The Burning Saints: Cognition and Culture in the Fire-walking Rituals of the Anastenaria

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Dimitris Xygalatas

The Burning Saints

Cognition and Culture in the Fire-walking Rituals of the Anastenaria

Dimitris Xygalatas

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English

Equinox Publishing Ltd
27 November 2012

Orthodox & Oriental Churches; Christian worship, rites & ceremonies; Religious institutions & organisations; Religious groups: social & cultural aspects

Series: Religion, Cognition and Culture

The Anastenaria are Orthodox Christians in Northern Greece who observe a unique annual ritual cycle focused on two festivals, dedicated to Saint Constantine and Saint Helen. The festivals involve processions, music, dancing, animal sacrifices, and culminate in an electrifying fire-walking ritual. Carrying the sacred icons of the saints, participants dance over hot coals as the saint moves them. 'The Burning Saints' presents an analysis of these rituals and the psychology behind them. Based on long-term fieldwork, 'The Burning Saints' traces the historical development and sociocultural context of the Greek fire-walking rituals. As a cognitive ethnography, the book aims to identify the social, psychological and neurobiological factors which may be involved and to explore the role of emotional and physiological arousal in the performance of such ritual. A study of participation, experience and meaning, 'The Burning Saints' presents a highly original analysis of how mental processes can shape social and religious behaviour.

By: Dimitris Xygalatas
Imprint: Equinox Publishing Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 566g
ISBN: 9781845539764
ISBN 10: 1845539761
Series: Religion, Cognition and Culture
Pages: 266
Publication Date: 27 November 2012
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1. Introduction 2. Tradition in the Making 3. The Ethnographic Setting 4. Fire-walking in Agia Eleni 5. Knowledge and Revelation Among the Anastenaria 6. Ritual and Mind 7. Costly Rituals 8. Arousal, Emotion, and Motivation 9. The Physiology of High-Arousal Rituals 10. Putting it all Together Bibliography

Dimitris Xygalatas is an anthropologist at the MINDLab and the Department for the Study of Religion at Aarhus University, Denmark. He received his PhD from the Institute of Cognition and Culture at Queens University Belfast and has held postdoctoral positions at the universities of Princeton and Aarhus. His main interest is in the anthropology of religion, and much of his work has focused on the practice of fire-walking rituals around the world. He has conducted several years of ethnographic research in Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, and Mauritius. Over the last few years, he has been concerned with integrating ethnographic and experimental methods in the field.

Reviews for The Burning Saints: Cognition and Culture in the Fire-walking Rituals of the Anastenaria

In conclusion, Xygalatas offers the most well-presented, defended, and empirically backed, overview of extreme rituals available. His attention to historical, anthropological, and scientific detail will hopefully become a prototype for future publications and research programmes in the field. Throughout its chapters the book offers valuable new insight to specialists of similar historical, anthropological, cognitive, and physiological topics. The book ultimately is a contribution to many fields but above all else, it is a contribution to interdisciplinary and scientific approaches to complex phenomena. Justin E. Lane, Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, Journal of Cognitive Historiography