Nature and the Sacred: the «Migrant Imagery» between Animism, Religion and Ecospirituality: an Exploratory Study among Asylum-seekers

• Antonio Camorrino ^[1] ; Raffaella Monia Calia ^[1]
  1. [1] Università di Napoli Federico I
• Localización: Religioni e società, ISSN 0394-9397, Vol. 34, Nº. 95, 2019 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Religioni e sviluppo in Africa: verso un futuro sostenibile), págs. 64-72
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In this paper we will analyze the phenomenon of ecospirituality, highlighting its most relevant aspects. In the first part of the article we will briefly analyze some features of this unprecedented phenomenon. In the main part, through a qualitative explorative analysis, we will show the characteristics of what we have defined as the «migrant imagery». We will focus on the theme of «sacralization of nature» (Cardano 1995 e 1997) thanks to the information obtained from the interviewed subjects (asylum-seekers and beneficiaries of humanitarian and international protection from Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Togo and Ivory Coast). In this way it will be possible to detect any similarities and discrepancies between two different cosmologies, one shaped by Western modernization, the other largely not involved in this process. We have found out elements of similarity – in ways that we will explain – between the Western worldview and that of the asylum-seekers communities, concerning the experience of the sacred. We have also noted a sort of «reversed overlapping»: while Western postmodernity seems to witness a return of the sacred, the «forced migrants», to the extent of the examined sample, are the social indicators of an ongoing process of secularization or rationalization of the «religion of spirits», through a gradual Christianization and Islamization.

    The hypothesis is that religious belief with its typical syncretic meanings could work as a symbolic resource, in relation with other important factors of social integration.