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- Convenors:
-
Víctor Albert Blanco
(Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), ISOR)
Stefano Portelli (University of Leicester)
Manuel Delgado-Ruiz (Universitat de Barcelona)
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- Chair:
-
Marta Contijoch-Torres
(Universitat de Barcelona)
- Formats:
- Panel
- Mode:
- Face-to-face
- Sessions:
- Friday 26 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
This panel aims at updating our understanding of the link between rituals and urban transformations imposed by neoliberal capitalist planning policies.
Long Abstract:
This panel aims at updating our understanding of the link between rituals and urban transformations imposed by neoliberal capitalist planning policies. While resistance against gentrification and displacement becomes planetary, and the awareness of the spatial implications of urban religion grows, the question of the ritual dimension of conflicts over space has remained unaddressed. Rituals are culturally defined, repetitive, and obligatory practices, that condense symbols and organize the function of collective expression and behavior. In urban contexts, public rituals may include mass celebrations in honor of a local saint, minor cults that convey social discontent in ritual forms, but also any kind of civil mobilization, up to the systematic transformation of streets and squares in landscapes of barricades and fire. All these are totally or partially variants of what symbolic anthropology calls “social dramas”: codified performances that allow the emergence of recalcitrance, opposition, and disaffection towards a social order embedded in space and in its mutations. Proposals for this panel could focus on the strategies deployed by religious groups to resist or adapt to the urban changes, on the reactions of allegedly non-religious collectives to the presence of religious expressions in the same areas, or on the forms of urban governance applied to confessional practices, especially in cities with high rates of diversity; but also on the role of religious groups and rituals in the economic and symbolic valorization of specific neighborhoods. We are also interested in how political protests and even insurrections adopt their liturgies, and languages proceeding from the religious sphere. Only a convention separates religious from secular rituals; all of them – from those manifesting forms of religiosity unaccepted by mainstream society, to those in which anger emerges as a form of cultural expression – systematically reveal the force of what Lefebvre called “the urban”, that is, the urban society, or the urban as society, in its permanent conflict with whatever attempts to limit or foreclose its space.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 26 July, 2024, -Natalie Lang (University of Göttingen)
Paper short abstract:
This paper investigates how Tamil Hindus create sacred space through rituals in (sub)urban Paris. “Sidewalk religion” points to the nuanced dimensions of place making and diversity governance between barely visible temples, hidden sacred atmospheres and colorful festival processions.
Paper long abstract:
Hinduism in Paris is characterized by a contrast between barely visible temples installed in residential buildings or old factories and colorful processions during festivals attracting large audiences. In this paper, I reflect upon the nuanced dimensions in between these seemingly opposing ways Tamil Hindus create sacred space through rituals in central and suburban Paris. I examine placemaking through rituals by two temples in the Tamil neighborhood La Chapelle, where Sri Lankan Tamils installed themselves in the 1980s before many moved to the suburbs due to limited space, high costs, and gentrification processes, and by one temple in a suburb with a high Tamil population. What I call “sidewalk religion” refers to moments when one of the temples in La Chapelle is too small to accommodate all devotees and the narrow pavement between the temple entrance and the street becomes an important site of religious worship. The notion of sidewalk religion was carried to extremes when a festival in the suburb was spontaneously conducted entirely indoors and on the sidewalk, as the planned procession was not allowed due to a replacement bus line passing in front of the temple. The sidewalk becomes a space of ritual innovation, confrontation with pedestrians, prudent self-governance of a religious minority, and also a place of wonder for outsiders upon hearing ritual sounds from the inside of another temple which lowers the shutters when pedestrians try to look through the dark windows. The paper is based on preliminary fieldwork in Paris between 2019 and 2023.
Tyler Sonnichsen (Central Michigan University)
Paper short abstract:
Though long ignored in the decades-old veneration and mythologizing of Washington DC’s hardcore punk scene, dogmas (religious and secular) and related places of worship have both long played a central role in its perpetuation, providing ongoing modes and spaces resistance to Capital neoliberalism.
Paper long abstract:
Like many legacy-driven scenes, Washington DC’s punk history is nominally secular and politically far to the left, yet a strong undercurrent of religious dogma has permeated, and ironically, kept DC punk relevant and perpetually active. Minor Threat’s song “Straight Edge” codified singer Ian MacKaye’s anti-drug beliefs, lending its name to a global movement that became analogous with punk movements in Muslim and Mormon societies. Bad Brains, who had members with Jamaican backgrounds, fervently embraced Rastafarianism, driving their activism and philosophy while pushing fans and friends away with anti-LGBT attitudes.
Perhaps most significantly, St. Stephens and the Incarnation Episcopal Church, similar to the First Unitarian Church up the road in Philadelphia, has provided a steady habitus for punk resistance longer than many participants have been alive. Outside of hosting gigs for decades, the church has hosted innumerable radical workshops and charitable drives in support of DC’s elderly, unhoused, and other groups disproportionately targeted by the city’s aggressive neoliberal development.
Some recent music scholarship, like that of Sangheon Lee (2023), has traced the influence of religious popular culture in the 1970s (e.g. ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’) in the DNA of the punk movement. This paper seeks to reframe and expands that perspective in light of punk’s ongoing transformation and growth as resistance in the face of DC’s aggressive neoliberalism of the past three decades.
Lee, S. (2023). American Values And American Hardcore Punk In The Crisis Of The 1970s. Paper presented at the IASPM International Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, June 26.
Oriol Pascual Pérez (Universitat de Barcelona Institut català d'Antropologia)
Paper short abstract:
El cementerio de Poblenou de Barcelona se caracteriza no solo por su dimensión patrimonial sino también por albergar en su interior un fenómeno poco común en el contexto catalán: Un santo canonizado a instancias populares y cuya fama de milagrero lo ha hecho devenir lugar de peregrinación.
Paper long abstract:
Más allá de su revalorización patrimonial y museística -a merced de nuevas tendencias turísticas cementeriales- y más allá de sus funciones específicas, el cementerio urbano sigue siendo un lugar donde la memoria popular -en su sentido gramsciano- se alza como un permanente testimonio de las creencias, valores, costumbres e ideologías de la comunidad que acoge, muertos y vivos.
Como receptáculo de memorias, es en el cementerio donde el pasado puede expresarse en una permanente actualización, a partir del hecho y acto de recordar. Deviniéndose un espacio en donde se crea y recrea la conciencia o memoria histórica comunitaria y que tan a menudo confronta el relato o relatos hegemónicos. Entendiendo la memoria, como la historia de aquellos que fueron excluidos de la historia.
Así, el cementerio de Poblenou de Barcelona se caracteriza no solo por su dimensión patrimonial sino también por albergar en su interior un fenómeno poco común en el contexto catalán: Un santo canonizado a instancias populares. Lugar de peregrinación para personas que acuden a él en busca de su favor.
La presente comunicación pretende dar cuentas de este fenómeno devenido en el sino del cementerio y que muchas veces se nos muestra como una suerte de gueto suburbano, que además de estar configurado a partir del dolor y la tristeza intrínsecas a la muerte, agrupa en su interior a gentes muy concretas que suponen una concentración urbana -otra-, recortable a partir de sus historias de vida, orígenes étnico-nacionales u condición de clase.
Anaïs Madera (Universitat de Barcelona and Institut Català d'Antropologia)
Paper short abstract:
La comunicación explorará los rituales realizados en entornos urbanos por parte de comunidades paganas, analizando sus estrategias para adaptarse a las cambiantes dinámicas urbanas sin comprometer sus valores de conexión espiritual con la naturaleza y sus discursos ante el consumismo neoliberal.
Paper long abstract:
En la actualidad, se extiende de manera creciente en diferentes ciudades alrededor del mundo la celebración de rituales estacionales que marcan el ciclo de la naturaleza. Basados en cultos precristianos europeos como el celta o el nórdico, son realizados por comunidades y personas paganas que desean venerar la naturaleza mediante ofrendas, meditaciones, oraciones e incluso danzas.
En esta comunicación, exploraremos las estrategias que elaboran practicantes del paganismo contemporáneo para realizar los ritos ante las actuales transformaciones urbanas neoliberales y las políticas gubernamentales actuales. Para ello, atenderemos a la resignificación que realizan de los espacios urbanos donde llevan a cabo sus prácticas, tales como parques públicos o viviendas privadas. Es así como dichos entornos son reinterpretados como medios para la conexión espiritual con el mundo natural y sus divinidades. Asimismo, analizaremos los discursos que mantienen, siguiendo sus creencias, en contra del consumismo neoliberal y lo que perciben como una “desconexión ambiental” en la ciudad moderna. En ese sentido, conciben que sus prácticas constituyen una resistencia simbólica en clave ecológica ante las formas capitalistas de relacionarse con la naturaleza y hacer uso de sus recursos. Además, desde su punto de vista, los modos de vida urbanos causan una grave disociación medioambiental que debe ser erradicada y substituida por modelos sostenibles y de preservación del medio ambiente. En ese sentido, en esta comunicación observaremos cómo estas prácticas espirituales ofrecen una perspectiva renovada sobre la relación entre la ciudad, los rituales y una suerte de “ecología religiosa”.
Smytta Yadav
Paper short abstract:
In the context of gentrification in Delhi, how do street shrines serve as spaces for urban forms of resistance within informal settlements in the city?
Paper long abstract:
As global resistance against gentrification gains momentum and awareness of the spatial dimensions of urban religion expands, the often overlooked role of ritual dimensions in conflicts over space takes center stage. This study aims to illuminate how shrines within the city of Delhi have sustained their social existence amidst the urban changes brought about by gentrification, operating independently of state intervention, particularly in relation to land dynamics in sought-after urban rental areas. The research also delves into the materiality of ritual transformations in the urban landscape through street shrines and associated art.
The study argues that urban rituals, exemplified by shrine art in Delhi, serve as a means of identifying the sacred geography of the city. It highlights the intricate delineation of holy boundaries through conflicting interpretations of land use and decision-making authority. Given the scarcity and value of land in Delhi, especially in light of recent political developments challenging the city's secular identity, this study assumes particular significance. It involves an ethnographic investigation into the ideological dimensions of Delhi's political economy, land dynamics, and the intersection of religion in the urban fabric.
The paper is keen on understanding the forms of urban governance applied to religious practices, especially in a city like Delhi characterized by high rates of cultural and religious diversity. Exploring how political protests and insurrections adopt religious liturgies and languages adds another layer of complexity to this discussion.
Eslam Alaa Abdelshafy ElBahlawan (University of Milano-Bicocca) Mawa AbdelBagi Osman Mohamed (University of Milano Bicocca)
Paper short abstract:
In Milan's diverse religious landscape, this article explores the interplay of migration, material culture, and religion among the Egyptian community "Muslims and Coptics". Focusing on the Egyptian diaspora, the article examines elements like the human body, dress, food, images, and artefacts.
Paper long abstract:
This article explores the intricate relationship between migration, material culture, and religion, using Milan's diverse religious landscape as a case study. As migrants carry tangible objects rich in cultural significance during their journeys, these items become bridges connecting their past and future. In Milan, a city marked by religious diversity, the Egyptian community, along with both religions Islam and Coptic Orthodox, stands out, contributing to the vibrant tapestry of religious life. Focusing on the Egyptian diaspora, the article investigates the role of religion and material culture in migration. It scrutinizes various elements, including the human body in religious practices, dress, food, images, and artefacts, shedding light on how these shape a sense of homeland within the diaspora. The article unfolds in four sections, introducing the theoretical framework, detailing the methodology, exploring material religion's role, and presenting nuanced results derived from collected data.
Marc Morell (Rīgas Strādiņa Universitāte)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper I explore the sacralisation of the scale of the concrete in the opposition to development projects. The concrete not only has to do with opposing specific projects, it also involves severing these from the economic model that encourages them, hence precluding any successful struggle.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper I aim to explore the sacralisation of the scale of the concrete that many social movements across world profess in their opposition to development projects. While on the one hand the character of the concrete is expressed through the denunciation and mobilisation against urbanisation projects located in a specific time and place, on the other such concreteness manifests itself in the severing these from the economic model that encourages them, hence precluding any kind of struggle against it.
By illustrating this double movement with the heuristic capacity of the changing economic vision of the Maltese state in the last half century (from tourism development to the attraction of financial assets), I determine a continuum based on the spurring of the brick-and-mortar economy opposed by the laudable struggle carried out by organisations such as Moviment Graffitti, one that among other programmatic axes opposes these speculative projects. Yet the ritualised form that its protest takes privileges the local scale to the point of sacralising it, thus avoiding the questioning of the economic policy encouraged by the Maltese authorities.
I conclude that although the sacralisation of the concrete scale is strategically positive to be able to create alliances between agencies of all sorts where these projects take place, the lack of a connection of these with the national dynamics of the promotion of tourism and the attraction of financial assets only reinforces a Sisyphean struggle that does not seem to have an end date.
Juan Fernando Parra (Universidad Antonio Nariño) Mauricio Munoz (Universidad Antonio Nariño)
Paper long abstract:
In general, rituals characterize religious practices as a whole. However, the influence of neoliberal capitalism on religion, suggests that the issue could be also thought through the city, its edges, invisible borders, among other aspects that have particularized the scenario of its political normalities and abnormalities. Bogotá is a great Latin American capital, young when it comes to big cities with big problems and economic power. A city that in the mid-1950s began a process of modernization without return that produced margins and peripheries everywhere, and educational practices that became rituals lend themselves to understanding some dynamics in which the urban can be suspended in favor of “city” situations. The neoliberal city that began to take shape at the end of the 70s started forgetting its industrializing dream and gave way to the urban planning of services, banks, universities and other infrastructures typical of postmodern economies. Antonio Nariño University opened its doors in 1977, and by the end of the 90s it had offices in Bogotá and several other cities in the country, one of which, located in the middle of the eastern hills of the Colombian capital, illustrates how educational rituals have built the city in a particularly subtle way, where the violence of gentrifications can go unnoticed in the face of the urgency of more important issues, the long process of consolidation of these new urban realities, and the very profile of an institution that is related with its surroundings from the indelicacy of the subtle.
Guillermo Aguirre Núñez (Universitat de Barcelona)
Paper long abstract:
In the summer of 2023, a parade was made to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Uri Caballero, a local singer from Vallcarca neighbourhood in Barcelona. "The otherside aplec" or the "Urimpíades" (a pun with the singer’s name and the Olympic Games), consisted of a music parade led by a truck and it included punk, electronic music and rumba bands. It intentionally started, without permission from the city council, at the gentrified neighbourhood of Gràcia and went on towards the core square of Vallcarca, a neighbouring area, where it finished with a live concert with several bands. It was advertised as a mysterious and hilarious derive that would challenge the district of Gràcia's and Barcelona’s oppression towards the small resistant area of Vallcarca, known for its strong community ties and its constant fight against urbanization pressure.
This study explores the insurgent parade that took place under extraordinary heat conditions in July as some sort of liturgy with very recognisable traits against common issues in Barcelona such as tourism and gentrification. It examines the parade's route and its particular stops in various symbolic spots along the way, but also the musicians involved, the audience attending the event and their practices during the celebration, as well as the promotion and organisation of the action. Within a long period of absence of visible and generalised social protest in Barcelona, the parade was seen by many of the assistants as a small reminder of past riots and fights against the local authorities.
Julia Kunikowska (University of Warsaw)
Paper short abstract:
Wolica is a former village, now within the borders of Warsaw. Wolica’s rural identity is negotiated during mass celebrations of Corpus Christi. Participants of the procession express their opposition to gentrification and urbanisation of the area, by bringing back and passing down rural traditions.
Paper long abstract:
Wolica is a former village which now lies within the borders of Warsaw, Poland. It was firstly mentioned in 15th century. It began to make its mark in the 20th century, when it was incorporated to the capital of Poland. Most of the Wolica residents, Woliczanie, were farmers who made their living by growing and selling crops in and near Warsaw. In the 1970s they were expropriated for the construction of a new housing estate. Contemporary Wolica is a micro-space embedded in the larger cultural space of the city. During my ethnographical research I discovered that despite the progressing urbanisation of Warsaw, it retained some of its rural character. Wolica’s rural identity is negotiated once a year, during mass celebrations of Corpus Christi. Both old and new inhabitants gather and take part in a procession which leads through gated communities and some fields that, surprisingly, survived the urbanisation. Altars, adorned with flowers, are being built in front of modern housing estates built on Woliczanie’s fields. Using Tim Ingold’s concept of lines, along which life extends, I will argue that this religious procession became a middle ground, which enables communication between Woliczanie and new inhabitants. It plays a crucial role in the process of retaining past Wolica’s traditions, which are being passed down to new inhabitants. This public ritual allows its participants to express their opposition to gentrification and urbanisation of the area. It is a symbolic, yet much-needed form of resistance, which can only be witnessed only once a year.