Eurasia as a Spiritual Realm? Inquiries into an Imagined Continent
Menzel B (2022)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2022
Journal
Original Authors: Birgit Menzel
Book Volume: 15
Pages Range: 32-58
Issue: 44
Journal Issue: 44
Abstract
This article discusses Eurasia as a meta-geographical spiritual entity, an imagined continent, which is still much of a provincialized area under western eyes. By applying a cultural-studies approach, various perspectives on spiritual Eurasia are presented, as they have helped to incorporate this territory into a mythologically, ideologically, and symbolically charged space. This implies historical ethnographic descriptions and stories of various esoteric seekers of a re-enchanted spiritual landscape, from Blavatsky to Gurdjieff and Roerich, but also academic experts of oriental studies as translators and transmitters of spiritual ideas from East to West as well as hybrid forms of religious revival among indigenous people in the post-Soviet present time. Two examples illustrate how new myths are created in post-Soviet Russia: Arkaim as a Russian Stonehenge in the Urals and Eurasian spirituality as an instrument of political ideology, particularly Lev Gumilev and Nursultan Nasarbaev in Kazakhstan.
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Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Menzel, B. (2022). Eurasia as a Spiritual Realm? Inquiries into an Imagined Continent. Journal of Comparative Studies, 15(44), 32-58. https://doi.org/10.59893/jcs.15(44).004
MLA:
Menzel, Birgit. "Eurasia as a Spiritual Realm? Inquiries into an Imagined Continent." Journal of Comparative Studies 15.44 (2022): 32-58.
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