Appropriating Social Energy: The Generation, Accumulation, and Conversion of Capital in the Performance of the Anastenaria

The Anastenária, a ritual complex observed in several villages in northern Greece, is most famous for its 21 May performance in celebration of Saints Constantine and Helen. This performance, which includes music, dancing, prayer, the sacrificing of animals, and a firewalk, has become a popular tourist attraction, resulting in some cultural commodification of the ritual and its central objects, the icons. Through association and involvement in the Anastenária, individuals and groups engage in struggles for the accumulation of different types of what Bourdieu (1993) calls capital. Different forms of capital are made available through different kinds of participation and involvement in the ritual. The Anastenária is a site where capital is generated and transferred, and participation in it is a form of symbolic labor. The fact that the ritual is now a tourist attraction does not mean that it has ceased to be a significant religious celebration. Indeed popularization has introduced additional meanings, widened the ritual's effects, broadened its appeal and become a significant dynamic in the way Anastenáridhes generate and negotiate identity.