Beyond Gramsci and de Martino Medical Anthropology in Contemporary Italy - Pandolfi, M.

5/27/2018 Beyond Gramsci and de Martino Medical Anthropology in Contemporary Italy - Pandolfi, M.

1/5

Beyond Gramsci and De Martino: Medical Anthropology in Contemporary ItalyAuthor(s): Mariella PandolfiSource: Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Jun., 1992), pp. 162-165Published by: Wileyon behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/649312.

Accessed: 11/07/2013 04:36

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

WileyandAmerican Anthropological Associationare collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access toMedical Anthropology Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 151.100.161.184 on Thu, 11 Jul 2013 04:36:20 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=blackhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=anthrohttp://www.jstor.org/stable/649312?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/649312?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=anthrohttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black


2/5

INTERNATIONAL NEWS AND COMMENT

MARIELLA PANDOLFIUniversityof RomeRome, Italy

Beyond Gramsci and De Martino: MedicalAnthropology in Contemporary Italyore than once people in the anthropological ciences havejoined withpeople in the medical andpsychiatricsciences to thinkandact togetherintheareaof healthand illness in Italy.These collaborative ffortshavealwaysstartedout withthe best intentions,but in the courseof eventsthedefenseof disciplinaryboundarieshas raised insurmountableamparts.Possible encoun-tersbecame missedopportunities, ven though heclosingof psychiatrichospitalsin Italy in the 1970s underthe provisions of Law 180 certainly heightenedtheawareness of people in social and health work to social factors, questions ofpower, andthe relationshipbetween social class and mental illness.Italyrejected he insaneasylumandputsocial discomfortback into the com-

munity,andeven the least reformistpsychiatristshad to trynew therapeuticpathsforthe ill andgreatercollaborationwithin thecontext of thefamily. This stepwascertainlycentral o thedevelopmentof otherkindsof sensitivityinthe subsequenttwo decades. But this enhancedsensitivityto social aspects, the attention o thepoliticaldimension which certainlyhad importanteffects on changes in Italiansociety, was not translated nto genuine interpenetrationf psychiatric politi-cal militancyand anthropological politicalmilitancy.The influence of Marxistthinkingwas certainly very strongin the two dis-ciplinaryareas, andI shouldsay thatthe results were often very interesting,yetideologicalconflict from the 1950s to the 1980s was often so bitterthatjoint ef-forts wereparalyzed.The two disciplines pursuedparallelroutesbut were hostileto each other andquiteuncommunicative.Therewere other difficulties as well in eluding the mistrust and the strictviewpointsof disciplinaryareas: the paralyzingstrugglesto establishanthropo-logical bordersandtendencies to polarizeand dichotomizeregionalpeculiaritiesor to overvalueor legitimize an anthropology hatwas only exotic.Certainly herelationshipbetween medicine andillness andtheanthropolog-ical stance were stronglyinfluencedfor manydecadesby an ideological opposi-tion that ranthroughall aspectsof Italiananthropology.It is fair to say that untilthe 1970sthegreatdivide between Marxistanthropologists,nfluencedby Gram-sci's thought, and non-Marxistanthropologistsblocked anthropologicaldebateMedicalAnthropologyQuarterly6(2):162-165. Copyright? 1992, AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation. Allrightsreserved.Not for further eproduction.

162

This content downloaded from 151.100.161.184 on Thu, 11 Jul 2013 04:36:20 AMAll use subject toJSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/5

INTERNATIONALNEWS AND COMMENT

andrestricted t to the confinesof Italyalone. Whatdeveloped then was chieflyattention o Italian folk and regionalmedicine, be it from a viewpoint that wasmorephilologicalandhistoriographic r from one that was morepolitical. Thus,for example, magic and the interpretation f magico-religiousrites used in treat-ing illnesses were reconsideredntermsof problemsof subalternity,hedynamicsof socialclasses, the intrinsicrelationshipbetween thehistoryof thesubaltern ndthecultureof the subaltern-in otherwords, a highlyGramscianview of the Ital-ianpeasantworld.The mostinterestingandproductive cholar n this line wascertainlyErestoDe Martino.His research n southern talyhad a deep influenceon anthropolog-ical studies from the 1950s on. De Martinowas a protagonistat the center of theconflictmentioned,but he was occasionallya victim as well. The conflict withinthe Italian anthropologicalmovement did not foster an understandingof thewealthof ideas of this philosopher-ethnologist,whose voice is full of ethno-graphic militancywhen he speaksof southernItalyas worthyanddeservingofanethnologyall its own. SouthernItalybecame centralto muchethnologicalre-search,callingto mind the metaphorof the Indias depor aca with whichtheJes-uits launched 17th-centuryevangelization in Europewith the same fervor thattheyhad shownin otherlands, the exotic lands of theIndiasdepor alld.The interpretation f illness, the relationshipbetween traditional herapiesand official medicine, the magic world throughwhich the Gramsciannotionof hegemony was articulated,found a precise response in the anthropologicalstudies from the 1950s on. The idea of reading illness and its correspondingcourses of therapyand the survivalof magic ritualas privileged aspects of thehistoricdynamicbetween a hegemonic cultureand a subalternculturewere offundamentalmportance n those years, andthey still form thekeystoneandspe-cific weightof Italianmedicalanthropology oday.This background ketch is essential to an understanding f the climate ofintellectualdebatein which medical anthropology n Italyarose anddeveloped,and it is also necessaryfor appreciating he role played by the ItalianSociety ofMedical Anthropology(SIAM), founded in 1988. The hardest and most chal-lengingtask was thatof resumingthe interrupted ialogueamongscholars in thedifferentdisciplinesconcernedwithhealthand illness as well as bringing ogetheragainthe differentspiritsthat in the past decades had clashed and rejecteddia-logue. The need for an internaldebate that could accept pluralityof themes andinterpretiveviewpoints was central to the foundation of the society. And itlaunched the difficult dialogue between methodological and interpretativeap-proaches hatwere so differentand field experiencebuiltup in anythingbut uni-formideologicalcontexts.This new policy of dialogue and joint projectshas evolved in step with theneed forprofoundchange in choices that has emergedin this disciplinaryareainthe last five years, chiefly under he impactof new immigrationon Italy's fragilesocial texture.Italyhas been accustomed to dealing with the wounds of its ownemigrationand had to make importantandcourageouschoices afterthe SecondWorldWar nvolving profoundsocial differencesandconflictsbetween an indus-trial north and an all-but-archaicand ruralsouth, where the interpenetration fdifferentsystemsof medicine andtypes of therapeutic reatmentmeant constantconfrontation etween traditionaland official medicine.

163



4/5

MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGYQUARTERLY

But inrecentyears, Italiansociety has had to operateon a profoundlyalteredhistoricalandsocial horizon.Italyis on a new coursenow: at the symbolic levelit involves the configurationof the other, the differentfrom us, and it involvesoperativedecisions on institutionalpolicy. This entails nationalprograms,butchiefly it involves projectsfor cooperationand assistanceto Third World coun-tries that are integratedwith EuropeanCommunityprojects.Under the impetusof thesedevelopments,Italianmedicalanthropologys particularly ctive in sev-eralaspectsof these programs.Activities in the field of cooperation nclude: theMaliprojectunder he directionof PieroCoppo, with, amongothers, anthropol-ogists RobertoLionettiand BarbaraFiore;theNicaraguaprojectdirectedby Ros-albaTerranovaCecchini;workin several Latin Americancountriesby the MarioNegriInstituteof Milancoordinatedby BenedettoSarceno; he anthropologicallyoriented rainingand researchprogram unby P. WarrenandA. Caprara ndtheSuperior nstitute orHealth n Rome. Thereare, in addition,manyotherresearchprojects orcooperation hatare well along in theplanningstage, such as thepro-gramin supportof refugee indigenouspeople in CentralAmericawith medicalanthropological omponentscoordinatedby AntoninoColajanni.Besides researchand action programs n non-Westerncountries, there aremanyotherprogramsconcerned with the Italiancontext andthe massive immi-grationof recentyears. These include researchwork on immigration n Latiomunder hedirectionof LuigiM. LombardiSatriani,researchon new forms of rac-ism in Italydirectedby ClaraGallini, andthestudyof particular eligio-therapeu-tic figuresby Vittorio Lanternari. nvolvement n the debate on bioethics is alsobecomingmorewidespread see, e.g., VincenzoPadiglione).The need throughout he nationfor healthpolicies thattake accountof themanysocial andcultural actorshasengagedthe effortsof a largeand activegroupunder he directionof Tullio Seppilliat the Universityof Perugia.There s ongoing studyand interest n folk medicineand themagicalaspectsof illness, with strategicandpracticaldevelopmentat regionalandother levels.ElsaGuggino'sworkin Sicily is particularly riginalandsignificant n this area.There s anextensivesurveyof this sector of studyandresearch n Medicines andMagics, edited by Tullio Seppilli (Milan:Electa, 1989). Several Ph.D. candi-dates, Donatella Cozzi and Gianni Pizza among others, are workingin this tra-dition andgiving it new life within a Europe-widedebate on folk medicine.New ways are being advanced for looking at subjectivity,narrativity,andthe dynamicanddialogical approachbetween illness and emotion andbetweenmagic andreason, applying particularnodes of the internationaldebateand so-called critical medicalanthropology,withoutforegoingthe Italianphilosophicalroots of the debate. WorkincludesMariella Pandolfi'sItineraridelle emozioni,Corpo e identitt femminile nel Sannio Campano (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1991),andrecently he work of PaoloApolito;Fabio Dei also is preparing dissertationon thesetopics.Theyoungergenerationof psychiatristshasdevelopeda stronganthropolog-ical sensitivity. They areworkingin particularly ifficult contextswith neotradi-tionalfeaturesof societies of southernItaly, with aspectsof immigration,espe-cially in urbanareas, and with problemsarisingfrom the closing of insaneasy-lumswithoutcorresponding eforms.Interestingwork has been done by Giorgio

164



5/5

INTERNATIONALNEWS AND COMMENT

Villa, VirginiaDe Micco, Salvo Inglese, and RobertoBeneduce, amongothers.TheSIAMprogram tarted rom these differentspiritsand has takenconcreteformin a host of very specific initiatives:a new review, the first issue to appearinautumn1992;a series of bookson medicalanthropology; ndtwice-yearlysem-inarsto foster direct confrontationof differentviewpoints within the society inpreparationor the first nationalcongress in 1993.In additionto these initiatives, there are parallelundertakingsoutside thesociety showing how extremelyrich the terrain s in termsof ideas, research nprogress,andpublications n verydifferentsectors.These include the first Ph.D.program n medical anthropology,run jointly by the universities of Perugia,Siena, and Cagliari, and postgraduate ourses at the universities of Rome andPaduawith seminars n medicalanthropologyandethnopsychiatry.Seminars nmedicalanthropologyhave beenorganized n thepasttwo yearsby the Universityof Palermo ElsaGuggino, AntonioButtitta) n collaborationwiththe ParisEcoledes HautesEtudes,andby the Universityof Rome (Luigi M. LombardiSatriani,MariellaPandolfi) ointly with the Paris Ecole des Hautes Etudes and the EcoleFrancaise n Rome.Tullio Seppilli played a key role in the transition rom the old to new. Heworkedwith De Martino n the 1950s and is now Directorof the Instituteof Eth-nologyatthe Universityof PerugiaandPresidentof the ItalianSocietyof MedicalAnthropology.With a deeply democraticmanner,he has made possible a dia-logue that would have seemed inconceivableonly a few years ago. In his view,the anthropologists called uponto mediate the widest rangeof social demands.Betweenthe Gramscianroles of intellectual and culturalworker in the field, hehas fostered medicalanthropologyas ideological choice andpolitical militancy,anexperienceuniquein Italyand hardto match elsewhere in the world.

Correspondenceaybe addressedo the author t Piazzade Ricci,PalazzoRicci,00186Roma, taly.

165


Beyond Gramsci and de Martino Medical Anthropology in Contemporary Italy - Pandolfi, M.

Documents

Transcript of Beyond Gramsci and de Martino Medical Anthropology in Contemporary Italy - Pandolfi, M.