THE TRANSGRESSING CHARACTER OF THE SACRED IN THE DOUBLE RITUAL OF ANASTENARIA

The Transgressing Character of the Sacred in the Double
Ritual of Anastenaria

Key words Sacred; transgression; profane; fire-walking; sacrifice.

Abstract Individuals and crowds face a new challenge in postmodern era. In contrast to modernity, postmodernity is characterised by an extreme division of the subject (fragmentation) and by a complete illusion of means and aims, as propagated through alienating mediated messages (simulation). A third feature named “latency” has the sense of inconsistency of goals and the flexibility of strategies. Both in the West and the Rest (to use Wallerstein’s distinction), people conceive the sacred under new influences coming mainly from the media and computer intervention in everyday life. Falsification of pictorial information in parallel with its uncontrolled inflation are responsible for spacio-temporal alienation. The result is the inversion of the classical scheme sacred/profane (conceived as the transgression of the former by the latter). One can speak today, rather, of the transgression of our everyday profanity by new forms of the sacred as developed and manifested under actual post modern conditions. Focus here is on this recent development of the sacred as manifested in contemporary rituals such as Anastenaria comprising ceremonial bull sacrifice and ecstatic fire-walking.