Alejandro Frigerio D. in Anthropology from the University of California at Los Angeles. He previously received a B.A. in Sociology from the Universidad Católica Argentina (1980). He is currently a Senior Researcher at the conicet (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas) based at the Instituto de Investigaciones de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales of the Universidad Católica Argentina and as a professor in the Master's program in Social and Political Anthropology of the Universidad Católica Argentina. flaccid. Coordinates the network diverse (Religious Diversity in Argentina). He was president of the Association of Social Scientists of Religions in Mercosur and organizer of the first three Conferences on Religious Alternatives in Latin America. He was Paul Hanly Furfey Lecturer of the Association for the Sociology of Religion (USA).

EncArtes multimedia

“Cabby Altars”: Random Miniethnographies of Daily (Religious) Life

  • Alejandro Frigerio

This paper shows and analyzes the assemblages of magical-religious symbols and images that many cab drivers1 in the city of Buenos Aires hang from the mirrors of their cars or attach to their sun visors. She uses the word "altars" cautiously to make visible these minimalist traces of the daily religious life of the porteños, objects that at once provide protection against the dangers of everyday street traffic and testify to relationships with specific superhuman beings. In these heterogeneous assemblages appear saints and virgins, popular saints and oriental and/or esoteric symbols -that testify to the rich magical-religious diversity of the city- as well as photos and memories of individuals and social collectives with a high charge of sacredness (children, relatives, soccer clubs). These "altars" are evidence of singular religious and familial journeys, but they also result from random interactions with passengers and evidence more general and little recognized patterns of how porteños relate to superhuman beings.