![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This article analyses, from a sociological point of view, the relationship between the religious and economic dimensions of one of the most long-lived spiritual communities in Europe, the Damanhur Federation. It investigates this nexus, starting from the criticism of one of the most recent theoretical-analytical models in the study of the economics of intentional communities, that of the ‘good’ or ‘ethical’ economy. This model fuels the rhetoric according to which the economics of religious communities are ‘good’ to the extent to which they seek—inspired by the principles of reciprocity, sociability, solidarity and ideal, ethical, religious and/or ecological values—solutions to economic problems based on spiritual values. However, this thesis presupposes a one-way influence of religion on the economy in the sense that the latter is only a mere reflection of adherence to the proclaimed principles of a religious doctrine. I propose an antithesis which I consider sociologically more far-seeing: that of the ‘performative’ economy. In line with Victor Turner’s idea of ‘performance’, I argue that economic activity is not only driven or influenced by the ethical, moral, and spiritual values of the community, but it retroacts on, and modifies, them. I show not only that Damanhurians’ working life is guided by ethical and spiritual principles derived from their doctrine, but also that economic activity offers them learning opportunities which induce them to modify, re-adapt, and confer new meanings upon the community’s rules, including those concerning spirituality.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Falco means ‘hawk’; tarassaco is the Italian word for taraxacum officinale, the common dandelion which has healing properties.
2. Interviews with Damanhurians make clear that Airaudi always denied that Damanhur was a new religious movement, preferring to call it an ‘eco-society with a spiritual aim’. Therefore, I refer to Damanhur as a spiritual community and discuss the relationship between spirituality and economy rather than between religion and economy. Despite the sociological debate about the differences between religion and spirituality, here, for convenience, I consider them as synonymous.
3. For more details about Horusian doctrine, see Cardano Citation1997; Berzano Citation1998; Introvigne Citation1999; Meijerink Citation2010; Del Re and Macioti Citation2013; Palmisano and Pannofino Citation2014.
4. Official data are unavailable. Figures are approximate, obtained from fieldwork interviews.
5. The idea of Damanhur as an introverted, dangerous sect was widely disseminated by journalistic activity such as the book Occulto Italia (Del Vecchio and Pitrelli Citation2015).
6. I developed the concept of ‘performative economy’ in collaboration with Nicola Pannofino, to which we dedicated our presentation at the conference on “It’s Economy, Unbeliever! Alternative Spiritualities and Economic Practices” (Turin, 5 December 2017). Our research on Damanhur was part of the SACRED (Searching for Alternative Communitarism, Religion and Economic Development) project funded by the Compagnia di San Paolo (2015–2017).
7. Interviews with Damanhurians made clear that the young Airaudi distanced himself from the closed circles of Turin esotericism by adopting an inclusive, economically based approach: his educational and fee-charging courses on parapsychology and hypnosis reconciled esotericism and collective sharing as well as commercialisation and spirituality.
8. According to Damanhurian myth, each individual is part of the “Human Primeval Divinity”, the force that permeates the universe. The Divinity, which penetrates the “Universe of Forms”, is divided into as many parts as there are living forms in the universe. So, everyone is a part of this divinity. The divine nature of human beings is symbolised by the divine spark, an infinitely small part of the divinity that is present in everyone. The ultimate evolutionary goal of every human being is to reach full awareness of his/her own divine nature.
9. The Italian group of researchers comprised Nicola Pannofino, Monica Gilli, Anna Lo Presti, and the author. Interviews were conducted in Italian, recorded, and transcribed. A focus group was organised with Damanhurian enterpreneurs (more men than women) about the relationship between money and spirituality in the community. The author translated the interview extracts used in this article into English. Participant observation was carried out by the author during the two visits to the community described below.
10. The term ‘selfica jewellery’ indicates an activity invented by Falco consisting of channelling intelligent energy present in nature and the cosmos towards psycho-physical wellbeing and the development of human potentialities. Special tools are used—selfs’, which are spiral metal artefacts attracting more or less potent energy with different objectives according to their form, complexity, and function.
11. It allows the performance of concerts whose composer-instrumentalists are trees and plants (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Ao2nqwDT4, accessed 12 August 2020).
12. Neither course is free: without food and accommodation, the Aminè programme costs €280 and the Alchemy school €230.
13. Social surveys of esoteric groups already revealed that the researcher’s familiarity with the community under investigation is a factor motivating interviewees to speak freely about that spirituality (Pierini Citation2016, 23).
14. See Zoccatelli’s profile of Airaudi in the online “Encyclopaedia World Religions and Spirituality Project” (https://wrldrels.org/2017/03/19/oberto-airaudi, accessed 12 August 2020) for a more detailed analysis of selfic art. See also Zoccatelli Citation2017.
15. The Via Horusiana (Citation1987, 82, 160), a compendium of Damanhurian doctrine, states that positive thinking is based on two basic rules of magic, ‘like attracts like’ and ‘thought creates’, and suggests that, by thinking positively, one mentally creates ‘situations’ which, in turn, need to be realised on the material level, synchronically creating the circumstances suited to their verification. Synchronicity is the magical mechanism which makes it possible to overtake probabilities linked to time, stretching the possibilities of events to infinity.
16. The total number of houses in the Damanhur territory is 25, spread out over 7 administrative divisions.
17. “Falco wrote many letters to his spiritual children, some personal and others collective. Even years after his spirit left his body, from time to time one of these messages surfaces, according to the timetable and instructions which he had left with his designated postman.” (Stambecco Citation2017, 204)
18. Whereas Damanhur withdraws from the world but continues to use the things of the world, the Amish both withdraw from the world and reject its works and pomp.
19. The Mennonites’ greater porousness regarding the external world results in clearer performative effects because their economic openness has important consequences for the community’s culture. For example, in Paraguay, Mennonite co-operatives (Dana and Dana Citation2008) which employ indigenous labour do not perform as well as those who do not employ it, because the former have the custom of allowing credit to friends, neighbours, and relatives, thereby risking the co-operative’s cash-flow situation. Hutterites (Malach and Malach Citation2010) are open to agricultural innovation, but this openness does not translate into re-defining their traditional style of life (as they live as a collective and property is held in common, money is used to improve agriculture rather than to satisfy individual desires).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Stefania Palmisano
Stefania Palmisano is Associate Professor in the Sociology of Religion at the University of Turin, Italy, where she teaches Sociology of Religious Organization and Sociology of Religion. She is Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University, UK, and Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Religion, Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at Wolverhampton University, UK. She is a member of the editorial board of Social Compass, Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, and Fieldwork in Religion. She co-ordinates the research centre “Contemporary Religion and Faiths in Transition” (CRAFT) based at the University of Turin. Her research interests are contemporary religious experience in mainstream religions, alternative spiritualities, and exorcism in Catholic Charismatic movements. She is the author of Exploring New Monastic Communities (2015) and (with Nicola Pannofino) Invention of Tradition and Syncretism in Contemporary Religions (2017). Her next book is (with Nicola Pannofino) Contemporary Spiritualities: Enchanted Worlds of Nature, Wellbeing and Mystery in Italy (2020). CORRESPONDENCE: Department of Culture, Politics and Society, University of Turin, CLE—Campus ‘Luigi Einaudi’, Lungo Dora Siena 100, 10153 Turin, Italy.