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Badagas, peasants in the South Indian Nilgiri region, take great care to prepare for the annual festival of the god Jedayasamy. In the festival week all activities are monitored to achieve a perfect performance. This article argues that devotees and visitors are affected by the special atmosphere of the place. According to the philosopher Gernot Böhme an atmosphere is a semi-object; it exists between individuals and the surrounding environment, and those who are affected by the particular atmosphere are its co-creators. Based on the concept of social aesthetics, this article examines several contexts. Devotees walk in a procession from village to village, dance in public places, and on the final day firewalking takes place. The festival atmosphere is planned, performed, and evaluated. The impact of the festival atmosphere is created by sensuous perceptions, symbolic public performances, and metaphorical references to social categories, here called reduplication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a television show, a wetted bare-skinned person slid through engulfing kerosene pool fire flames. The 0.74 s flame exposure resulted in pain and light sun burns. The heat and mass transfer involved in this dangerous stunt have been analyzed in order to evaluate whether or not the thin water layer represented an important heat protection measure. It is estimated that the wetted person was exposed to heat fluxes in the range of 80–90 kW/m 2 . Analytical solutions of the heat equation were used to evaluate water-spray pre-cooling, heating during flame exposure and post-flame relaxation of skin temperature gradients. It is shown that the water layer carried on the skin into the flames represented limited heat protection. The 30 s cold water-spray pre-cooling prior to the flame exposure was the most important heat protection mechanism. Larger flames of higher emissivity, longer period of flame exposure, warmer pre-cooling water or shorter pre-cooling period would most likely have resulted in severe skin burns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In everyday language, we readily attribute experiences to groups. For example, 1 might say, "Spain celebrated winning the European Cup" or "The uncovering of corruption caused the union to think long and hard about its internal structure." In each case, the attribution makes sense. However, it is quite difficult to give a nonreductive account of precisely what these statements mean because in each case a mental state is ascribed to a group, and it is not obvious that groups can have mental states. In this article, I do not offer an explicit theory of collective experience. Instead, I draw on phenomenological analyses and empirical data in order to provide general conditions that a more specific theory of collective experience must meet in order to be coherent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study documents a small, urban high school that implements firewalks, innovative rites of passage in which low-income, racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse youth publicly reflect on their personal and academic development. Drawing from anthropological scholarship on rites of passage and scholarship on color-conscious care, I examine firewalks through a model of authentic cariño, which incorporates interpersonal and institutional care and emphasizes the dynamic interplay of familial, intellectual, and critical care. Based on analyses of school culture and firewalk enactment, I argue that authentic cariño is essential to nondominant students’ success and that rituals like firewalks productively help youth negotiate emergent cultural identities and develop collective social conscience, reflexivity, and agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme rituals (body-piercing, fire-walking, etc.) are anecdotally associated with altered states of consciousness—subjective alterations of ordinary mental functioning (Ward, 1984)—but empirical evidence of altered states using both direct and indirect measures during extreme rituals in naturalistic settings is limited. Participants in the “Dance of Souls”, a 3.5-hour event during which participants received temporary piercings with hooks or weights attached to the piercings and danced to music provided by drummers, responded to measures of two altered states of consciousness. Participants also completed measures of positive and negative affect, salivary cortisol (a hormone associated with stress), self-reported stress, sexual arousal, and intimacy. Both pierced participants (pierced dancers) and non-pierced participants (piercers, piercing assistants, observers, drummers, and event leaders) showed evidence of altered states aligned with transient hypofrontality (Dietrich, 2003; measured with a Stroop test) and flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; measured with the Flow State Scale). Both pierced and non-pierced participants also reported decreases in negative affect and psychological stress and increases in intimacy from before to after the ritual. Pierced and non-pierced participants showed different physiological reactions, however, with pierced participants showing increases in cortisol and non-pierced participants showing decreases from before to during the ritual. Overall, the ritual appeared to induce different physiological effects but similar psychological effects in focal ritual participants (i.e., pierced dancers) and in participants adopting other roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do people feel during extreme collective rituals? Despite longstanding speculation, few studies have attempted to quantify ritual experiences. Using a novel pre/post design, we quantified physiological fluctuations (heart rates) and self-reported affective states from a collective fire-walking ritual in a Mauritian Hindu community. Specifically, we compared changes in levels of happiness, fatigue, and heart rate reactivity among high-ordeal participants (fire-walkers), low-ordeal participants (non-fire-walking participants with familial bonds to fire-walkers) and spectators (unrelated/unknown to the fire-walkers). We observed that fire-walkers experienced the highest increase in heart rate and reported greater happiness post-ritual compared to low-ordeal participants and spectators. Low-ordeal participants reported increased fatigue after the ritual compared to both fire-walkers and spectators, suggesting empathetic identification effects. Thus, witnessing the ritualistic suffering of loved ones may be more exhausting than experiencing suffering oneself. The findings demonstrate that the level of ritual involvement is important for shaping affective responses to collective rituals. Enduring a ritual ordeal is associated with greater happiness, whereas observing a loved-one endure a ritual ordeal is associated with greater fatigue post-ritual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire has always been involved in human thoughts, believes and actions. For many psychological reasons fire has been considered as living power: red as the human blood, warm as the human body, clearly shines in the night. Fire worship is very common, especially in regions where terrestrial fire is believed to be the image of the heavenly fire. Fire worship has represented the base for symbolic systems involved in the cultural-anthropological evolution of populations settled close to mount Soratte. Fire cults in this region have originated in independent and long-time separated contexts, according to available knowledge. Hirpi Sorani, ancient inhabitants of mount Soratte territory, celebrated Sorano Apollo by a famous fire walking ceremony, with a likely cathartic and apotropaic meaning, as reported by ancient Roman writers. The victory of Christianity over paganism caused the decline of these religious practices. The beginning of the XIX century witnessed the establishment of a new kind of devotion to the Virgin Mary at the mount Soratte. Today, this religious piety-linked identity has weakened due to changes in lifestyles, from an agricultural to one based on outside home employment, and has been largely shifted on cultural and anthropological bases. In conclusion, fire worship at mount Soratte has evolved because of external influences and local inhabitants have reacted by asserting their own identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropological theories have discussed the effects of participation in high-arousal rituals in the formation of autobiographical memory; however, precise measurements for such effects are lacking. In this study, we examined episodic recall among participants in a highly arousing fire- walking ritual. To assess arousal, we used heart rate measurements. To assess the dynamics of episodic memories, we obtained reports immediately after the event and two months later. We evaluated memory accuracy from video footage. Immediately after the event, participants' reports revealed limited recall, low confidence and high accuracy. Two months later we found more inaccurate memories and higher confidence. Whereas cognitive theories of ritual have predicted flashbulb memories for highly arousing rituals, we found that memories were strongly suppressed immediately after the event and only later evolved confidence and detail. Physiological measurements revealed a spectacular discrepancy between actual heart rates and self-reported arousal. This dissociation between subjective reports and objective measurements of arousal is consistent with a cognitive resource depletion model. We argue that expressive suppression may provide a link between individual memories and cultural understandings of high-arousal rituals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Firewalking is a common Taoist cleansing ceremony in Taiwan, but burns associated with the practice have rarely been reported. We analyzed the patients with plantar burns from one firewalking ceremony. Materials and methods: In one firewalking ceremony, 12 Taoist disciples suffered from contact burns to the soles of their feet while walking over burning coals. Eight of them had at least second-degree burns over areas larger than 1% of their total body surface areas (TBSAs). The age, sex, medical history, date of injury, time taken to traverse the fire pit, depth and TBSA of the burns, treatment, length of stay, and outcome were recorded and analyzed. Results: Deep, disseminated second- to third-degree burns were noted and healing took as long as three weeks in some patients. Because disseminated hypertrophic scars form after burns, the soles involved regain much of their tensile strength while walking. The patients experienced only a few difficulties in their daily lives three months after injury. Conclusion: From our experience treating patients with deep disseminated second- to third-degree plantar burns caused by firewalking, we conclude that they should be treated conservatively, with secondary healing rather than a skin graft. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article examines the impact of food restrictions on gender relations within Hindu society, more specifically among Hare Krishna devotees, whose temple is based in Chatsworth. By basing my analysis on a family narrative, this article suggests that notions of food are intrinsic to gender relations in marriage in terms of hierarchy. However, women can subvert this rigid hierarchy by finding strategies to resist patriarchal domination. In this sense, food and sex are also intrinsic to each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective rituals are present in all known societies, but their function is a matter of long-standing debates. Field observations suggest that they may enhance social cohesion and that their effects are not limited to those actively performing but affect the audience as well. Here we show physiological effects of synchronized arousal in a Spanish fire-walking ritual, between active participants and related spectators, but not participants and other members of the audience. We assessed arousal by heart rate dynamics and applied nonlinear mathematical analysis to heart rate data obtained from 38 participants. We compared synchronized arousal between fire-walkers and spectators. For this comparison, we used recurrence quantification analysis on individual data and cross-recurrence quantification analysis on pairs of participants' data. These methods identified fine-grained commonalities of arousal during the 30-min ritual between fire-walkers and related spectators but not unrelated spectators. This indicates that the mediating mechanism may be informational, because participants and related observers had very different bodily behavior. This study demonstrates that a collective ritual may evoke synchronized arousal over time between active participants and bystanders. It links field observations to a physiological basis and offers a unique approach for the quantification of social effects on human physiology during real-world interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fire walking is a religious ritual practiced by predominantly Indians and some Chinese living in Singapore. Eighteen new cases of burns, directly related to a firewalking ceremony on 05 October 09, were studied as to the pattern of burns. Burns on the soles of the feet occurred in 17 patients. All these injuries were superficial or partial thickness burns. There were no deep dermal burns. The extent of burns ranged from 0.25% to 1.5% of body surface area. Burns due to falls accounted for one casualty. He sustained a mixture of deep dermal and partial thickness burns, and the extent of burns was 20% of body surface area. A new classification for the distribution of burns related to fire walking was developed based on the mechanism of injury. It was predictive of the anatomical distribution of burns, the extent of burns (in terms of body surface area), the depth of burns and the general severity of the injury: [I] Burns on the soles of the feet. This was the commonest form of injury. The surface area affected was not much – 1.5% at most. The burns were superficial. The foot was anatomically differentiated into the weight bearing and the non weight bearing parts. [II] Burns due to falls. Such injuries tended to be extensive and they could be deep. [III] Burns due to other practices: a fire walker carrying hot coals in his hands may sustain burns on the palms of the hands. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In five villages of Northern Greece, the communities of the Anastenaria have a long tradition of fire-walking rituals. The Anastenaria are Orthodox Christians, and their rituals are performed in honour of saints Constantine and Helen. However, the majority of Greek scholars have argued that these rituals originate from the ancient orgiastic cults of Dionysus. This theory was intentionally designed to serve specific political agendas, namely to prove the continuity of Greek civilization from ancient to modern Greece. Despite lacking any evidentiary support whatsoever, it became the dominant view of the Anastenaria for more than a century and has heavily influenced not only the ethnographic representation of this tradition but also the tradition itself. This article explores ethnographic practice in the context of the Anastenaria, its effects on this tradition, and the implications for further anthropological research on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article gives a brief history of fire-walking and then deals with the physics behind fire-walking. The author has performed approximately 50 fire-walks, took the data for the world's hottest fire-walk and was, at one time, a world record holder for the longest fire-walk (www.dwilley.com/HDATLTW/Record_Making_Firewalks.html). He currently teaches Physics for the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fijian firewalking ceremony (vilavilairevo), traditionally performed only by members of the Sawau people on the island of Beqa, is a prime example of a propitiation ritual that has become commodified to suit the requirements of tourism. The Sawau 'gift' of walking on white-hot stones introduces another dimension of the gift practice. Although gifts and commodities are often treated as ideal-type opposites, and a tradition of Melanesian scholarship has focused attention on the inalienability of gifts, I argue that the self-consciously traditional firewalking practice of Beqa Island, Fiji, is an inalienable sui generis commodity that becomes effective by 'branding' Fijian concepts of different places' distinct custodianships. Over the last two centuries, the gift of firewalking has transmuted itself into a sociocultural tool that has consistently indigenized the power of the foreign. The gift of firewalking has allowed its custodians to locally sustain their community, to gain a reach and respect across the nation and beyond, and to intensify the group's social sentiment and social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A microwave-induced combustion (MIC) method was proposed for seafood digestion and further total arsenic determination using hydride generation coupled to atomic spectrometry techniques. It was possible to digest up to 500 mg of mussel tissue, fish tissue and whole shrimp. Combustion was carried out in closed quartz vessels with pressurized oxygen. Total arsenic was determined in MIC digests by conventional inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), flow injection hydride generation coupled to atomic absorption spectrometry (FI-HG AAS) and to ICP-MS (FI-HG-ICP-MS). Accuracy was evaluated using certified reference materials of oyster tissue, dogfish muscle, tuna fish tissue and mussel tissue. The use of a reflux step and water or diluted HNO3as absorbing solutions was investigated. The agreement to certified values was from 96 to 103% using 0.1 mol l−1HNO3as absorbing solution and 5 min of reflux. The agreement of results for As determination by FI-HG AAS and FI-HG-ICP-MS was better than 98% when compared with results obtained by ICP-MS after digestion. The proposed method by MIC allowed the digestion in less time than other procedures and with low residual carbon content (< 0.5%). With this method up to eight samples could be processed simultaneously in 25 min. Taking into account that concentrated acids were not necessary, the proposed method can be considered in agreement with green chemistry recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion as a social form is constructed to provide adherents with a sense of empowerment and control. Rituals that involve a risk of physical or psychological injury or even death therefore would appear anomalous and indeed are frequently the objects of social scientific and journalistic denigration. Firewalking and serpent handling exemplify such rituals. I argue that these two radical ritual practices, which I term spiritual edgework, provide a valuable sociological window on how radical ritual practices are socially constructed. The social construction process involves the identification of a mythically relevant edge that offers: both contingency and certainty; individual and collective preparation for the impending edgework during which tensions are elevated for later ritual resolution; a ritualized process for successfully navigating the edge; and postedgework accounts that neutralize potential disconfirming injuries or deaths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Greek village of Mavrolefki in Thrace, a small number of women and men, about ten in number, once a year, on the feast day of St. Constantine, undertake a series of rites, ranging from dancing to the icons, blood sacrifice, to the most spectacular fire-walking (pyrovasia). It is the last which brings spectators from all over Greece and further afield. The principal participants, however, are known as the anastenarides (shakers, tremblers). Several concerns are addressed in the paper. Given the peculiar mix of proceedings, the first is to lay out the components of the affair, asking what's going on? Furthermore, there are the conceptual issues. What aesthetic is being implicated? What emotions are being brought into play? What does the event amount to? In addressing such questions the paper draws on certain aesthetic formulations of the Hindu rasa theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the problem which phenomena such as firewalking poses for anthropological discussion, with specific reference to the Anastenaria, a firewalking ritual performed in the North of Greece. Information on the phenomenon; Various scientific explanations which have been given for the ability to walk on fire; Question of altered states of consciousness.

Studies the firewalking, a ritual and transformation performed by the several Americans. View that made firewalking an ideal ritual for the New Age movement; Cost of the firewalking in the New Oak Ridge Firewalk; Overview of the preparations and rehearsal for the firewalk; How the concept of mutual presence can explain firewalking.

This article presents information on the ideological variation justifying firewalking in Japan, Sri Lanka, and the USA. Firewalking, an element of many shamanistic ceremonies, involves an individual walking barefoot over hot coals without being burned. This present report is based on participate observation of firewalking ceremonies at Mt. Takao (Japan), Kataragama (Sri Lanka) and the U.S. Ten firewalks were undertaken between 1982 and 1986 as part of the study. Changes in the moral obligations between the temple and surrounding communities have resulted in the development of an "applied" ideology regarding firewalking. The rhetorical processes surrounding firewalking illustrate the problems that practitioners of unorthodox techniques encounter in attempting to gain legitimacy. Acupuncture and Asian martial arts exemplify ideological imports which have been more effective than firewalking in gaining legitimacy in the West. Because ideologies associated with these procedures are supported by effective "speakers," who create "situations" catering to the needs of adequate audiences, these practices have gained a degree of acceptance. The ideas supporting these procedures have been separated from their "pure" Asian forms and have become associated with Westernized "applied" ideologies.

The article offers a performance document that focuses on the durational aspect of fire and its own transformation. The author talks about her own process of learning to walk on fire, which connects with horse breaking and horse blessing. The transformation of fire that are explored includes, wood, charcoal, carbon and ash.