TEENAGE SATANISM AS OPPOSITIONAL YOUTH SUBCULTURE

Abstract

This research offers an ethnographic portrait of a coven of teenage Satanists. It argues that the psychological, folklore, and constructionist perspectives on Satanism are lacking an important voice—the adolescent Satanists themselves. By listening to them, it becomes clear that Satanism allows them to challenge the dominant culture's norms and values. Lacking the social power though, the Coven primarily used a symbolic critique, through the creation of a Satanic style.