NATURE-CENTRED TRADITIONS IN THE GREEN TRANSITION: 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 connects political science, anthropology, philosophy, religious studies, and geophysics.

The central primary source of this research is the ethnographic opus of the Slovenian ethnographer and collector Pavol Medvešček – Klančar (1933–2020). This opus testifies to the existence of a previously unknown religious minority in Primorska with pre-Christian and pre-modern cultural elements. Pre-Christian beliefs and customs have been detected elsewhere in Slovenia, but the Nature Worship tradition in Primorska demonstrates historical continuity and is uniquely integral, as it encompasses religious beliefs, rituals, community social structures, practices, and policies that share a common interdependence with nature.

Nature Worship was a religious way of life that was completely in harmony with awe-inspiring nature; it included elements characteristic of nature religions around the world, such as animism, individual and collective totemism, the worship of omnipresent ancestors, the worship of sacred riverbeds, mountains and underground caves, as well as sacred plants and sacred animals. Nature Worshippers formed a complex political community, a counterculture and a natureculture over the centuries. In the 20th century, their community gradually disappeared due to the destruction of nature following modernization processes and the human losses caused by the two World Wars. The modern discovery of the Nature Worship tradition proves 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 research objectives of the project are a) to address Nature Worship in Primorska in the context of contemporary society's attitude toward nature, the scientific concepts of nature and anti-hegemonic epistemology, b) to explore the potential of Nature Worshippers’ biocentric practices for facilitating the Green Transition, c) to contribute to an interdisciplinary and integral interpretation of Nature Worship.

Research Project Team:

Prof. Katja Hrobat Virloget, PhD
Prof. Lenart Škof, PhD; Prof. Nadja Furlan Štante, PhD
Prof. Žiga Vodovnik, PhD; Assist. Prof. Andrej Kurnik, PhD; Prof. Cirila Toplak, PhD (project coordinator)
Andrej Pleterski, PhD; Rudi Čop, PhD (project consultants)
Tjaša Škorjanc (junior research fellow at SRC Koper)

The principal research questions addressed include, among others, Nature Worshippers’ biocentrism and its impact on elemental philosophy and elemental politics, the contextualization of ecofeminism and geomagnetism/biomagnetism within Nature Worshippers’ culture, infra-political means of social struggle, Nature Worshippers’ conceptions of health and care for the vulnerable, and "silence" in ethnography, the regeneration of agricultural practices, and the symbiosis with living Others.

The methodology applied here will include the study of primary sources and relevant secondary sources, comparative and discursive analyses, and ethnographic fieldwork with the aim of detecting the last traces of memory of Nature Worship among the inhabitants of the bordering neighbouring regions of Primorska and Slavia Friulana - Benecia. The project research team consists of researchers with extensive references on the research topic and experience in project work and team communication; the opportunity for training is also offered to a young research fellow. Due to the scope of her previous publications on Nature Worship and collaboration with Pavel Medvešček – Klančar from 2016 until his death in 2020, political scientist Prof. Cirila Toplak took over the coordination of the project.

Project Team:
Prof. Katja Hrobat Virloget University of Primorska Faculty of Humanities)
Prof. Lenart Škof, Prof. Nadja Furlan Štante (Scientific Research Center Koper)
Prof. Žiga Vodovnik, Assist. Prof. Andrej Kurnik, Prof. Cirila Toplak (FSS UL, project coordinator) (Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ljubljana)
Andrej Pleterski, PhD, Rudi Čop, PhD (project consultants)
Tjaša Škorjanc (junior research fellow at SRC Koper)

The phases of the project and their realization

Phase 1: In the first year, the research team will carry out the necessary fieldwork and/or theoretical study of the first set of research questions defined in the application. The research results will be presented at the beginning of the second year at a conference in Primorska in order to draw attention of, inform and empower the local heritage community. The research results will be published as conference proceedings in English and a project report in Slovenian during the second year of the project.

Phase 2: In the second year, the research team will continue the necessary fieldwork and/or theoretical study of the next set of research questions. The research results of 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 global scientific community to the phenomenon of Nature Worship and its relevance for contemporary environmental issues. The final conference will also be held in Primorska, and foreign participants will be offered the opportunity to visit the main known Nature Worshippers' sanctuaries. The comprehensive results of the research will be published as a scientific monograph in English, as well as a project report fostering public awareness in Slovenian.

Part 3: Dissemination and follow-up activities: this part will include the publication of papers at scientific conferences after the regional conference and the publication of scientific articles after the second, international conference. Both publications will also receive appropriate media reviews and public presentations. Individual members of the project team will present interim research results at relevant professional conferences in Slovenia and abroad and, if possible, include the project topic in their teaching and lecturing. The project publications will be used as references in project applications for further research on Nature Worship in national and EU tenders. The project results will be disseminated through a series of public events organized by the Slovenian Society for Comparative Religion and the Center for Political Theory of the University of Ljubljana, and 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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