Di corsa, per forza. Performances rituali per la Domenica di Pasqua in Sicilia

Abstract

Several sicilian religious celebrations are characterized by a particular mode of processional transport of the fercoli with the statues of the Saints. These are made to run and dance by devoted young men, often competing with each other, both on the streets of the inhabited centers and, in rare cases, inside the religious buildings. This mode of transport is called, especially in the countries of the western Agrigento’s area, “rigattiata”. Many evidences, first of all the agonal climate, suggest that the same performative logic presides over the ritual execution of the “rigattiati” and the ergological action of the work in the fields. The competitive and conflicting climate between two or more adverse factions is, on the other hand, inserted within the so called wars of saints’ phenomenon, once more widespread in Sicily, and can be referred to the power games that articulate relationships between the social partners. Once again we observe how the religious holiday in Sicily is authentically constituted as a “total social fact”: as a space-time of devotion, as an elective moment of affirmation of physical and moral qualities, as a privileged occasion for political confrontation.