The dynamic relationship that exists between a religious rite and its territory is interpreted and analysed by religious anthropology as a form of protection, offered by the sacred to the place in ...which it resides. According to this interpretation, passage through the territory of what is reputed to be sacred or even its very presence as a sanctuary, drives evil away and is believed to perform a generally stable protective function. Within such a dynamic, the rite that actually creates this sacred passage, i.e., the procession of relics, lays the foundations for an analysis of the two specific variables that are, in actual fact, intwined: on the one side is the rite, and on the other, the territory. Such a relationship appears all the more problematic due to the progressive rationalisation of the religious dimension, extensively dealt with by Max Weber (Weber 1920) and accepted by contemporary sociology on religion, as it is now a supernatural phenomenon that is only considered to have a representational dimension. The internal secularization at the festival of Saint Rosalia happened in 2023, with the landing of the triumphal cart in New York. The rite moves to another new territory and transforms it. The cart of Saint Rosalia, preserved in the Columbus Citizens Foundation in New York, represents the identity of Sicilian immigrants but also a new form of ritualization on a new territory through an “ancient” ritual. When the sacred is located within the institutional dimension of a salvation religion presided over by an institution, it appears separate from any purely mechanical (and therefore magical) dimension, while the territory becomes a variable in which a multiplicity of factors are contained. These factors not only give importance to the very aspects of the ritual itself, boosting its civil and secular parts, but also to the religious programme, which undergoes unexpected transformations introduced by the presiding institution. The main object of this analysis is, therefore, to establish an interactive path whereby, on the one hand, the territory, through its various cultural components (both secular and religious), shapes the religious rite and how it places restrictions on those protective functions, while on the other, how the rite places its own constraints on the cultural transformations that take place in the fabric of society.
This ethnographic research on the territory of Palermo is a comparison between the old immigrant Tamil generations, coming from Sri Lanka, and the new, native residents of Palermo. There are two ...points of generational convergence in the community: the cult during the festive rituals of Santa Rosalia, and the territorial symbolism of Mount Pellegrino. This peculiarity, qualitatively analysed through the NVivo software, is revealed by two specific and organized events: the first by the archbishop’s curia and the second by the community itself. The first consists of the participation in the day dedicated to interreligious dialogue (from 2014 until today), and the second is the night of the “acchianata” (ascent) on 3 and 4 September. The day dedicated to “interreligious dialogue” involves the meeting of all confessions/religious communities in Palermo, creating an annual meeting ritual under the sign of Santa Rosalia.