1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910961820603321

Autore

Xygalatas Demetres

Titolo

The burning saints : cognition and culture in the fire-walking rituals of the Anastenaria / / Dimitris Xygalatas

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Bristol, CT, : Equinox, 2012

Bristol, CT : , : Equinox, , 2012

ISBN

1-317-54374-2

1-138-10821-9

1-84465-770-1

1-315-72871-0

1-317-54375-0

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 253 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Religion, cognition and culture

Disciplina

264/.019495099

Soggetti

Anastenaria

Fire walking - Greece

Rites and ceremonies - Greece

Greece Religious life and customs

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-238) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Tradition in the making -- The ethnographic setting -- Fire-walking in Agia Eleni -- Knowledge and revelation among the Anastenaria -- Ritual and mind -- Costly rituals -- Arousal, emotion and motivation -- Physiology of high-arousal rituals -- Putting it all together.

Sommario/riassunto

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.