No kisses or hugs: CaixaForum analyses the disappearance of social rituals due to the pandemic

No big celebrations, no saying goodbye to loved ones, no kisses or hugs. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken away the gestures we used to communicate with, altering the way we relate: most of our social interactions now take place from a cold screen. This premise marks the starting point of the colloquium 'What do we lose when we cannot celebrate social rites', held at CaixaForum as part of the 'Off-axis. Displacements of a pandemic', promoted by the "la Caixa" Foundation. 

In this encounter, Literature scholar Nora Catelli talks with Anthropologist Manuel Delgado, with the complicity of journalist Milagros Pérez Oliva. They walk together from gestures of greeting, which have been suspended, to physical contact, the relationship with the open air or the demonisation of social spaces. Their contributions make up a space "to make the neurons dance" to the rhythm of interesting reflections full of literary and philosophical references, such as those contributed by Byung-Chul Han, Carmen Laforet, Michel Foucault and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Celebrating New Year's Eve, birthdays, Carnival, a family meal at Christmas or a wedding are some of the first rituals that come to mind. But the term covers more content: "Everyday life is saturated with ritual acts, which, deep down, are those that allow us to perceive in an unequivocal way our loyalty to a specific group", starts Manuel Delgado. And, in this line, adds Nora Catelli, "as humans we have the need to share, rituals become a way of ensuring the human condition". 

One of the aspects that has altered the pandemic is the way we live Christmas. For Delgado, this new scenario has exposed a paradox: "On the one hand, Christmas is a nuisance because of the accumulation of obligations, but on the other hand, if people coming home for Christmas every year are not coming, we feel offended". Because the ritual, among other aspects, implies a "unification of those who celebrate". 

The disappearance of rituals due to the pandemic has shed light on our idiosyncrasies. "Ritual consists of social obligations, and what distresses us is not having social obligations, because that implies that we have no society," in Delgado's words. That is why, according to the two experts, during the confinement we go out to the balcony to applaud, seeking to establish a new ritual. "It's a way to access symbolization, to occupy the litany," Catelli said.

Another of the rituals being altered is that of funerals. "We have not been able to say goodbye to our loved ones. And, moreover, the elders have not been considered an active part of the ritual, but were the object of the ritual. They are citizens who have the right to be ambivalent in the face of death," Catelli said.

"You cannot be alive and then dead. There needs to be a middle ground, a mattress that ensures that life and death do not touch each other. And that is precisely what a funeral does. The farewell has that ritual value, to make sure that a loved one is really dead and gone," Delgado points out. 

Given the new context of social distance, social rituals have been relegated to second place, although for the speakers "it will be temporary" and later they will recover their ground. "It will be a very long episode, but we will drop our guard again and get back into the habit of human contact," predicts Catelli. Delgado, for his part, exemplifies this from the educational point of view. "Much of academic life takes place in the bar. The class is officiating a ceremony and then carrying out that role reversal in the bar. If the ritualisation of this aspect is suddenly lost, the academy is automatically lost. Nothing would make sense anymore.

This colloquium is part of the 'Off-axis' conversation cycle.  Displacements of a pandemic', organised by the "la Caixa" Foundation on central issues which, following the appearance of the COVID-19, have acquired new nuances and require new responses. 

Ethics, relations and links, dialogues between north and south, communication and technology, education and stories of the future are the six axes of the cycle, which can be followed in full at the CaixaForum's Digital Agora. Along these lines, the entity has also promoted 'And now what?', an axis that poses how we are now and the perspectives for the future that are presented to us. Moreover, in January and February, themes such as old age, mental health and the community will be dealt with. 

You can visualize the conversation through this link: https://caixaforum.es/es/digital/p/-que-perdemos-cuando-no-celebramos-los- ritos-sociales-_a13620559 

Nora Catelli was a professor at the National University of Rosario, Argentina, until her exile in 1976. In Barcelona, she obtained a doctorate in Hispanic Philology and is Professor Emeritus of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at the University of Barcelona. She is a translator and has written forewords to Franz Kafka, George Eliot, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Clarice Lispector and Miquel Bauçà, among others. In addition to numerous articles, she is the author of 'El espacio autobiográfico y Testimonios tangibles. Passion and Extinction of Reading in Modern Narrative'. 

Manuel Delgado is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Barcelona, director of GRECS and a member of the Observatory of Anthropology of Urban Conflict. He has published especially on ritual violence and social appropriations of public space, themes of books such as 'La ira sagrada', 'Ciudad líquida, ciudad interrumpida', 'El animal público', 'Sociedades movizas', 'El espacio público como ideología' and 'Ciudadanismo'.