ABSTRACT
Every summer in Nevada, an enormous effigy of a man, arms similarly outstretched toward the sky, is constructed from wood and burned amid tens of thousands of revelers. They make the annual pilgrimage to the remote, barren Black Rock Desert, enduring relentless sun, wind, and dust, to participate in the Burning Man ritual. Those who are moved by their experiences at Burning Man can become active participants in regional Burning Man communities like the one the author have been studying in Los Angeles. The four-day event would culminate in the communal burning of a wooden sculpture, or effigy, on Saturday night. Members of the Los Angeles Burning Man community were motivated to gather in this (more accessible) California desert to remember and attempt to re-create the ecstatic feelings of togetherness they had experienced at Burning Man. Burning Man has a playful, secular culture involving many ritual practices.
