Why all these ‘neos’? Why now?

Abstract

This article starts with a critique of the current mainstream approaches that share the implicit assumptions of what I call the “secularization paradigm”, showing how and why these approaches are ill-suited to understand the importance and constitution of the Neo-Nebula (New Age, Neopaganism, Neo-Indianism, Neo-Shamanism and related phenomena). The article then sets out to sketch the lineaments of the Nation-State to Global-Market model, highlighting the specific characteristics of religion in both regimes. The article follows with a discussion that shows how the characteristics of Neo-Nebula religiosities can all be related to the social conditions created by the neoliberal and consumerist revolution. The analysis concludes by arguing that Neo-Nebula religion participates in the production of a cosmopolitan self that can navigate the ever-fluxing flows of contemporary global capitalism in more or less or in less than more counter-cultural make-ups for predominantly urban, educated, and middle-class publics, while ‘aggrandizing’ and connecting the Self, nature, and the cosmos. The specific focus of this article is on Latin America, in relation to ‘the West’ and global trends. It also includes notes on the question of the “re-enchantment” or (re)appropriation of archaeological sites by the Neo-Nebula.