Popular Religion and Material Responses to Pandemic: The Christian Cult of the Epitaphios during the COVID-19 Crisis in Greece and Cyprus. (2nd July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Papantoniou, Giorgos; Vionis, Athanasios K.
• Is Part Of: Ethnoarchaeology. Volume 12:Number 2(2020)
• Page Start: 85
• Page End: 117
• Publication Date: 2020-07-02
• Subjects: Popular religion -- materiality -- ethnoarchaeology -- embodiment -- domestic cult -- Epitaphios ritual -- pandemic crisis -- COVID-19; Ethnoarchaeology -- Periodicals; 930.1
• DOI: 10.1080/19442890.2021.1896129
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1944-2890

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article explores the materiality of the Orthodox Christian cult of the Epitaphios on Good Friday of 2020 when, during the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing and isolation were deemed the most effective means of protecting societies from exposure to the virus. Epitaphios is a metonym that references a venerated object, a decorated cloth or wooden icon bearing the image of Christ prepared for burial. It is placed upon a wooden bier, representing the Tomb of Christ, also called the Epitaphios . During the pandemic, people reacted inventively to restrictions imposed on practicing this communal cult publicly in churches by constructing homemade Epitaphioi and displaying them in privately-owned spaces. We examine the materiality of the homemade Epitaphioi in the context of popular religion, evaluating how crisis may divert the forces of the longue durée into a different channel, and how ethnographic analogy may be useful for understanding ritual and cult in archaeology.