Magic : a theory from the south / Ernesto de Martino ; translated and annotated by Dorothy Louise Zinn.

  • De Martino, Ernesto, 1908-1965
Date:
[2015]
  • Books

About this work

Also known as

Sud e magia. English

Description

"This new translation of Sud e magia, his 1959 study of ceremonial magic and witchcrafts in southern Italy, shows how de Martino is not interested in the question of whether magic is rational or irrational but rather in why it came to be perceived as a problem of knowledge in the first place. Setting his exploration within his wider, pathbreaking theorization of ritual, as well as in the context of his politically sensitive analysis of the global south's historical encounters with Western science, he presents the development of magic and ritual in Enlightenment Naples as paradigmatic example of the complex dynamics between dominant and subaltern cultures. Far ahead of its time, Magic is still relevant as anthropologists continue to wrestle with modernity's relationship with magical thinking"--Back cover.

Publication/Creation

Chicago : Hau Books, [2015]

Physical description

xvi, 204 pages : black and white illustrations ; 23 cm

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references (pages [195]-200 and index.

Contents

Part One: Lucanian Magic -- Chapter 1: Binding -- Chapter 2: Binding and eros -- Chapter 3: The magical representation of illness -- Chapter 4: Childhood and binding -- Chapter 5: Binding and mother's milk -- Chapter 6: Storms -- Chapter 7: Magical life in Albano -- Part Two: Magic, Catholicism, and High Culture -- Chapter 8: The crisis of presence and magical protection -- Chapter 9: The horizon of the crisis -- Chapter 10: De-historifying the negative -- Chapter 11: Lucanian magic and magic in general -- Chapter 12: Lucanian magic and Southern Italian Catholicism -- Chapter 13: Magic and the Neapolitan Enlightenment: The phenomenon of jettatura -- Chapter 14: Romantic sensibility, Protestant polemic, and jettatura -- Chapter 15: The Kingdom of Naples and jettatura.

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    BVA.CZ.34
    Open shelves

Permanent link

Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9780990505099
  • 099050509X