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

• Autore: Xygalatas Dēmētrēs.
• Pubblicazione: Abingdon, Oxon : , : Routledge, , 2014
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (xii, 253 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)
• Disciplina: 264/.019495099
• Soggetto topico: Anastenaria; Fire walking - Greece; Rites and ceremonies - Greece
• Soggetto geografico: Greece Religious life and customs
• Note generali: First published 2012 by Equinox Publishing Limited, an imprint of Acumen.
• 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.
• Titolo autorizzato: The burning saints
• ISBN: 1-317-54374-2; 1-138-10821-9; 1-84465-770-1; 1-315-72871-0; 1-317-54375-0
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910787940703321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II
• Serie: Religion, cognition and culture.