Theater in a Crowded Fire: Ritual and Spirituality at Burning Man

«Every summer during the week leading up to Labor Day weekend, tens of thousands of people from around the globe descend on the Black Rock Desert, a desolate and otherwise obscure corner of northwestern Nevada whose principal feature is an ancient and absolutely barren plain of crackled clay known as the playa.» — Abre la introducción situando el festival: cada verano, en la semana previa al Labor Day, decenas de miles de personas llegan al Black Rock Desert de Nevada

«Yet among the many frameworks within which this event can be situated—arts celebration, social experiment, or orgiastic revelry—one of the experiences that it fulfills for many participants is ritual.» — Gilmore enumera los marcos en que cabe el evento —celebración artística, experimento social, jolgorio orgiástico— y sostiene que para muchos participantes lo que cumple es el ritual

«Even thornier is the notion of somehow separating “spirituality” from “religion,” given the mutually self-referential and ultimately synonymous nature of the various ideas implied by these terms.» — Señala que separar *spirituality* de *religion* es lo más espinoso, porque las ideas que los dos términos implican son mutuamente autorreferenciales y en último término sinónimas

«There is difficulty too in labeling this social phenomenon a “movement,” as that term can imply something far more unified than the loosely aggregate affinities into which the so-called pastiche or cafeteria spiritualities of “new age” seekers, “neo”-Pagan devotees, Buddhist dabblers, and yoga practitioners (along with myriad other communities» — Objeta que llamar *movimiento* al fenómeno sugiere más unidad de la que hay entre las afinidades sueltas de buscadores *new age*, devotos neopaganos, aficionados al budismo y practicantes de yoga (el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana; la frase sigue en la 16 con *and spiritual ideologies) are usually, and sometimes uncharitably, lumped*)

«Yet these critical precautions aside, “spiritual but not religious” is a commonly used turn of phrase and one that many Burners themselves employ.» — Pese a sus reservas de método, Gilmore conserva la fórmula porque es la que los propios Burners usan

«For these individuals, this outlook implies a quest for spiritual experience and expression, and an often-ritualized connection with “something more,” that takes place apart from most traditional religious institutions.» — Define qué implica esa mirada para quienes la sostienen: una búsqueda de experiencia espiritual y una conexión a menudo ritualizada con *algo más*, fuera de la mayoría de las instituciones religiosas tradicionales

«This phenomenon could be said to exemplify what the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss famously termed bricolage, a process by which we cobble together our belief systems about the world based on the sensory, cognitive, cultural, and historical ingredients available to us, or in Lévi-Strauss’s terms, by “whatever is at hand.”» — Toma de Claude Lévi-Strauss el *bricolage* para nombrar el modo en que el festival ensambla sus sistemas de creencia con los ingredientes sensoriales, cognitivos, culturales e históricos a la mano

«It is also akin to what some scholars have characterized as syncretism, a term originally applied—often disparagingly—to the merging of two different religious traditions to create a third tradition, although at Burning Man the sources are as infinite as the bounds of human culture, history, and imagination, and the result is unmistakably indeterminate and dynamic.» — Acepta el parentesco con el sincretismo, pero acota que en el festival las fuentes son tan infinitas como la cultura, la historia y la imaginación, y el resultado es indeterminado y dinámico

«To borrow yet another term, this one from the electronic music and deejay cultures that intersect with the festival, Burning Man is a mash-up, an idiom that refers to the mixture of two or more popular songs from different genres to form a new polyphonic creation.» — Añade un tercer nombre tomado de las culturas de música electrónica y de los deejays que se cruzan con el festival: el *mash-up*, mezcla de canciones de géneros distintos en una creación polifónica nueva

«It must be acknowledged that many participants and observers alike deny that Burning Man has any spiritual or other redeeming qualities whatsoever.» — Consigna la negativa dentro del propio campo: muchos participantes y observadores niegan que el festival tenga cualidad espiritual alguna

«Certainly there are thousands of participants—as I discuss at greater length in the pages that follow—who state emphatically that Burning Man does not entail any sense of individual or collective spirituality per se, although many of these individuals may still engage in a ritualized quest for self-discovery while electing not to cloak such experiences in mystical terms.» — Matiza que esos miles de participantes pueden seguir metidos en una búsqueda ritualizada de sí mismos aunque elijan no vestirla de términos místicos

«Furthermore, many would argue that Burning Man is merely a grand party—an excuse for debauchery and a license for transgressive behavior that is disconnected from any overt sense of spirituality, or any occurrence of significant change in one’s life, community, or culture.» — Recoge la objeción de que el evento es solo una fiesta grande, licencia para la transgresión y desconectada de cualquier espiritualidad o cambio

«Yet while the event is undeniably rife with opportunities for bacchanalian and hedonistic indulgence, this aspect of Burning Man need not preclude its spiritual, introspective, and transformative qualities.» — Responde que el desenfreno báquico y hedonista no excluye las cualidades espirituales, introspectivas y transformadoras del evento

«I should also state at this juncture that I have chosen to forgo a specific examination of the consumption of either licit or illicit consciousness» — Declara qué deja fuera: renuncia a examinar el consumo de sustancias —lícitas o ilícitas— que alteran la consciencia en el festival; la cita se corta en el guion de fin de renglón y la frase sigue *altering substances at Burning Man*

«I therefore concluded early in the research process that although there may indeed be some connection between the use of substances that have been called “entheogenic”—that is, engendering an awareness of God or the divine —and participants’ reports of transformative or spiritual experiences in this context, a focus on these questions would shift attention away from the inquiries into ritual and cultural performance with which I am» — Razona la exclusión: aunque admite que pueda haber conexión entre las sustancias llamadas *entheogenic* —las que engendran conciencia de Dios o de lo divino— y los relatos de experiencia transformadora, atender a eso desviaría la mirada de la indagación en el ritual y la performance cultural; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue en la 18 con *primarily interested here and that I find ultimately more compelling*

«I entered into Burning Man as a participant first and as a participant observer second, and this insider position has had inevitable and interesting consequences for shaping the perspectives that are indelibly stamped on this text.» — Declara su posición: entró al festival primero como participante y solo después como observadora participante, y esa posición de adentro marca las perspectivas del libro

«For a brief time Black Rock City—or BRC, as this settlement is sometimes called—becomes the fifth largest metropolis in the state of Nevada as participants— collectively referred to as “Burners”—design, construct, and dwell in thousands of makeshift shelters and tents.» — Mide el fenómeno: durante unos días Black Rock City es la quinta metrópoli del estado de Nevada, construida y habitada por los participantes que se llaman a sí mismos *Burners*

«At the center of it all stands a forty-foot sculpture called the Burning Man—a towering wooden latticework figure perched atop a fanciful platform, lit with multicolored shafts of neon, and filled with explosives designed to detonate in a carefully orchestrated sequence when the figure meets its fiery demise at the festival’s climax.» — Describe el objeto central: una figura de madera de doce metros, iluminada con neón y cargada de explosivos calculados para detonar en secuencia cuando arde en el clímax del festival

«Ostensibly genderless and void of any specifically stated meaning, this effigy—affectionately called “the Man”—retains the same general humanoid shape and appearance from year to year and is ultimately offered up in blazing sacrifice with each annual iteration of the event» — Consigna dos rasgos que el propio evento atribuye a la efigie: sin género declarado y vacía de significado enunciado, y ofrecida en sacrificio ardiente cada año

«But these regulations were not yet in place, and one night I found myself tagging along with my campmates as they loaded pickup trucks with tanks of propane, a small catapult launch, and a number of guns and drove a few miles from camp for their annual “wild propane hunt”—skeet shooting one-gallon tanks of propane.» — Narra la *wild propane hunt* de sus primeros años, con camionetas cargadas de tanques, una catapulta y armas, antes de que el crecimiento obligara a regular

«I had never before held a gun, and this experience caused me to challenge my preconceived limitations and enabled me to face one of my fears head-on.» — Lee su propio episodio como el tipo de confrontación con el miedo que después analizará en los Burners

«One could be legitimately concerned that my “native” status has resulted in an overfamiliarity with my subject and that I might be too close to the material to be able to analyze it empirically and rigorously.» — Se plantea la objeción de método antes que nadie: su condición de *nativa* pudo darle demasiada familiaridad con el objeto

«However, once I began undertaking formal research in 2001, my extensive acquaintance with the event came to be a benefit in terms of gaining a somewhat more distanced perspective.» — Responde que al empezar la investigación formal en 2001 esa familiaridad se volvió ventaja para tomar distancia

«I am not alone in this; many longtime Burners have begun to experience burnout, resulting in extensive and ongoing internal critiques of the event.» — Consigna el *burnout* de los Burners veteranos como origen de las críticas internas y continuas al evento

«But furthermore, it had become more apparent that most participants, including me, were on some level merely playing out a well-defined set of themes and narratives.» — Enuncia una reserva sobre su propio campo: los participantes, ella incluida, representan en algún nivel un repertorio de temas y narrativas ya definido

«Data! The inclusion of these icons in this setting demonstrated the medical team’s awareness not only that such spiritually resonant images might be comforting to those facing physical and emotional trials but also that this was a doctrinally diverse community.» — Lee los iconos religiosos colgados en la carpa médica como señal de que el equipo sabía que atendía a una comunidad doctrinalmente diversa

«In reviewing my experiences at the festival, it is clear that many of the questions explored here—transformation, spirituality, and ritual—were already becoming apparent from my very first day on the playa and that I too participate in the cultural themes and streams that emerge through the event.» — Cierra su relato de llegada diciendo que las preguntas del libro —transformación, espiritualidad, ritual— ya asomaban en su primer día en la playa

«Yet while this is undeniably my story of Burning Man, it is by no means mine alone.» — Acota el alcance de la primera persona: el relato es suyo y a la vez no es solo suyo

«One anonymous voice unknowingly gave me the gift of the title of this book. In 2002 I was told of a man overheard in the midst of the ecstatic and chaotic moment following the flaming collapse of the Man shouting, “Theater! Theater!” My sources puzzled over this for a moment: was this simply an obscure commentary on the spectacle of it all? Then they realized that he was, in fact, shouting “Theater!” in a rather “crowded fire.”» — Cuenta el origen del título: en 2002 le refirieron a un hombre que, tras el derrumbe en llamas del Man, gritaba *¡Teatro!* en medio de un incendio concurrido

«Beyond the realms of personal experience, my fieldwork included dozens of formal semistructured interviews and hundreds of informal conversations about participants’ perceptions of and experiences at the festival.» — Enumera el material de campo: decenas de entrevistas semiestructuradas formales y cientos de conversaciones informales sobre las percepciones y experiencias de los participantes

«The survey generated over three hundred responses, and I followed up one-on-one with a handful of respondents.» — Declara el tamaño de la encuesta en línea: más de trescientas respuestas, con seguimiento uno a uno a unos cuantos

«Because my interests lay primarily in individual and collective experiences, my intent in the interviews and surveys was qualitative rather than quantitative, although I did discern and tabulate some common themes.» — Acota el estatuto de sus cifras: la intención de entrevistas y encuestas fue cualitativa, no cuantitativa, aunque tabuló algunos temas comunes

«Burning Man’s ritual events also generate a sense of communitas, a key reason so many people attend—and do so repeatedly—although as the festival has matured many find that this communitas has become routinized.» — Aplica la categoría y a la vez la acota: los ritos del festival generan *communitas*, pero con la madurez del evento muchos la hallan rutinizada

«Burners’ narratives at times refer directly to Turner’s ideas, indicating that these concepts have permeated popular culture and now recursively reflect and shape our cultural conceptions of what the categories “ritual,” “religion,” and “spirituality” should be, thus outlining the context in which this event has come, for some, to constitute an alternative to conventional religions.» — Señala el circuito de ida y vuelta: los relatos de los Burners citan a Turner, prueba de que esos conceptos permearon la cultura popular y ahora moldean lo que se espera de *ritual*, *religión* y *espiritualidad*

«I thereby seek to demonstrate that Burning Man not only is a space in which to ritualize alternative and individualized constructions of spirituality but also calls into question both academic and popular culture assumptions about what constitutes religion, ritual, and spirituality in the first place.» — Enuncia el doble objetivo del libro: mostrar el festival como espacio de ritualización de espiritualidades individualizadas y poner en cuestión los supuestos —académicos y populares— sobre qué cuenta como religión, ritual y espiritualidad

«This book aims in part to paint a comprehensive and definitive ethnographic portrait of the Burning Man festival.» — Declara su ambición etnográfica: un retrato del festival que se propone comprensivo y definitivo

«My intent here is to use these and other theories of ritual, religion, and culture as frameworks for thinking about the ritualized behaviors that proliferate at Burning Man, looking to what they say (or do not say) when put in conversation with this event.» — Fija el estatuto que da a la teoría ritual: marcos para pensar los comportamientos ritualizados del festival, atendiendo a lo que dicen y a lo que no dicen al ponerlos en conversación con él

«Chapter 5 interrogates Burning Man’s complex relationship with the mass media as a critical space for cultural production and negotiation, looking at how this has shaped experiences and understandings of the event.» — Anuncia el capítulo quinto: los medios de masas como espacio crítico de producción y negociación cultural que moldeó la experiencia misma del evento

«Chapter 6 concludes the book with a summary of my basic arguments by looking outward to the ways in which the cultural, religious, and ritual discourses that are framed, constructed, and performed through Burning Man may have significance for informing and transforming a wider social context.» — Anuncia el capítulo sexto: los discursos culturales, religiosos y rituales construidos en el festival mirados hacia afuera, por lo que puedan significar para un contexto social más amplio

«What compels people from all over the world to create an ephemeral city in the middle of nowhere? How is this remarkably enduring community forged from a temporary gathering of strangers? What are the historical and cultural contexts of this event, and what is its significance for our global society? Finally, what is it about this journey that engenders a sense of transformation for many participants, and how do they bring these experiences home? This book seeks to answer these and other questions by telling the story of Burning Man.» — Cierra la introducción con las preguntas que el libro se propone responder: qué empuja a levantar una ciudad efímera en medio de la nada, cómo se forja una comunidad duradera con extraños, cuáles son los contextos históricos del evento y qué en ese viaje engendra sensación de transformación

«Illustrations FIGURES 1. The Burning Man, 1996 2. “Mahayana Bus” and “Silver Skull” art cars by unknown artists, 2003 3. Gomonk and Builder Ben, Early Man, 2003 4. David Best, Temple of Joy, 2002 5. David Best, Temple of Honor, 2003 6. David Best, Temple of Stars, 2004 7. “Ronald McBuddha” by unknown artist, 2002 8. Irie Takeshi, The Medium Is the Religion, 2003» — La lista de ilustraciones del volumen nombra a los artistas de las obras fotografiadas —tres Templos de David Best, el *Ronald McBuddha* de autor desconocido y *The Medium Is the Religion* de Irie Takeshi— y deja en *unknown artists* los autos de arte

«Tables 1. Participants’ Perspectives on Religion and Spirituality 2. Age of Respondents at Time of Survey 3. Burning Man Organization Data on Participants’ Ages 4. Burning Man Organization Data on Participants’ Income, 2003 5. Burning Man Organization Data on Participants’ Income, 2004 6. Burning Man Organization Data on Participants’ Amounts Spent on the Event, 2003 7. Location of Survey Respondents 8. Survey Respondents’ Years Attended Burning Man» — El índice de tablas declara de dónde salen los datos cuantitativos del libro: una tabla propia de perspectivas sobre religión y espiritualidad y cinco de la Burning Man Organization sobre edad, ingreso y gasto

«First and foremost, I wish to thank the global community of Burning Man participants, without whom this project would quite obviously not have been possible.» — Los agradecimientos declaran la deuda primera del libro con la comunidad global de participantes del festival

«Finally, I am indebted to Burning Man’s founder and ongoing executive director, Larry Harvey, for his time, invaluable insights, and inspiration.» — Gilmore reconoce como informante al fundador y director ejecutivo del evento, Larry Harvey, lo que sitúa la voz de los organizadores dentro de sus fuentes

«Special thanks are also due to (Maid) Marian Goodell, who— unbeknownst to either of us at the time—helped to inspire much of the work that follows in these pages when she invited me to join the fledgling Burning Man Media Team in 1998, thus deepening my involvement in and commitment to this community.» — La autora consigna su propia entrada al círculo interno: Marian Goodell la invitó al Media Team del festival en 1998, antes de que hubiera proyecto de investigación

«and to Ronald L. Grimes, who participated in one of the seminar discussions held in conjunction with this program, for his singularly insightful and helpful grilling.» — Entre los apoyos académicos nombra al ritólogo Ronald L. Grimes, con quien el libro discutirá después la crítica ritual

«The DVD that accompanies this book has been a collaborative project between my husband, Ron Meiners, my mother, Elizabeth Gilmore, and me.» — El DVD que acompaña al volumen se declara obra de tres: Ron Meiners, esposo de la autora; Elizabeth Gilmore, su madre; y ella misma

«It is only in the past few decades that anthropology has begun to embrace this dimension of the study of cultures, but reflexive ethnographic strategies are increasingly understood and accepted as critical methods.» — Sitúa su método en una historia disciplinaria: solo en las últimas décadas la antropología asumió la reflexividad, hoy aceptada como método crítico

«Turner later developed the term liminoid to refer to liminal-like phenomena in industrial societies—such as pilgrimages, carnivals, and theater— reserving liminality itself specifically for the transitional phase in “traditional” or “indigenous” cultural rites.» — Expone la distinción de Victor Turner entre lo liminoide —peregrinaciones, carnavales y teatro de las sociedades industriales— y la liminalidad reservada a los ritos *tradicionales* o *indígenas*

«Turner broadened and amplified the liminal phase, characterizing it as prompting social experiences marked by feelings of communal unity, egalitarianism, and connectedness that he called communitas, experiences that he saw as disrupting the structure of normative hierarchical relationships and social institutions.» — Resume la aportación de Turner: amplió la fase liminal y llamó *communitas* a la unidad, el igualitarismo y la conexión que ve interrumpiendo las jerarquías normativas

«Our intent in producing the DVD has been to provide a vibrant complement to the text that extends its usability by enabling multiple modes of conversation and interaction between readers and the material.» — Explica el propósito del DVD anexo: complemento del texto que abre modos de conversación e interacción con el material

«As with the text, the visual component does not purport to be an objective or comprehensive view of the events of Burning Man but rather is filtered through the lenses of those of us who worked closely to produce this portion of the project.» — Extiende al video la misma reserva que al texto: no pretende ser una vista objetiva ni comprensiva, sino filtrada por quienes lo produjeron

«CHART 1. Black Rock City, 2001. Chart designed by Larry Harvey and Rod Garrett. Adapted by Bill Nelson from an illustration by Lisa Hoffman (www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/2001/ photos/2001_map.gif). Copyright Black Rock City LLC. Used with permission.» — El pie del plano de Black Rock City acredita el diseño a Larry Harvey y Rod Garrett, la adaptación a Bill Nelson y la ilustración de base a Lisa Hoffman, con copyright de Black Rock City LLC

«The consumer researchers Robert Kozinets and John Sherry examined the ways in which Burning Man simultaneously resists and participates in traditional market economies.» — Nombra a los investigadores del consumo Robert Kozinets y John Sherry, que examinaron cómo el festival resiste y a la vez participa de las economías de mercado tradicionales

«This trend eventually came to be understood not as the total disappearance of religion from society but rather as the disestablishment of religion from the public sphere, which was thought in turn to result in an increased privatization and individualization of the religious sphere.» — Reformula la tesis de la secularización tal como acabó entendiéndose: no desaparición de la religión, sino su desestablecimiento de la esfera pública, con la consiguiente privatización e individualización

«An influential study by Robert Bellah and colleagues concluded that U.S. society is increasingly characterized by a spiritual individualism that threatens to weaken the social fabric of healthy communities rooted in traditional, church-based understandings of faith, morality, and community responsibility.» — Expone la tesis de Robert Bellah y colegas: la sociedad estadounidense tiende a un individualismo espiritual que amenaza el tejido de comunidades arraigadas en la fe de iglesia

«Others, such as Robert Wuthnow, concluded that as individuals feel less compelled to cleave to particular religious territories, there is a corresponding lack of boundaries around religious identities. He worried that this new spiritual freedom was ultimately rootless and lacking any foundation in historical, cultural, and community-based traditions.» — Expone la posición de Robert Wuthnow: al aflojarse la adhesión a territorios religiosos concretos se pierden los contornos de la identidad religiosa, y esa libertad nueva le parecía desarraigada

«Wade Clark Roof, in his examination of “seekers” in the so-called American spiritual marketplace, found individuals across the social spectrum striving to engage in reflexive, personal experiences of spirituality, in which they create their own spiritual identities, practices, and beliefs, connecting this process to Lévi-Strauss’s concept of bricolage. In so doing, they become more aware that their perspectives are but one among a plurality of possibilities instead of relying on inherited faith and church teachings as the sole authorities on the divine.» — Expone la posición de Wade Clark Roof sobre los *seekers* del mercado espiritual estadounidense, que fabrican su propia identidad espiritual —proceso que él enlaza con el *bricolage* de Lévi-Strauss— y se saben una posibilidad entre muchas

«For example, Richard Flory argued that GenXers display “religious entrepreneurship,” by which he meant that they are not simply religious consumers, although they are that, but also producers, actively creating new groups in the marketplace for themselves, regardless of whatever might have been provided for them by existing religious groups» — Expone la tesis de Richard Flory sobre el *emprendimiento religioso* de la Generación X: no solo consumidores religiosos, sino productores que crean grupos nuevos al margen de lo que ofrezcan los existentes

«Xer seeking is more than just a quest for an individualistic spiritual experience—Xers are instead looking for and creating community, belonging, and authenticity, which can only be measured within the religious community.» — Sigue la misma exposición de Flory: la busca de los X no es solo experiencia espiritual individual, sino creación de comunidad, pertenencia y autenticidad, medibles solo dentro de la comunidad religiosa

«Turner wrote, “We thus encounter the paradox that the experience of communitas becomes the memory of communitas, with the result that communitas itself in striving to replicate itself historically develops a social structure.”» — Cita a Turner sobre la paradoja de la *communitas*: al volverse memoria y buscar replicarse históricamente, desarrolla una estructura social

«The religion scholar Sarah Pike concluded, “Death rites at the Mausoleum transformed private grief and loss into public expression in ways that are generally unavailable to most contemporary Americans.”» — Cita la conclusión de la estudiosa de la religión Sarah Pike sobre los ritos funerarios del Mausoleo: vuelven público un duelo privado de un modo que a los estadounidenses de hoy no suele estarles disponible

«It is noteworthy that two of Turner’s sons, Alex Turner and Rory Turner, contacted the Burning Man organization some years ago in order to find out whether or not the festival had been intentionally modeled on their father’s theories.» — Consigna un dato de recepción: dos hijos de Turner, Alex y Rory Turner, escribieron a la organización para saber si el festival se había modelado a propósito sobre las teorías de su padre

«There are few ritual leaders and inventors these days who have not read something of the theories of Frazer, van Gennep, Eliade, Turner, or Geertz, either in an original or popularized form.» — Cita a Catherine Bell, crítica ocasional de Turner, sobre el vuelco popular a las teorías rituales como prototipos de diseño: pocos líderes e inventores de ritos no han leído algo de Frazer, van Gennep, Eliade, Turner o Geertz

«Turner, in particular, by identifying a “ritual process” weaving its way through micro and macro social relations and symbol systems, has been the authority behind much American ritual invention» — Sigue la misma cita de Bell: Turner, por haber identificado un *ritual process* que atraviesa las relaciones sociales y los sistemas simbólicos, ha sido la autoridad detrás de buena parte de la invención ritual estadounidense

«For modern ritualists devising ecological liturgies, crafting new age harmonies, or drumming up a fire in the belly, the taken-for-granted authority to do these things and the accompanying conviction about their efficacy lie in the abstraction “ritual” that scholars have done so much to construct.» — Cierra la cita de Bell: la autoridad que los ritualistas modernos dan por sentada y su convicción sobre la eficacia descansan en la abstracción *ritual* que los académicos tanto contribuyeron a construir

«Turner perceived them as neatly mapped onto the threefold processes of rites of passage.» — Expone cómo veía Turner las peregrinaciones: calcadas sobre el proceso triple de los ritos de paso

«Dean MacCannell noted that while modern tourism depends on both the leisure time and “disposable” income provided by capitalist mechanisms, it is also seen to furnish a release from those very systems as individuals go in search of something felt to be more authentic.» — Expone la observación de Dean MacCannell: el turismo moderno depende del tiempo libre y del ingreso disponible que el capitalismo provee, y a la vez se lo tiene por liberación de esos mismos sistemas

«For example, James Carey notably and influentially argued that communications theorists would be well served to shift from a “transmission” view of communication to a “ritual” view, with his understanding of communication as entailing both “participation” and “community.”» — Expone la propuesta de James Carey: pasar de una visión de la comunicación como transmisión a una visión ritual, que implica participación y comunidad

«Others, such as Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz, evocatively applied Turner’s ritual theories in arguing that the media construct social rituals in response to significant national or international events, serving to cast public figures in mythic roles, confer legitimacy, reaffirm social values, redefine social boundaries, and inscribe memory and history (among other attributes), ultimately engendering a sense of communitas among very large audiences.» — Expone la aplicación que Daniel Dayan y Elihu Katz hicieron de Turner: los medios construyen ritos sociales ante acontecimientos nacionales o internacionales, reparten papeles míticos, confieren legitimidad y engendran *communitas* en audiencias enormes

«Nick Couldry called for a “post-Durkheimian” approach to understanding the ritualistic power of the media, arguing that although the media’s claim to wield a centralizing social authority is not as totalizing or all-encompassing as others have held it to be, the media nevertheless claim to wield such power and that this in itself is significant.» — Expone la propuesta post-durkheimiana de Nick Couldry: la pretensión de los medios de ejercer una autoridad social centralizadora no es tan totalizante como se dijo, pero la pretensión misma ya es significativa

«Couldry also observed that in any social gathering, such as an annual music festival, one can “quickly find in people’s clothes, bodily style, language and so on, traces of countless other spaces and histories, all quite independent from that gathering and not specifically intended to be expressed there.”» — Cita a Couldry sobre lo que se halla en cualquier reunión social: rastros de innumerables otros espacios e historias, independientes de esa reunión y no destinados a expresarse allí

«located the ritualistic quality of “the news” in its repetitiveness: “The ritual is in the format, in the programming, not in the content as such.» — Cita a Richard Schechner sobre dónde está lo ritual del noticiero: en el formato y la programación, no en el contenido

«Michael Schudson has argued that “objectivity” should be understood to mean that a person’s statements about the world can be trusted if they are submitted to established rules deemed legitimate by a professional community. Facts here are not aspects of the world, but consensually validated statements about it.» — Expone la definición de objetividad de Michael Schudson: las declaraciones son fiables si se someten a reglas que una comunidad profesional tiene por legítimas, de modo que los hechos no son aspectos del mundo sino enunciados validados por consenso

«It is a “strategic ritual,” as sociologist Gaye Tuchman puts it, which journalists use to defend themselves against mistakes and criticism.» — Cita a la socióloga Gaye Tuchman: la objetividad es un *ritual estratégico* con que los periodistas se defienden de errores y críticas

«Jerome Baggett: “The people who are going to Burning Man—Boomers and Xers—are the most educated generations in history. They’re trained to question.”» — Cita al sociólogo Jerome Baggett en la prensa: quienes van al festival, *boomers* y generación X, son las generaciones más educadas de la historia y están entrenadas para cuestionar

«Michael York has contended that paganism may be best understood as a “root religion”; that is, to some extent it underlies all global religions.» — Expone la tesis de Michael York sobre el paganismo como *religión raíz* que subyace en alguna medida a todas las religiones del mundo

«Henry Jenkins has called this process and its wideranging societal impacts “convergence culture,” meaning a place “where old and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways.”» — Expone la *convergence culture* de Henry Jenkins: el sitio donde chocan los medios viejos y nuevos, se cruzan los de base y los corporativos y los poderes del productor y del consumidor interactúan de modo impredecible (la fuente imprime *wideranging*, palabra unida en el corte de renglón)

«According to Jenkins, this shift in the flows of media content from the top down to the bottom up is fostering a more “participatory culture” and building “collective intelligence.”» — Sigue a Jenkins: el vuelco del flujo de contenidos de arriba abajo a de abajo arriba alimenta una cultura más participativa y una inteligencia colectiva

«Sherry Turkle has concluded that constructions of identity in on-line spaces exemplify the ways in which “the self is multiple and constructed by language.”» — Expone la conclusión de Sherry Turkle sobre las identidades en línea: ejemplifican que el yo es múltiple y está construido por el lenguaje