Ritual as Cultural Reserve among Sicilian Migrants in Germany
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Different theories have underlined the importance of the seemingly anachronistic revitalisation of traditional forms of saint cults in front of general processes of "overlaying" and "dispersion". Saint cults didn't disappear through modernisation, but created new potential out of it. The recourse on saint cult and on seemingly anachronistic practices acts in this context and especially in times of crisis as break handle, as counter reaction to globalization, as cultural "reserve". The notion of "reserve" - which stands in the vicinity to notions of "resistance", "archaism", "counter culture", "fundamentalism" and "regional/local obstinacy" ñ refers to a seemingly authentic behaviour, which is oriented to local forms and which is rooted in a back dated culture, social structure and economy. It isn't simply a "survival" of the old but has to be seen as a hybrid reaction to actual processes. I follow an approach which understands the saint cult on the local level as result of a dialectical process between resistance and overlay. In this sense I interpret also the recourse on traditional folklore of communitarian and participative character and the reinforced significance of ritual revitalisation in the migration. So as the oscillation between home and host society, the foundation of ethnic associations or traditional food habits, which can work as identity anchor and as strategies of resistance against uniforming processes of adaptation in the migration, the saint cult acts as a "reserve", bearing the potential to dampen the cultural effects of the migration crisis and the alienation from the home society.