Version 1
: Received: 9 September 2024 / Approved: 10 September 2024 / Online: 11 September 2024 (03:36:54 CEST)
How to cite:
Pombo Geertsma, I.; Zandstra, B. E.; Stefanaki, A.; van Andel, T. R. Commercialized “Smudge Sticks” Used as Incense in the Netherlands: An Inventory of Plants and Trends behind a New Age Fashion. Preprints2024, 2024090772. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0772.v1
Pombo Geertsma, I.; Zandstra, B. E.; Stefanaki, A.; van Andel, T. R. Commercialized “Smudge Sticks” Used as Incense in the Netherlands: An Inventory of Plants and Trends behind a New Age Fashion. Preprints 2024, 2024090772. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0772.v1
Pombo Geertsma, I.; Zandstra, B. E.; Stefanaki, A.; van Andel, T. R. Commercialized “Smudge Sticks” Used as Incense in the Netherlands: An Inventory of Plants and Trends behind a New Age Fashion. Preprints2024, 2024090772. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0772.v1
APA Style
Pombo Geertsma, I., Zandstra, B. E., Stefanaki, A., & van Andel, T. R. (2024). Commercialized “Smudge Sticks” Used as Incense in the Netherlands: An Inventory of Plants and Trends behind a New Age Fashion. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0772.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Pombo Geertsma, I., Anastasia Stefanaki and Tinde R. van Andel. 2024 "Commercialized “Smudge Sticks” Used as Incense in the Netherlands: An Inventory of Plants and Trends behind a New Age Fashion" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0772.v1
Abstract
Incense is essential in religious ceremonies, even in relatively new religious movements such as New Age and Neopaganism. These garner little attention from ethnobotanists, although they trigger an international trade in wild-harvested plants. In this paper, we studied the botanical ingredients of smudge sticks (dried plant bundles burned for purification) in the Netherlands, and people’s motivations to use them posing the following questions: what plant species are included in smudge sticks? what are they used for? and are exotic plants preferred over native Dutch plant species?
We visited online and physical shops in Dutch cities, acquiring a total of 29 different smudge sticks containing at least 15 species. We held semi-structured interviews with 11 users, vendors, and herbal experts, and collected data from 33 questionnaires. Salvia apiana L. was most frequently found, along with North American species of the genus Artemisia.
The rise of the New Age movement resulted in North American ritual plant species being easily available in (online) shops and it being used for personal protection and cleansing. Despite its commercial demand there is no data regarding the pressure on wild populations, therefore, we call for the need to monitor the harvesting of these species in the wild.
Keywords
Ethnobotany; cultural appropriation; Native American; Europe; California; United States; ritual plants; Neo Paganism; Wicca; witchcraft
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
