Abstract

CAPOVILLA, Cecilia. Encuentros y rituales sufís virtualizados en pandemia. La tariqa Naqshbandi Haqqani Rabbani en Argentina. Soc. relig. [online]. 2023, vol.33, n.61, pp.2-2. ISSN 0326-9795.

The article addresses the strategies developed by a Naqshbandi Haqqani group located in Patagonia and its leader, to maintain the link with the members of the extended community, through the virtualization of meetings and religious rituals in the pandemic context. It presents results of offline and online ethnographic experiences carried out between 2017 and 2021, in the Sufi community located in Pampa de Mallín Ahogado (Río Negro) and in the social networks of the organization. It specifically describes and analyzes two Zoom events organized by the group broadcast on YouTube: one in 2020, where the leader responds to queries and concerns to his followers in Latin America; another from 2021, in which various religious rituals are recreated, ranging from the initiation of a new member in the Order to a marriage. The question that guides this work is how the religious meetings and rituals that implied copresence and strong states of collective effervescence within the framework of virtuality were reconfigured.

Keywords : Charisma; COVID-19; Naqshbandi; Virtualization; Sacred.