Beyond Pain: The Anthropology of Body Suspensions

The practice of body suspension -- piercing one’s own flesh with metal hooks and hanging from them -- and its uniquely sprawling community challenge our cultural understanding of pain. The suspendees experience physical suffering to trigger altered states of consciousness that help them define and create an enhanced version of the self. Through experimental and practice-based methodology, Beyond Pain combines thirteen years of intermittent ethnographical fieldwork during suspension festivals and private events in Italy, Portugal, and Norway, along with online sites such as Facebook groups, to uncover the often silenced and misunderstood voices of the people who undertake this practice.

Federica Manfredi is a Fellow Doctoral Researcher in Media Anthropology at the Institute of Social Sciences - University of Lisbon (Portugal) and Member of the Scientific Project ＂Excel-The Pursuit of Excellence＂ founded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, developed by Chiara Pussetti at the University of Lisbon.