Paper short abstract:

Gramsci and de Martino were popular scholars in Italy, both involved with the study of subalternity in the 20th century. Starting from their theories and ethnographic cases of the past (e.g. tarantism), this work explores the current relevance and applicability of de Martino and Gramsci’s ideas.

Paper long abstract:

The ideas of hegemony and subalternity have become popular in folklore studies and Marxist philosophy due to the contribution of Antonio Gramsci. Icon of the anti-fascism in Italy and imprisoned during Mussolini’s regime, Gramsci explained the absence of a communist revolution in Italy and many European countries as the product of the cultural hegemony of the bourgeoisie over the lower and subaltern classes. The anthropologist Ernesto de Martino received Gramsci’s influence as he decided to study the religious history of South Italy during the 1950s, documenting the forms of resistance of subaltern classes against the established and hegemonic religious and moral norms. This is the case of tarantism, a cultural phenomenon of the past spread among peasants and lower classes in the South-Eastern part of the Italian peninsula. Behind the façade of a culture-bound syndrome, tarantism hid the necessity of women’s liberation against the oppression of the working and gender rules, as well as the expression of a freer relationship with the religion and the supernatural.

After the 1960s, lower classes have started to be integrated into the economic niche of the bourgeoisie in Italy. Peasantry and its cultural heritage have thus been perceived as cultural relics of the past, leading to the need for re-thinking Gramsci and de Martino’s reflections in current times. Is hence the idea of subalternity applicable to the current forms of cultural and social resistance of lower classes in Italy? A possible answer to these questions will be provided here.