we must transform our relationship with nature to recognize its true value. Long-lasting animist practices might possibly contain elements that can help us in this vital task.<\/p>\n After the lecture Rune will be joined by scholars from the University of Iceland in a discussion of the philosophical and ethical applications today as we are facing our own version of \"Ragnar\u00f6k\".<\/p>\n The event will be at the National Museum of Iceland, \u00dej\u00f3\u00f0minjasafn \u00cdslands, Sunday November 28, 14-17.00.<\/p>\n Hosted by the Institute of Philosophy (Heimspekistofnun<\/a>) & supported by The Institute for Sustainability Studies (Stofnun S\u00e6mundar fr\u00f3\u00f0a) University of Iceland<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am organizing this event Sunday November 28, 14-17.00 at the National Museum of Iceland, \u00dej\u00f3\u00f0minjasafn \u00cdslands. V\u00f6lusp\u00e1 and Nordic Animism for the Anthropocene What can ancient folk beliefs and practices teach us about ethical relations to nature today? Environmentalist … Continue reading
\nWhat can ancient folk beliefs and practices teach us about ethical relations to nature today? Environmentalist and scholar of anthropology & religion, Rune Hjarn\u00f8 Rasmussen, talks about myth narration as a relational practice towards caring for the Earth - with focus on the Ragnar\u00f6k myth (V\u00f6lusp\u00e1) in relation to climate change.<\/p>\n