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Southern Italy’s Double Face: A Critical Reflection

Looking at Southern Italy, two main kinds of discourses are encountered, which I will call the ‘familistic view’ and the ‘Meridionalistic view’, opposite in character but both based on a culturalist bias. Both perspectives undervalue the structural dimensions of the social life of the South of Italy, offering a partial and somewhat abstract picture emphasizing the socio-cultural differences of this region in contrast to the North and in so doing exoticising it. In my paper, I present some results of my ethnographic research in a little semi-rural town in the province of Salerno, on the Amalfi Coast. I propose a different perspective focusing on the role of strong family and kinship ties in the social life of the village, and on the symbolic construction of community at work in the numerous religious and secular festivals of the town. My thesis is that both familism and community life are mainly collective responses to social and economic instability, that far from being a distinguishing characteristic of the south can be found in other parts of Italy. To Nevill Colclough, in memoriam