Michelangelo Paganopoulos

Supervisor: Victoria Goddard

Title: The Land of the Virgin: An ethnographic study of monastic life in two monasteries of Mount Athos

The thesis is an ethnographic account of contemporary monastic life on Mount Athos, the ‘Garden of the Virgin Mary’, an autonomous Christian Orthodox Republic of twenty monasteries with only male monks, situated in north Greece. The thesis is based on participant observation and historical research carried out between 2002 and 2004 in the monasteries of Vatopaidi and Esfigmenou. It covers a number of themes, beginning with how the notion of ‘virginity’ informs ideals of purity reflected upon the landscape and in the daily life of the monks, as well as providing a central point of reference in the process of striving to become a monk in Vatopaidi. This is explored through a detailed account of practices of faith, such as ordinations, prayer, and confessions, focusing on the Vatopaidian notion of the ‘economy of passions’. Through this, the thesis considers the personal and communal regimes of life and prayer, obedience and labour in the monastery. Further, the thesis explores this in the context of the organization of time and space in Vatopaidi, in particular drawing on ideas about tradition and the unchanging quality of time in the monastery, and of the importance of private and collective practices. Finally, the thesis compares the social life and values of Vatopaidi to its rival neighbour Esfigmenou, which represents a contrasting and indeed competing view of monastic life. The most salient differences over ‘matters of faith’ are a contrasting relationship to the landscape, different sets of priorities and understanding of the aims and nature of monastic life, and a contestation of the same tradition based on a different way of counting time. Externally, Esfigmenou has a very different attitude towards recent changes on the Mount, such as the importation of technology, the rise of religious tourism, and the impact of EU funding, keeping an extremist political agenda in the Orthodox world, and consequently, a different set of motivations for becoming a monk in this particular monastery. Here too, the contrast between internal and external is fundamental to the identity of Esfigmenou, even though it is approached as an explicit criticism of Vatopaidi. Interestingly however, both monasteries find themselves entangled in conflict ridden relationships with the Greek state. The material shows how the external vocation of the monasteries reflects upon their internal regimes, highlighting the heterogeneity and recent changes in the life of the monks. In this way, the material investigates the paradox of monastic life: its moral disconnection from a material ‘world’ to which it financially and politically depends. This paradox further reflects upon methodological issues regarding the gap between theory and practice.

Published articles on Monastic Life of Mount Athos:

(2009) THE CONCEPT OF 'ATHONIAN ECONOMY' IN THE MONASTERY OF VATOPAIDI in the Journal of Cultural Economy Vol 2, Issue 3 (November 2009) 363 – 378
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a918289947?waited=0

http://financialgreektragedy.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html 

(2007) ‘Materializations of Faith’ in Material Worlds (eds) de Klerk and Moffat Cambridge Scholar Publications, pp 122-133

Selected Posts on Mount Athos:

(2009) ‘The Nationalist Facade of Two Monasteries of Mount Athos’
https://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/hellenicObservatory/pdf/4th_%20Symposium/PAPERS_PPS/NATIONAL_REGIONAL_IDENTITY/PAGANOPOULOS.pdf

(2006) ‘Athonian Economy: Two Ways of Engaging with World Society’

[ASA 2006] at http://www.theasa.org/conferences/asa06/panels/panel11.htm

http://www.ifip.dsg.ae/Docs/FinalPDF/Work%20In%20Progress/ifip_35_Tanasyuk%20&%20Avgerou.pdf

Published articles in Film and Literature

(2011) ‘The Archetype of Transformation in Maya Deren's Film Rituals’ in Jung and Film II (eds Christopher Hauke and Luke Hockley) Routledge, pp 253-265

(2010) ‘Billy the Kid and Jesus Christ as Archetypes of the Self in American Cinema’ in the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture Volume 22 (no1) (spring Issue) at http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/

http://www.bookforum.com/blog/archive/20100701

http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/52239227/Jesus-Christ-and-Billy-the-Kid-as-Archetypes-of-the-Self-in-American-Cinema

(2007) ‘The Affinity between Anthropology and Literature: Reflections on the Poetics of Ethnography in the work of Nikos Kavvadias’ at http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/hellenicObservatory/pdf/3rd_Symposium/PAPERS/PAGANOPOULOS%20MICHELANGELO.pdf
http://khup.com/view/5_keyword-kavvadias/paganopoulos-michelangelo.html

Reviews

(2006) ‘Review of John Hutnyk’s Bad Marxism: Capitalism and Cultural Studies’

at http://hutnyk.wordpress.com/2006/03/05/keith-hart%EF%BF%BDs-memory-bank-john-hutnyks-bad-marxism/