It’s the new social ritual

There is a universal condiment in our meals that has been gaining weight in recent years: a screen in front of the plate. It doesn’t matter if it’s breakfast in a hurry, lunch at the desk next to the keyboard or dinner on the couch after a tiring day: we chew while we scroll with the same automation with which we breathe. The act of eating without watching something – short vertical videos, a series, a ten-minute video – has gone from being common to being almost unnatural. As if food alone wasn’t enough of a stimulus for those fifteen minutes. There are circumstances that lead us to eat alone: ​​life without a partner, teleworking, studies, a work trip or the dynamics of the cubicle in the office. They have all converged on the same ritual: the screen is no longer an occasional accompaniment but the defining framework of the modern food experience. The problem is not physical loneliness but the inability to be present even when we are accompanied. We have reconfigured the meal: now it is down time that must be optimized. Eating has become an annoying biological need that interrupts our real life, the one that takes place on the screens. That’s why we eat watching youtubes: not to make the meal more enjoyable, but to not waste those minutes on something as banal as feeding ourselves. The screen rescues us from the terrible inefficiency of simply eating. It allows us to continue consuming information, entertainment, and social validation, while we fill our mouths. And here’s something darker: shared food has been, for millennia, the fundamental social glue. It is no coincidence that all religions have food rituals, that all important agreements are sealed with banquets, that the word “companion” comes etymologically from “sharing bread”. When eating in front of screens—alone or with others— Not only do we lose conversation, we lose daily training in reciprocity, in the rhythms of giving and receiving that structure all social life.. A child who grows up having dinner parked with TikTok learns that communication is one-way, that entertainment requires no mutual effort, that the presence of the other is optional and, ultimately, substitutable. The market, of course, has detected this trend with its usual precision. Food products are now designed for one-person and one-handed consumption: bowls that do not require a knife, wraps that free the hand of scroll, snacks dosed for intermittent snacking between stories. The apps of delivery They’ve perfected the art of solitary gratification, with algorithms that learn your cravings and anticipate them. The entire food ecosystem is reconfigured around this new atomized diner who eats without consciousness, chews without tasting, swallows without sharing. It is the taylorization definitive of the act of eating: efficient, individual, stripped of any ritual or social dimension. But without a doubt, The most disturbing of all is our discomfort when someone eats alone without a screen in a public space.. That individual who simply eats, looking into space or at his plate, is disturbing to us. What are you thinking about? Why don’t you get distracted? Don’t you feel the pressure to appear busy, connected, relevant? Its simple presence lays bare our own inability to be alone, our addiction to digital mediation in even the most basic acts. We have reached a point where loneliness without a screen is read as social failure, as if not having notifications during meals were a sign of irrelevance. The final paradox is worthy of chef kiss: We have never been more connected and we have never eaten more alone. We exchange memes while ignoring whoever is in front of us, we document dishes that no one will share with us, we perform a digital social life while our analog social life atrophies. When anthropologists of the future study our civilization, they may wonder how a species that evolved by sharing food around a fire ended up staring at glowing rectangles while chewing in solitude, convinced that this was progress.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ In Xataka | An eternally unfocused generation: “I can’t do anything for more than fifteen minutes without looking at my phone” Featured image | Xataka

A fertility ritual 500 years ago

Few places on the planet are presupposed with such archaeological wealth without discovering as Latin America. Without going very far, an unprecedented fact occurred recently in Peru, when a group of researchers found in a municipal dump no less than A 5,000 -year -old mummy of antiquity. Something has happened in an area of ​​Mexico. What intuited an accumulation of rotrefacta garbage has turned out to be an incalculable value treasure. An unexpected finding. Yes, what at first seemed to be a simple garbage in a remote cave in the mountain area in Guerrero (Mexico) has ended up being one of the most surprising archaeological revelations of recent times. The speleologist Katiya Pavlova, accompanied by the local guide Adrián Beltrán Dimas, explored in September 2023 Tlagoococ cave (Name that in Nahuatl means “Cueva de los Texas”) when, after crossing a narrow passage flooded with just fifteen centimeters between the roof and the surface of the water, they ran into fourteen objects carefully arranged around stalagmites. The scene, preserved in gloom and constant humidity for centuries, seemed to have stopped over time. Fertility ritual. Among the objects found There were four shell bracelets, a huge decorated snail of Strombus genretwo complete stone discs, six discs fragments and a piece of carbonized wood. The arrangement of the bracelets, placed on small stalagmites of rounded way with possible galician connotations (Cover image), led archaeologists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) to interpret the whole as vestiges of pre -Hispanic fertility rituals. As explained The archaeologist Miguel Pérez Negrete, in many Mesoamerican cultures the caves were considered sacred spaces, linked to the underworld and symbolically associated with the uterus of the earth, which reinforces the ritual hypothesis of the offering. Venus and Quetzalcoatl symbols. Three of the bracelets present engravings with important pre -Columbian symbols. One of them is The Xonecuillia S -shaped figure associated with the planet Venus and the measurement of time. Another shows what, according to researchers, could be the representation of QuetzalcóatlCreator God in several Mesoamerican cultures. Not just that. The indications allowed the objects in the Postclassic period (950–1521 dc), and attribute them tentatively to The Tlacotepehua culturea little documented civilization that inhabited the mountain region. As for the excellent state of conservation of the pieces, it is attributed to the stable climatic conditions within the cave, which has allowed, after more than five centuries of silencethey resurface in this way. 500 years hidden legacy. As we said at the beginning, it is a (other) surprising archaeological finding of hundreds of years ago. The Tlayócoc cave, located about 2,380 meters above sea level, is known among the premises for its water and bat guano, but so far there were no recent records of deep exploration. Hence the finding of Pavlova and Beltrán can represent the first human incursion in that place in approximately five hundred years. After the discovery, both immediately contacted the INAH, who recovered the objects last March and will integrate them into their heritage For study and preservation. No doubt, an exciting finding that contrasts with the initial theory: a handful of fragments in the dark, confused with garbage, has revealed a forgotten fragment of indigenous spirituality, of ancestral cosmology and of material expressions of the sacred. Image | Katiya Pavlova In Xataka | In 2023 some explorers entered a remote cave in Mexico. They found the last archaeological treasure of the country In Xataka | 60 years ago we discovered a hidden gold in the jungle of Peru. Now we know that it was really much more

When the Pope dies, his rooms are sealed and his ring is destroyed. It is the beginning of a ritual that ends in white smoke

As Cardinal Kevin Farrel has confirmed, the Pope Francis has died At 88 years of age. With his death, a protocol as old as ancient, a meticulous process designed for centuries of ecclesiastical tradition has been automatically activated. This has begun a kind of choreography of ancestral rituals that regulate the transition of the most emblematic spiritual power in the world. These are all the phases that will end in white smoke. Sealed for centuries. As we said, after the death of the pontiffthe head of the Vatican Health Department, the Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrellcurrent head of the position, ha officially verified Death. The body will now be transferred to the Pope’s private chapel, dressed in a white cassock and liturgical ornaments, and placed in a zinc -lined wood coffin. Next to him They will be deposited His miter, the canopy and a bag with coins of his pontificate, in addition to a “rogito”, a scroll that summarizes his life and legacy, which will be read aloud before closing the coffin. Meanwhile, the Pope’s private room, located in the Santa Marta housewill be sealed, and the fisherman’s ring (the official seal of the Pontiff) will be ceremonially destroyed with a small hammer to prevent any type of falsifications. Farrell will write a Official Death Act and will be responsible for ensuring the Pontiff’s personal documents. The period called then begins vacant headquartersduring which ecclesial leadership is in the hands of the Cardinals College, but without faculties to make transcendental decisions until the new successor is chosen. Public tribute. Faithful to his style austere and away from the boatoFrancisco had already reformulated the rules Papal funeral home in 2024. He did it by eliminating many elements of the traditional pomp. Namely: your body will not be Exposed in a catafalco high or transferred for private views of ecclesiastical hierarchs, but will be displayed directly inside the coffin in the Basilica of San Pedro so that the people can pay tribute. Thus the nine -day mourning will begin to be known as novel. Francisco had abolished the tradition of the three coffins for the deceased pontiffs, replacing them with A single simple coffin of wood and zinc. This decision, contained in the new edition of the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani PontificisI was looking for (in words From the master of liturgical ceremonies, Diego Ravelli) “show that the funeral of the Roman pontiff is that of a pastor and disciple of Christ, not that of a powerful man in the world.” Funeral without ostentation. The procession to the temple will be directed by Camarlengo Farrel, and the Cardinals College will set the date of the funeral, planned between four and six days After death (that is, from Monday). Throughout nine days, funeral masses and prayers will be held throughout Rome. In addition, and contrary to the custom of burying the Pontiff in the Vatican crypts, Francisco has also arranged REposar in the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor, place of deep personal devotion and frequent fate of prayer during his papacy. With this choice it will become the First Pope in a century in being buried outside of San Pedro. The conclave. Fifteen to twenty days after death, the College of Cardinals will be summoned by its dean, the cardinal Giovanni Battista reto give Start the conclave which will designate the new Pontiff. Only cardinals under 80 can vote (about 120 approximately) and all must swear absolute secret before being isolated in the Sistine Chapel, the sacred space that becomes the headquarters of the most hermetic and solemn process of the Church. By the way, the term conclave (From Latin cum key“Under key”) refers to the obligatory confinement that prevents delays and guarantees confidentiality. Voting, which can be repeated up to four times a day, require a two -thirds majority for a candidate to be chosen. White smoke After each vote, the ballots are burned together with chemical additives that generate smoke: black if there is no agreement, white if there is. Once the consensus is reached, the chosen one is asked if he accepts the position and what papal name wishes to adopt. As a reference, Francisco’s choice (first non -European pontiff in 1,300 years.) He required five votes in 24 hours, but in the past there were conclaves that extended for months or even years. Habemus The new Pope is then dressed in the White Sotana in the next sacristy, and after greeting his voters, he goes to the central balcony of the Basilica of San Pedro. There, before thousands of faithful gathered in the square and millions of viewers worldwide, a cardinal announces in a solemn voice: Habemus Papam. Now, the new Pontiff greets and offers his first blessing Urbi et Orbithus opening a new chapter in the millenary history of Catholicism. No doubt, the figure of the Pope, in addition to being a spiritual guidance of more than one billion faithful, exerts a remarkable moral and diplomatic influence on the global scenario, and his choice will surely be observed with attention both by believers and by international leaders. Meanwhile, Francisco’s legacy (marked by a preaching focused on humility, social justice and institutional reform) will be sealed not only in his Rogitobut also in the memory of an era in which the throne was occupied by a man who chose to “walk among his.” The truth is that the death of a Pope remains an event of enormous global resonance, wrapped in a solemnity and a symbolism that transcends the religious to become an expression of historical continuity and spiritual power in the 21st century. Image | Diariocritical, Penn State In Xataka | Pope Francis made his opinion clear about the medical ethics of the end of life. The one we do not know is that of the Vatican In Xataka | In the sixteenth century it was believed that coffee was a satanic drink. So Pope Clemente VIII decided to “baptize him”

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