The biosocial basis of collective effervescence
An experimental anthropological study of a fire-walking ritual
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/fiel.v9i1.53Keywords:
effervescence, fieldwork, laboratory, experimental anthropology, fire-walking, SpainAbstract
Collective rituals have long been assumed to play a role in increasing social assimilation and forging emotional bonds between group members. Émile Durkheim described a feeling of belonging and emotional alignment produced by ritual participation, which he called “collective effervescence”. Although this notion has informed generations of anthropologists, it has been notoriously difficult to quantify, while little is known about the physiological mechanisms underlying this effect. In a recent field study, we used physiological measurements alongside traditional ethnographic methods to operationalize and quantify this notion. I discuss the implications of these findings and the use of laboratory methods in field research.
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References
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Sørensen, Jesper. 2007. “Acts That Work: Cognitive Aspects of Ritual Agency,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 19, 281–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006807X240118
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van Baaren, Rick, Rob Holland, Kerry Kawakami, and Ad van Knippenberg. 2004. “Mimicry and Prosocial Behavior,” Psychological Science, 15, 71–74. http://dx.doi. org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01501012.x
Vogeley, Kai, and Andreas Roepstorff. 2009. “Contextualising Culture and Social Cognition,” Trends in Cognitive Science, 13.12, 511–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2009.09.006
Whitehouse, Harvey. 2004. Modes of Religiosity: A Cognitive Theory of Religious Transmission. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Wiltermuth, Scott, and Chip Heath. 2009. “Synchrony and Cooperation,” Psychological Science, 20, 1–5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02253.x
Xygalatas, Dimitris, Uffe Schjødt, Joseph Bulbulia, Ivana Konvalinka, Else-Marie Jegindø, Paul Reddish, Armin W. Geertz, and Andreas Roepstorff. 2013. “Autobiographical Memory in a Fire-Walking Ritual,” Journal of Cognition and Culture, 13.1-2, 1–16.
Atran, Scott, and Joseph Henrich. 2010. “The Evolution of Religion: How Cognitive By-products, Adaptive Learning Heuristics, Ritual Displays, and Group Competition Generate Deep Commitments to Prosocial Religions,” Biological Theory, 5.1, 18–30. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1162/BIOT_a_00018
Bernieri, Frank J. 1988. “Coordinated Movement and Rapport in Teacher-Student Interactions,” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 12, 120–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/ BF00986930
Bulbulia, Joseph. 2008. “Meme Infection or Religious Niche Construction? An Adaptationist Alternative to the Cultural Maladaptationist Hypothesis,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 20, 1-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006808X260241
—2010. “Charismatic Signalling,” Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 3.4, 518– 51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v3i4.518
Caro Baroja, Julio. 1950. “Una fiesta de San Juan en Castilla,” Clavileño, 1.5, 57–64.
Cohen, Emma, Robin Ejsmond-Frey, Nicola Knight, and Robin Dunbar. 2010. “Rowers’ High: Behavioural Synchrony is Correlated with Elevated Pain Thresholds,” Biology Letters, 6, 106–108. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0670
Cortés, Luis. 1969. “Las fiestas de San Juan en San Pedro Manrique (Soria),” Zephyrus, 12, 171–85.
de Vignemont, Frederique, and Tania Singer. 2006. “The Empathic Brain: How, When and Why?,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 435–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. tics.2006.08.008
Dunbar, Robin. 2006. “We Believe,” New Scientist, 189, 28–33.
Dunbar, Robin, Louise Barrett, and John Lycett. 2005. Evolutionary Psychology: A Beginner’s Guide. Oxford: One World Press.
Durkheim, Émile. 1995 (1912). The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York: Free Press.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. 2006. Dancing in the Streets. New York: Metropolitan.
Fischer-Lokou, Jacques, Angelique Martin, Nicolas Guéguen, and Lubomir Lamy. 2011. “Mimicry and Propagation of Prosocial Behavior in a Natural Setting,” Psychological Reports, 108.2, 599–605. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/07.17.21.PR0.108.2.599-605
Gluckman, Max. 1963. Order and Rebellion in Tribal Africa. New York: Free Press.
Haidt, Jonathan, J. Patrick Seder, and Selin Kesebir. 2008. “Hive Psychology, Happiness, and Public Policy,” The Journal of Legal Studies, 37, 133–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/ 529447
Hove, Michael, and Jane Risen. 2009. “It’s All in the Timing: Interpersonal Synchrony Increases Affiliation,” Social Cognition, 27.6, 949–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/soco.2009.27.6.949
Iñigues y Ortiz, Mariano. 1924. “Ritos celtibéricos: Las fiestas de San Pedro Manrique,” Sociedad Española de Antropología, Etnografía y Prehistoria, Actas y Memorias, 3.23, 57–70.
Isabella, Russell, Jay Belsky, and Alexander van Eye. 1989. “Origins of Mother-Infant Attachment: An Examination of Interactional Synchrony during the Infant’s First Year,” Developmental Psychology, 25, 12–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.25.1.12
Jackson, Philip, Pierre Rainville, and Jean Decety. 2006. “To What Extent Do We Share the Pain of Others? Insight from the Neural Bases of Pain Empathy,” Pain, 125, 5–9. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2006.09.013
Konvalinka, Ivana, Dimitris Xygalatas, Joseph Bulbulia, Uffe Schjødt, Else-Marie Jegindø, Sebastian Wallot, Guy Van Orden, and Andreas Roepstorff. 2011. “Synchronized Arousal between Performers and Related Spectators in a Fire-Walking Ritual,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108.20, 8514–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/ pnas.1016955108
Londeree, Ben, and Melvin Moeschberger. 1982. “Effect of Age and Other factors on HR Max,” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 53.4, 297–304.
McNeill, William H. 1995. Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Miles, Lynden, Louise Nind, and Neil Macrae. 2009. “The Rhythm of Rapport: Interpersonal Synchrony and Social Perception,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 585–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.02.002
Norenzayan, Ara, and Azim Shariff. 2008. “The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality,” Science, 322, 58–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1158757
Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred. 1952. Structure and Function of Religious Life. London: Cohen & West.
Rappaport, Roy. 1979. “The Obvious Aspects of Ritual.” In Roy Rappaport, ed., Ecology, Meaning and Religion. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 173–221.
Robergs, Robert, and Roberto Landwehr. 2002. “The Surprising History of the ‘HRmax= 220age’ Equation,” Journal of Exercise Physiology Online, 5.2, 1–10.
Robertson Smith, William, 1889. Lectures on the Religion of the Semites. London: Adam & Charles Black. Ruiz Vega, Antonio. 1985. La soria mágica: Fiestas y tradiciones populares. Almazan, Soria: Ingrabel.
San Baldomero Ucar, José Manuel. 1998. La fiesta de San Juan en San Pedro Manrique: ensayo hermenéutico. Soria: Ayuntamiento de San Pedro Manrique.
Singer, Tania, and Claus Lamm. 2009. “The Social Neuroscience of Empathy,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1156, 81–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009. 04418.x
Sosis, Richard. 2003. “Why Aren’t We All Hutterites?” Human Nature, 14.2, 91–127. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12110-003-1000-6
Sosis, Richard, and Bradley Ruffle. 2003. “Religious Ritual and Cooperation: Testing for a Relationship on Israeli Religious and Secular Kibbutzim,” Current Anthropology, 44.5, 713–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/379260
Sørensen, Jesper. 2007. “Acts That Work: Cognitive Aspects of Ritual Agency,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 19, 281–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006807X240118
Turner, Victor. 1967. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Valdesolo Piercarlo, and David DeSteno. 2011. “Synchrony and the Social Tuning of Compassion,” Emotion, 11.2, 262–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0021302
van Baaren, Rick, Rob Holland, Kerry Kawakami, and Ad van Knippenberg. 2004. “Mimicry and Prosocial Behavior,” Psychological Science, 15, 71–74. http://dx.doi. org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01501012.x
Vogeley, Kai, and Andreas Roepstorff. 2009. “Contextualising Culture and Social Cognition,” Trends in Cognitive Science, 13.12, 511–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2009.09.006
Whitehouse, Harvey. 2004. Modes of Religiosity: A Cognitive Theory of Religious Transmission. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Wiltermuth, Scott, and Chip Heath. 2009. “Synchrony and Cooperation,” Psychological Science, 20, 1–5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02253.x
Xygalatas, Dimitris, Uffe Schjødt, Joseph Bulbulia, Ivana Konvalinka, Else-Marie Jegindø, Paul Reddish, Armin W. Geertz, and Andreas Roepstorff. 2013. “Autobiographical Memory in a Fire-Walking Ritual,” Journal of Cognition and Culture, 13.1-2, 1–16.
Published
2015-03-20
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Xygalatas, D. (2015). The biosocial basis of collective effervescence: An experimental anthropological study of a fire-walking ritual. Fieldwork in Religion, 9(1), 53-67. https://doi.org/10.1558/fiel.v9i1.53
