during, and subsequent to our immersion in the events, we kept detailed written field
notes. We also recorded events and interviews with a digital video camcorder. We took
over 500 photographs. We conducted semi-structured interviews with over 120
informants (in one-on-one and group formations). Between interviews, and
particularly during the evenings, we abandoned our cameras and participated in the
event: wearing a variety of outlandish costumes, being initiated into new religions,
drumming, meeting new people, riding on strange vehicles. Our videotapes, field
notes, Internet downloads, and transcribed interviews were coded and analyzed using
constant comparative analytic techniques (e.g. Glaser and Strauss 1967). In all, our
ethnography encompassed interviews and interactions with several hundred Burning
Man participants. Much of this material was not used here, but is present in other
work on the topic (see Kozinets 2002b and forthcoming; Sherry and Kozinets
forthcoming).
5 This account by “Zelga” was published in the Burning Man update, version 6 #4,
which was distributed to subscribers on November 14, 2001.
6 “What is Burning Man?,” by Molly Steenson, posted on: http://
http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about—burningman/ experience.html
(accessed August 2002).
7 Posted on http://www.burningman.com/first—timers (accessed July 2002).
8 From the TOTEM homepage, TOTEM: Temple Of The Eternal Mysteries, posted
on http://www.eternal-mysteries.org/Philosophy.htm (accessed June 2002).
9 Posted on: http://www.burningman.com/themecamps—installations/ themecamps/02
—camp—vill—mz.html (accessed June 2002).
10 Burning Man uses email and websites extensively; see http://www.burningman.comBibliographyAdler, Margot (1986) Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-worshippers and
Other Pagans in American Today, Boston, MA:Beacon Press.
Beckford, James A. (1984) “Holistic imagery and ethics in new religious and healing
movements,”Social Compass31.2–3:, 259–272.
Belk, Russell W., Melanie Wallendorf and John F.Sherry, Jr. (1989) “The sacred and the
profane: theodicy on the odyssey,” Journal of Consumer Research 16 (June):, 1–38.
Black, D.S. (1998) “Burning Man as ephemeropolis and the refusal of meaning,” paper
presented at the North American Interdisciplinary Conference on Environment and
Community, University of Nevada, Reno, February 20, 1998; available online at http://
http://www.spiralgirl.com/ARCHIVE/dsBlackEssay.html (accessed December 1999).
Davis, Erik (1997) “Here is postmodern space,” in John Plunkettand Brad Wieners(eds.)
Burning Man, San Francisco: Hard Wired (unpaginated).
(1998) Techgnosis: Magic, Myth and Mysticism in the Age of Information, New York: Harmony.
Dery, Mark (1996) Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century, New York: Grove.
Duvignaud,Jean (1976) “Festivals: a sociological approach,”Cultures 3(1): 13–25.
Falassi, Alessandro (ed.) (1987) Time Out of Time: Essays on the Festival, Albuquerque, NM:
University of New Mexico.
Ferguson, Marilyn (1987) The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in
Our Time, Los Angeles, CA: J.P.Tarcher.
300 ROBERT V.KOZINETS AND JOHN F.SHERRY, JR