NATURE-CENTRED TRADITIONS IN THE GREEN TRANSITION: A CASE STUDY OF NATURE WORSHIP OF PRIMORSKA

General information

Code: J7-70269 Toplak
Period: 1.3.2026 - 28.2.2029
Project leader at FDV: prof.dr. Cirila Toplak
Research activity: Interdisciplinary Research

Abstract

NATURE-CENTRED TRADITIONS IN THE GREEN TRANSITION: A CASE STUDY OF NATURE WORSHIP OF PRIMORSKA is an interdisciplinary research project that brings together political science, anthropology, philosophy, religious studies, and geophysics.

The project's central primary source is the ethnographic opus of the Slovenian ethnographer and collector Pavel Medvešček–Klančar (1933–2020). This body of work documents the existence of a previously unknown religious minority in Primorska that preserved pre-Christian and pre-modern cultural elements. Although pre-Christian beliefs and customs have been identified elsewhere in Slovenia, the Nature Worship tradition of Primorska demonstrates historical continuity and a degree of integrity, encompassing religious beliefs, rituals, community social structures, practices, and policies united by a shared interdependence with nature.

Nature Worship was a religious way of life lived in complete harmony with awe-inspiring nature. It included elements characteristic of nature religions worldwide, such as animism, individual and collective totemism, the veneration of omnipresent ancestors, sacred riverbeds, mountains, and underground caves, as well as sacred plants and animals. Over the centuries, Nature Worshippers formed a complex political community, a counterculture, and a natureculture. During the 20th century, their community gradually disappeared as a result of environmental destruction associated with modernization and the human losses caused by the two World Wars. The modern discovery of the Nature Worship tradition demonstrates that, under specific conditions of geographical isolation, strict secrecy, effective governance, and defensive repression, a large traditional community could survive for centuries within a modernizing society in a kind of "parallel reality."

The project's research objectives are: (a) to examine Nature Worship in Primorska in the context of contemporary society's relationship with nature, scientific concepts of nature, and anti-hegemonic epistemology; (b) to explore the potential of Nature Worshippers' biocentric practices in the context of the Green Transition; and (c) to contribute to an interdisciplinary and integral interpretation of Nature Worship.

The principal research questions include, among others, Nature Worshippers' biocentrism and its implications for elemental philosophy and elemental politics; the contextualization of ecofeminism and geomagnetism/biomagnetism within Nature Worshippers' culture; infra-political forms of social struggle; Nature Worshippers' conceptions of health and care for vulnerable members of the community; the role of "silence" in ethnography; the regeneration of agricultural practices; and multispecies collectivity.

The methodology will include the study of primary and relevant secondary sources, comparative and discourse analyses, and ethnographic fieldwork aimed at identifying the last traces of memory of Nature Worship among the inhabitants of the neighbouring border regions of Primorska and Slavia Friulana–Benecia. The project team consists of researchers with extensive publications on the research topic and substantial experience in collaborative research projects and team communication. The project also provides an opportunity to train a junior research fellow. Owing to her extensive publications on Nature Worship and her collaboration with Pavel Medvešček–Klančar from 2016 until his death in 2020, political scientist Prof. Cirila Toplak assumed coordination of the project.

Project Team

Prof. Katja Hrobat Virloget (University of Primorska, Faculty of Humanities)
Prof. Lenart Škof, Prof. Nadja Furlan Štante (Science and Research Centre Koper)
Prof. Žiga Vodovnik, Assist. Prof. Andrej Kurnik, Assist. Luka Zevnik Tomazin, Maja Jančič, MA; project coordinator Prof. Cirila Toplak (University of Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences)
Andrej Pleterski, PhD; Rudi Čop, PhD (project consultants)
Tjaša Škorjanc (junior research fellow, Science and Research Centre Koper)

The phases of the project and their realization

Phase 1: During the first year, the research team will conduct the necessary fieldwork and/or theoretical study addressing the first set of research questions defined in the project application. The research results will be presented at a conference in Primorska at the beginning of the second year in order to raise awareness, inform, and empower the local heritage community. The findings will subsequently be published as conference proceedings in Slovenian and as an extensive project report in English during the second year of the project.

Phase 2: During the second year, the research team will continue the necessary fieldwork and/or theoretical study of the next set of research questions. The research findings from both years will be presented at an international conference at the beginning of the third year with the aim of drawing the attention of the international scientific community to the phenomenon of Nature Worship and its relevance to contemporary environmental issues. The final conference will also be held in Primorska, where international participants will have the opportunity to visit the principal known Nature Worshippers' sanctuaries. The comprehensive research results will be published as a scientific monograph in English, together with a project report in Slovenian aimed at fostering public awareness.

Phase 3: Dissemination and Follow-up Activities: This phase will include the presentation of papers at scientific conferences following the regional conference and the publication of scientific articles after the second, international conference. Both types of publications will be accompanied by appropriate media coverage and public presentations. Individual members of the project team will present interim research findings at relevant academic conferences in Slovenia and abroad and, where possible, incorporate the project's themes into their teaching and public lectures. The project publications will serve as references in applications for further research on Nature Worship submitted to national and EU funding calls. The project results will also be disseminated through a series of public events organized by the Slovenian Society for Comparative Religion and the Centre for Political Theory at the University of Ljubljana, as well as through a documentary film.

Research Organisation

https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/en/project/24541

Researchers

https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/en/project/24541

Citations for bibliographic records

https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/en/project/24541

Key words

agriculture, elemental philosophy, geophysics, green transition, landscape, nature, nature worship, politics, primorska, religion

Sustainable Development Goals

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