Tarantismo in the Salento area of Southern Italy



This course reviews the ritual occurrence known as Tarantismo, both as a genuine collective phenomenon and as staged (including cinema) festivals.

The lessons discusses anthropological, medical, and ethno-musicological issues which have, over the centuries, dealt with this enigmatic phenomenon that contains pagan and Christian religions, ancient and modern medicine, forms of music therapies, and sexual and sociological behaviors typical not only of Salento's population, but also common, these studies have proven, to other Mediterranean cultures as well.



Required Texts:

Ernesto De Martino, La terra del rimorso: il Sud, tra religione e magia. Nuove edizioni tascabili - Il Saggiatore (Mondadori, 2004).