heightens but focuses on a narrower range of concerns“in space on pro-
blems literally at hand, and in time on the present” (p. 166).
Slam dancing during a vigorous punk concert involves precisely this type
ofperformance. As with mountaineers, failure to fully and properly focus,
comport, and engage the situation at hand can result in hazardous error.
Avoiding injury (or at least awkwardness) requires a form of participation
that merges awareness into direct action. Several interviewees discussed how
individuals could not attend punk shows without being conscripted into
such participation. Twenty-four-year-old Tom told me that
from the moment you walk through that door, you’ve got to be expected to respond to
all the stimulus. You can’t expect to be a passive observer at a punk show; the band’s
not going to let you. They’re going to drive you into the pit or make you dance.Punks like Tom explained how they could not escape the intersubjective
bodily practices mandated by the punk show’s social structure of participa-
tion.^13 They became so encompassed in slam dancing and its attendant
dangersso focused on the necessities of the activity at handthat con-
sideration of the self became irrelevant (see alsoHancock & Lorr, 2013).
Ego-awareness faded during the ensuing state of flow, as reality became
subordinated to
easily understood, non-contradictory demands for action, [which]...provide prompt
and unambiguous feedback...These are not debatable issues like ethical principles but
simple rules of survival...the urgency of the immediate situation clearly distinguishes
good from bad. (Mitchell, 1983,p. 168)The state of flow took the obverse form of “radical reflexivity,” in which
doubt in the face of infinite choice paralyzed action and generated uncer-
tainty. To the contrary, the “body schemas” (Morris, 2008)that subjects
enacted during shows “clearly distinguished” good from bad choices, and,
by extension, who they were and who they were not.
While interviewees reported feelings of doubt and uncertainty outside of
subcultural participation, nearly all of them experienced feelings of self-
confirmation after attending shows. During the few instances in their lives
in which they had occasion to act in a way that was “unflinching” and
“committed,” they were physically and symbolically enacting what it meant
to be punk within the course of the subculture’s foremost ritual. “Doing”
punk identity, in other words, provided a rare opportunity for participants
to engage in social action without second-guessing themselvesthe struc-
ture of participation, in fact, prevented them from experiencing self-doubt.
As a result, the participants in my study began to associate feelings of
Ecstatic Ritual as a New Mode of Youth Identity Work 175