Spiegare la vita: processo, performance, esperienza

Abstract

This paper analyzes the exemplar story of Tariq – a minicab driver born in London in a family from Lahore – and his gradual change from “English” to Pakistani, from “western” to Orthodox believer. An existential parable marked by three main phases: the construction, elaboration and reconstruction of events, narrations and memories by Tariq; his detachment, if not rejection, from the “western” integration of his brothers; his idealization of the country of origin and “local” relationships to which is added the religious choice gradually acquired as a whole as a new way of life. All this will be analyzed from a performative and procedural perspective of anthropology.