modern battlefield would be suicidal? Military common sense dictates that
marching is good for discipline and morale—but why is this so? As
W. McNeill (1995) argued, marching, dancing and other forms of synchron-
ous action that create“muscular bonding” have deep evolutionary roots.
Recent empirical work demonstrated that acting in synchrony increases
group members’willingness to cooperate (Wiltermuth & Heath, 2009); in
particular, members of a group that practiced synchronous walking or singing
had afterwards more positive expectations about each other’s commitment.
Another study (Yun et al., 2012) showed that previous successful cooperation
increases synchrony between participants. In the latter study, after a
training session, synchronous movement (offingers) occurred even against
participants’will. In a variety of contexts, it has been demonstrated that
synchrony is accompanied by positive feelings. The phenomenon often
referred to as the“rowers’high”is characterized by the release of endorphins
in the body, which generates pleasant feelings in the brain (Cohen et al., 2010).
Although this phenomenon has been addressed from the perspective of
commitment signaling (Bulbulia & Sosis, 2011), it could rely on a different
mechanism. Instead of convincing participants about others’prior commit-
ment, synchronous movement might actuallycreatesuch commitment. By
making people feel good or confident as a group, such rituals increase group
morale even if participants have not been particularly committed to the group
in advance.
How does synchrony emerge and function in rituals? In his ethnographic
fieldwork, Dimitris Xygalatas (2012) studied groups in the Greek Orthodox
Church (particularly in north-eastern Greece) that practicefirewalking. Dur-
ing the festival of the Anastenaria, venerating St Helen and St Constantine,
some of the participants walk through live coal while holding icons in their
hands. The ritual is clearly accompanied by high emotional arousal and
intense feelings of solidarity. Anotherfirewalking ritual has been studied in
Spain, in the village of San Pedro Manrique, wherefirewalkers include both
devote Catholics and non-religious participants (Konvalinka et al., 2011).
A unique feature of this ritual is thatfirewalkers carry a significant other as
they cross thefire. Empirical measures demonstrated a synchronization of the
heartbeat of the couples as they crossed thefire together.
Dance rituals, although infrequently, are also attested in early Christianity.
Possible references to ritual dancing are found in the works of Clement of
Alexandria (Exhortation to the Heathens12;Stromata7.7) and Ambrose of
Milan (Homily42) (Backman, 1952). Yet the most direct evidence comes from
theActs of John(chs 94–96). Here Jesus and the disciples sing a hymn and
dance before the arrest of the Lord—apparently as a replacement of or
supplement to the last supper (cf. Klauck, 2008, pp. 33–4). According to
John, thefirst person narrator of the passage, Jesus commanded the disciples
“to make a circle, holding one another’s hands, and he himself stood in the
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