Ritualizing the City from Constantine to Staline, an Introduction
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | At the risk of seeming trivial, it seems useful to start this seminar with a very simple observation: the city has always been, and its remains, the ultimate place of collective rituality. It's the city that hosts – since Antiquity – the collective celebrations of victory, the important religious ceremonies, but also the rituals consecration of the elite. For the recent history of this country, what comes to mind first is of course the Velvet Revolution of 1989, or even more recently, the big sport events. Present scientific encounter therefore takes this ground elements to reflect on another, related question, the interaction between Ritual and Space. How – in other words – a collective liturgy, civic or religious, unfolds within the public space. Besides sacred buildings or places of power, the square, the street, become strong identity-shaping places. Bringing places of power to the street or the square – which are by definition liminal spaces – means entering in a dialogue constructed between those who organise the ritual, those who perform it and those who witness it. This tripartition of the participants is not systematic, and, in some occurrences, the different categories can overlap. It seems to me however that it is indeed of a compromise between the different components of society that the collective ritual happens inside of the public space. |
| Related projects: |