although it started among the armenian intellectual elites as a means to reawaken armenian identity, in most recent times the armenian native faith movement has expanded its contingent of adherents among the provincial and rural populations, and among the armenian diaspora. besides the philosophical approach of the intellectuals, the common people are driven to the armenian native faith by various reasons, ranging from mysticism to a sentimental devotion to the gods. antonyan documented the case of a thirty-five years-old woman who believed to be infertile, and who joined the armenian native faith movement after she allegedly became pregnant by praying to anahit, goddess of fertility, and to astghik, goddess of love and beauty. the woman gave her daughter the name "nana", another name of the goddess of fertility.