Firewalking and Religious Healing [Paperback]

Loring M. Danforth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1989 | ISBN-10: 0691028532 | ISBN-13: 978-0691028538 | Edition: Later Edition

"If the Saint calls you, if you have an open road, then you don't feel the fire as if it were your enemy," says one of the participants in the Anastenaria. This compelling work evokes and contrasts two forms of firewalking and religious healing: first, the Anastenaria, a northern Greek ritual in which people who are possessed by Saint Constantine dance dramatically over red-hot coals, and, second, American firewalking, one of the more spectacular activities of New Age psychology. Loring Danforth not only analyzes these rituals in light of the most recent work in medical and symbolic anthropology but also describes in detail the lives of individual firewalkers, involving the reader personally in their experiences: he views ritual therapy as a process of transformation and empowerment through which people are metaphorically moved from a state of illness to a state of health. Danforth shows that the Anastenaria and the songs accompanying it allow people to express and resolve conflict-laden family relationships that may lead to certain kinds of illnesses. He also demonstrates how women use the ritual to gain a sense of power and control over their lives without actually challenging the ideology of male dominance that pervades Greek culture. Comparing the Anastenaria with American firewalking, Danforth includes a gripping account of his own participation in a firewalk in rural Maine. Finally he examines the place of anthropology in a postmodern world in which the boundaries between cultures are becoming increasingly blurred.

Editorial Reviews

Review

As a contribution to postmodernism, it reveals the possibilities and paradoxes inherent in that movement. As a contribution to the ethnography of ritual healing, the book confirms the basic theory and provides comparative data. -- American Anthropologist

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press; Later Edition edition (November 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691028532
• ISBN-13: 978-0691028538
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > Walking

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Alternately interesting and tedious, March 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Firewalking and Religious Healing (Paperback)

This is an occasionally interesting study of the interplay among culture, religion, medicine, and kinship in Greece and the United States. I can't help thinking that Danforth could have made his point in 200 pages rather than 300. Also, I dislike a tendency towards legitimization of stigma toward mental illness and it's pharmaceutical treatments.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting study of cross-cultural religious practice, June 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Firewalking and Religious Healing (Paperback)

I was sorry to see only one, rather negative, review for this book. I have used it in college classes for several years, and most students enjoy reading it. It is a good example of how studying the same activity (firewalking) in two different contexts (Greece and the U.S.) can shed light on the practice in both cultures. The author is respectful about both Greek Christian and American New Age firewalkers, and reveals how the ritual is transformative for both groups... but, as you might expect, in very different ways! It will also tell you something about how rituals heal, and about medical anthropology.