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Ernesto de Martino (1 December 1908 – 9 May 1965) was an Italian anthropologist, philosopher and historian of religions. He studied with
Benedetto Croce Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a l ...
and Adolfo Omodeo, and did field research with
Diego Carpitella Diego Carpitella ( Reggio di Calabria, 1924 - Rome, 1990) was an Italian professor of ethnomusicology at D'Annunzio University of Chieti–Pescara and La Sapienza University in Rome. He is considered one of the greatest scholars of Italian folk ...
into the funeral rituals of
Lucania Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. It bordered with Samnium and Campania in the north, Apulia in the east, and Bruttiu ...
and ''
tarantism Tarantism is a form of hysteric behaviour originating in Southern Italy, popularly believed to result from the bite of the wolf spider '' Lycosa tarantula'' (distinct from the broad class of spiders also called tarantulas). A better candidate ...
''. Ernesto de Martino was born in
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's admin ...
,
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, where he studied under Adolfo Omodeo, graduating with a degree in philosophy in 1932. His degree thesis, subsequently published, dealt with the historical and philological problem of the Eleusinian Gephyrismi (ritual injuries addressed to the goddess) and provides an important methodological introduction to the concept of religion. Clearly influenced by reading ''Das Heilige'' by Rudolf Otto, de Martino preferred to emphasize the choleric nature of the believer, overturning the German scholar's thesis and making it capable of being applied to relations with gods in polytheistic religions and spirits in animist religions. Attracted by the ideological stance of the regime, for several years de Martino worked on an essay interpreting Fascism as a historically convenient form of civil religion. However, the attempt was insubstantial and the work, still unpublished, was gradually rejected by the author, who subsequently approached left-wing ideas and after the war became a supporter of the
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). ...
. At this time, which we now call the "Neapolitan" period, lasting until 1935, de Martino fell under the spell of the personality and work of an archaeologist who was particularly open-minded concerning the ancient history of religions and who was disliked by both the regime and its intellectual opponents: Vittorio Macchioro, known for his Orphic interpretation of the frescoes in the Villa of Mysteries in Pompeii and advocate of a theory of religion understood essentially as experience. From 1957 to his death he taught ethnology and history of religions at Cagliari's University: here, with Alberto Mario Cirese, Clara Gallini,
Giulio Angioni Giulio Angioni (28 October 1939 – 12 January 2017) was an Italian writer and anthropologist. Biography Angioni was a leading Italian anthropologist, professor at the University of Cagliari and fellow of St Antony's College of the University ...
and other scholars he founded the Anthropological School of
Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...
. De Martino has also been a very charismatic mentor and teacher. One of his students, the writer Muzi Epifani, dedicated to him the comedy ''The Escape''. In this work, the protagonist Ernesto discusses the changing role of women in
post-industrial society In sociology, the post-industrial society is the stage of society's development when the service sector generates more wealth than the manufacturing sector of the economy. The term was originated by Alain Touraine and is closely related to si ...
. Muzi Epifani
''La fuga''
republished in 2015 by La Mongolfiera.


Bibliography

English translations * ''Primitive Magic: the Psychic Powers of Shamans and Sorcerers''. Bridport : Prism Press, 1988. * ''The Land of Remorse: A Study of Southern Italian Tarantism'', translated by Dorothy L. Zinn. London: Free Association Books, 2005. * ''Magic: A Theory from the South'', translated by Dorothy L. Zinn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press/HAU Books, 2015. Italian original editions *1941, ''Naturalismo e storicismo nell'etnologia''. *1948, ''Il mondo magico: Prolegomeni a una storia del magismo'', Torino: Einaudi. *1958, ''Morte e pianto rituale. Dal lamento funebre antico al pianto di Maria''. *1959, ''Sud e Magia'' (on the magic in southern Italian societies). *1961, ''La terra del rimorso''. *1962, ''Magia e civilta. Un'antologia critica fondamentale per lo studio del concetto di magia nella civilta occidentale''. *1975, ''Mondo popolare e magia in Lucania''. *1993, ''Scritti minori su religione, marxismo e psicoanalisi'' (edited by Roberto Altamura e Patrizia Ferretti). *1995, ''Storia e metastoria: i fondamenti di una teoria del sacro'' (edited and with an introduction by Marcello Massenzio). *2002a (1962). ''Furore Simbolo Valore, Milano: Feltrinelli''. *2002b (1977). ''La fine del mondo. Contributo all’analisi delle apocalissi culturali'', Torino: Einaudi. *2005b ''Scritti filosofici'' (edited by Roberto Pastina). *2008, ''Ricerca sui guaritori e la loro clientela'' (edited by Adelina Talamonti, with an introduction by Clara Gallini). *2011, ''Etnografia del tarantismo pugliese. I materiali della spedizione nel Salento del 1959'' (edited by Amalia Signorelli e Valerio Panza, with an introduction and commentary by Amalia Signorelli).


Works devoted to de Martino

* Ferrari, Fabrizio M. (2012).
Ernesto de Martino on Religion. The Crisis and the Presence
'. London and Oakville: Equinox. * Charuty, Giordana, (2018)
« Être ensemble dans la même histoire : l’œuvre-vie d’Ernesto De Martino »
in Bérose - Encyclopédie internationale des histoires de l’anthropologie


References

External links * Resources related to research
BEROSE - International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology
Paris, 2018. (ISSN 2648-2770) {{DEFAULTSORT:De Martino, Ernesto 1908 births 1965 deaths University of Cagliari faculty Viareggio Prize winners Italian historians of religion Italian anthropologists