| This research is based on fieldwork conducted in the Texas NeoPagan community in 2003-2005. The goal of the research is to document and explore the factors that lead practitioners to adopt the practice of NeoPaganism. In particular, this project explores conversion to NeoPaganism from a gendered standpoint analyzing the similarities and differences in the experiences of male and female practitioners. The research also explores the construction of gender identity and social identity, in an effort to document the strategies NeoPagans employ in construction and contexualizing their identities. Guided by the assumption that men and women will have fundamentally different experiences with NeoPaganism, the influence that NeoPagan gender ideologies and theologies have on gender construction and performance are analyzed in detail. The impact of sexual orientation on religious experience is also investigated. The strategies NeoPagans use to construct and negotiate their social identity in a cultural environment often hostile to religious diversity are detailed.; The project employed a diverse methodology, using surveys, participant-observation, unstructured interviews, semi-structured interviews, and life history interviews. A demographic portrait of the community, based on the survey data, is provided. Expressive data, including conversion narratives, are central to the analysis.; The research concludes that gender identity within NeoPaganism is more fluid than has been previously posited, and this fluidity of gender identity and construction has both positive and negative effects on practitioners. Additionally, a model of dynamic religious conversion is given, situating NeoPagan conversion in the context other models of conversion. Finally, social identity construction is shown to be driven more by individual choice and less by fear of persecution, as had been argued previously. |
