Dr. Dimitris Xygalatas is an anthropologist and cognitive scientist who studies ritual behaviour. He has conducted over 4 years of ethnographic fieldwork in Greece, Bulgaria, Spain and Mauritius, focusing on the performance of high-intensity rituals and developing a methodology to study such rituals experimentally in their natural contexts. He currently holds a joint position between Aarhus University and Masaryk University, where he is the Director of the Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion (LEVYNA). His ethnography of the Greek fire-walking rituals of the Anastenaria was published in the monograph The Burning Saints (Equinox 2012). His current research involves cognitive and physiological aspects of the practice of high-arousal rituals in Mauritius, where he is leading the Mauritian Laboratory for Experimental Anthropology.
Homepage: www.xygalatas.com