Xoán Paredes


Xoán M. Paredes is a Galician geographer, teacher and ordained druid.
Paredes is a licenciado in Geography by the University of Santiago de Compostela, where he studied under the direction of Carlos Ferrás. He completed his MPhil thesis at University College Cork, under the supervision of Patrick O'Flanagan.

Research

Paredes has conducted research in the fields of spatial planning and cultural geography, with a focus on geolinguistics, Atlantic Europe and cultural landscapes. He has helped in defining the concept of cultural landscape as:

"... the environment modified by the human being in the course of time, the long-term combination between anthropic action on this environment and the physical constraints limiting or conditioning human activity. It is a geographical area – including natural and cultural resources – associated to historical evolution, which gives way to a recognizable landscape for a particular human group, up to the point of being identifiable as such by others."

Like a number of other previous authors such as Otero Pedrayo, Paredes links his native Galicia to a genuinely Atlantic culture despite being part of a Mediterranean state. In doing so, he identifies a cultural landscape common to Atlantic Europe mainly based on the settlement pattern, use and shared perception of the lived space.
Following on John T. Koch's and Barry Cunliffe's “Celtic from the West” postulates, Paredes supports the Paleolithic Continuity Paradigm, thus coinciding with Francesco Benozzo when locating the origins of Celtic Culture in north-west Iberia. Once again, Paredes considers that there is a particular Celtic cultural landscape which demonstrates in itself a social and cultural unity and continuity.
Regarding planning and territorial management, Paredes defends a deep restructuring of the Galician official administrative jurisdictions, considered to be the result of forced foreign intervention and therefore in disarray with the traditional – and still operating at a popular and psychological level – Galician territorial tiers. His research also criticises the governmental improvisation and lack of strategic planning in Galician territorial implementations.

Selected works

Research

Paredes is the current head of the , an officially registered religious organisation. He is therefore a believer in reconstructionist Druidry, although following an orthodox approach unlike most contemporary neo-druidic groups. In these contexts the initiated name of Milésio is often used in reference to the Milesians.
As a religious figure, he has featured in media on a number of occasions.