Sulla costruzione della "possessione europea" (I): il ragno. A proposito di un libro recente di Giovanni Pizza

Davide Ermacora

Abstract:

Against the background of the concept of "European possession" proposed by Cristiano Grottanelli (†2010) as a byproduct of the debate concerning Carlo Ginzburg's work, the Author conducts a close analysis of Giovanni Pizza's recent book La vergine e il ragno: etnografia della possessione europea, Lanciano 2012. The Author argues that the limitations of the ethnography of "European possession" as experienced by Pizza in his fieldwork in Campania (Italy) on the theme of the "uterus-spider" do not constitute a solid basis for the phenomenon to enter the phenomenology of possession as elaborated in the fields of Folklore, Anthropology and the History of Religions.