Sacred places in nature in the Estonian Maausk movement

Authors

• Jenni Rinne

Keywords:

Viro, pyhät paikat, maausko, maausk

Abstract

The sacred places in nature are important venues for the practice of Maausk, which involves people who are part of an Estonian native faith group registered officially as a religion. This article analyses the affective experiences of the Maausk practitioners related to sacred places in nature. The article focuses on the relationship between the physical places and the group identity that is formed and reformed through the affective experiences. For the empirical material, three interviews have been selected in which the practitioners talk about their relationship to sacred places and their experiences in them. The affective experiences will be analysed by using Margareth Wetherell’s (2012) affect theory in addition to philosophical and cultural theories about place.