Paper Short Abstract:

The paper aims to critically analyse some contemporary practices of masking in Basilicata (Italy) through the observational lens of heritage anthropology, with particular attention to the unwritten experiential and sensorial aspects that characterise them. In these ritual and ceremonial masking contexts, masks become symbolic devices of belonging and identity construction; moreover, the creative agency of individuals and communities enables interesting dynamics of continuity, adaptation or change that can meet the complexity and the different needs of today's heritage arenas.

Paper Abstract:

Although in the recent past writings and discourses have considerably influenced the so-called ‘traditional’ masking practices documented during the Carnival rituals of small villages in the inner areas of Southern Italy, the observation of some contemporary experiences in Basilicata has revealed the presence of a creative agency of individuals and communities, who are the product but also the producers of their own culture. It has also shown a capacity for continuity, adaptation or change capable of responding to the needs of today's heritage arenas. Cultural elements and ceremonial events, subjected over time, on the one hand, to interesting dynamics of ‘re-traditionalisation’ and in some cases of ‘artification’, and, on the other, to the implications of ongoing ‘heritage-making processes’, have become shared symbols of belonging, as well as devices for the construction of local identities, production of cultural memory and forms of self-representation, in constant dialogue with broader global scenarios. Ethnographic practice and a critical approach focused specifically on the senses of masks and unwritten masking experiences and performances has made it possible to highlight that constructing, making, and above all wearing masks in collective ceremonial contexts and in liminal ritual spaces can be considered as a strategy for ‘making community’; re-proposing the past in the present; attempting to counter hegemonic and hetero-directed discourses. Moreover, it could be one of the socially recognised ways of marking one's ‘presence’ in marginal, fragile, depopulated areas, subject to numerous criticalities, in an attempt to ward off, even temporarily, the threats of an uncertain future.