Dealing with the unexpected: new forms of mytho-praxis in the age of COVID-19 No one really thought this was going to happen-at least, not like this or at this historical moment. Though the eventuality of a global pandemic had been imagined-and even predicted-by different agents (scientists, artists, leaders of so-called 'new religious movements'), COVID-19's global irruption has been experienced by most of the population (including anthropologists) as a totally unexpected event. It has confronted us with the idea of the 'unexpected' in all its radicality. COVID-19 cannot be compared with our prior experiences. Economic crises, global terrorism and even mass health catastrophes occurring beyond the borders of the 'West' were foreseeable events fitting easily into what we conceived of as potentially possible-and could thus be explained by historical causality. In contrast, COVID-19 seems to obey a blind force beyond human control and understanding-a force beyond history. This new paradigm prompts us to undertake what we might call 'ethnographies of the unexpected' aimed at understanding how people from different social and cultural milieus categorise unforeseeable historical disruptions and performatively react vis-àvis to their phenomenological emergence. One domain these ethnographies should focus on is mythology. Let us define 'myth' as a sacred or meta-historical narrative, always in motion, which recounts the beginning of Time or, more generally, the relationship between opposing domains of reality (Life and Death, Men and Gods, 'Nature' and 'Culture'). Thus, a myth always addresses a moment of 'ontological redistribution': it narrates how things cease to be what they are and become something else-by maintaining some of their previous properties. Almost 40 years ago, Shalins (1985) highlighted that the irruption of unexpected events (such as the one we are experiencing) may spark processes of 'mythopraxis'-that is, creative efforts for making sense of history by transforming previous mythological models. COVID-19's sudden, catastrophic effects have raised certain unsolvable questions: how can this have happened? Whose responsibility is it? What will our future be like? We feel poised on the threshold of a new age. Thus, new forms of mytho-praxis emerge: we have all heard the 'theory' claiming that COVID-19 was fabricated by a conspiracy willing to sacrifice part of the population (the elderly). We need to find a subject of agency of these events, thus turning the unbearably random nature of the pandemic into a political-and therefore human-affair. Another 'explanation' that has invaded the Internet and 'common parlance' is that this virus is Nature's response to the aggressions we have continuously heaped upon it. Here the classical theme of divine punishment is readapted within the context of current environmental concerns.
Este artículo presenta un análisis del estado de la comunicación indígena en América Latina con un enfoque etnográfico y comparativo basado en seis estudios de caso: México, Guatemala, Panamá, Colombia, Bolivia y Argentina. Nuestro estudio se ocupa de la situación de los «paisajes mediáticos», es decir, la proliferación de medios de comunicación tecnológica en cada contexto, sus usos sociales efectivos y sus transformaciones en el tiempo. Para ello destacamos tres aspectos analíticos: 1) las innovaciones en la comunicación indígena, las cuales han pasado de un énfasis en la apropiación tecnológica a la necesidad de su incorporación como valor cultural, así como un cambio de énfasis en la «resistencia» a la idea de «descolonización» de los medios, 2) las características que definen la comunicación indígena, y 3) la constatación de su heterogeneidad e implicación en realidades sociales y políticas concretas y locales.
No abstract
ROGER CANALSThis article discusses the origin, development, and distribution of the multi-modal project Afro-Venezuelan Rituals in Barcelona: A Comparative Study of Religious Nomadism through Film. This project focuses on the study of the migratory process of the cult of María Lionza between Venezuela and Barcelona, alongside the analysis of the presence of this religious practice on the Internet. In this article, I propose to define this cult as a "multi-modal religion." This term refers to the fact that its followers (and spirits) are increasingly using different kinds of media to relate to each other. To analyze this cult, I call for a more in-depth exploration of the critical combination of different methods of research and modes of representation in anthropology (articles, films, websites, exhibitions). I also argue that one of the main interests of this multi-modal approach lies in its potential to account for the plurality of agents that intervene in the development of religious cults.
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