Baltic religions in the 20th and 21st centuries : The developments of Dievturība and Romuva in Latvia and Lithuania

Sammanfattning

This essay investigates how practitioners of Dievturība in Latvia and Romuva in Lithuania use specific symbols (the fire cross, World Tree) and rituals (Rasos/Jāņi, dainas/dainos) to construct and negotiate religious identity and belonging in post-Soviet society. Drawing on symbolic interactionism, the study analyzes publicly available textual and visual material to show how meanings are created, sustained, and transformed through social interaction. Herbert Blumer’s three premises (meaning, interaction, interpretation) function as the analytical lens. The purpose is to document these processes and to assess the strengths and limitations of symbolic interactionism when applied to macro-level identity formation in revived indigenous religions. The findings indicate that symbols and rituals are actively reinterpreted to maintain cultural continuity and national belonging, while also revealing the framework’s limitations in accounting for power dynamics and structural constraints.