Virtually Sacred: The Performance of Asynchronous Cyber-Rituals in Online Spaces
Virtually Sacred: The Performance of Asynchronous Cyber-Rituals in Online Spaces
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00365.x
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发表时间：
2007-04-01
影响因子：
7.2
通讯作者：
Jacobs, Stephen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jacobs, Stephen
本文探讨了在从线下到线上的过程中，神圣空间和仪式表演的设计是如何转变的。对两个网站——一个基督教虚拟教堂和一个印度教虚拟寺庙——的符号学分析表明，在迪尔凯姆的意义上，有可能划分出不同的在线神圣空间，在那里，信徒可以参与仪式活动。本文着重讨论了在虚拟圣殿中进行的网络祈祷以及在虚拟教堂中张贴的祈祷文。对网页设计师的采访和对网站的分析表明，虚拟主要是根据对“真实”的模拟来构思的。因此，这些场所是按照传统的神圣空间和仪式表演的概念来设想的，而不是作为一种全新的东西。
This article explores how the design of sacred spaces and ritual performance are transformed in the move from offline to online contexts. A semiotic analysis of two websites-a Christian Virtual Church and a Hindu Virtual Temple-suggests the potential for demarcating distinct online sacred spaces, in a Durkheimian sense, in which devotees can engage in ritual activity. The article focuses on the performance of cyberpuja in the Virtual Temple and the posting of prayers in the Virtual Church. Interviews with the Web designers and an analysis of the sites suggest that the virtual is primarily conceived in terms of a simulation of the "real." Consequently these sites are envisaged in terms of conventional notions of sacred space and ritual performance, rather than as something radically new.