Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on field research in Malta, Sicily and among Italian emigrants in Canada, this book explores the social influence of the Mediterranean climate and the legacy of ethnic and religious conflict from the past five decades. Case studies illustrate the complexity of daily life not only in the region but also in more remote academe, by analysing the effects of fierce family loyalty, emigration and the social consequences of factionalism, patronage and the friends-of-friends networks that are widespread in the region. Several chapters discuss the social and environmental impact of mass tourism, how locals cope, and the paradoxical increase in religious pageantry and public celebrations. The discussions echo changes in the region and the related development of the author's own interests and engagement with prevailing issues through his career.
Trade Review “Although these essays have been published before, many are important contributions to the discipline, while others have been updated and revised, making this an important contribution to this field… Highly recommended.” · Choice
“Jeremy Boissevain is undoubtedly amongst the most qualified and distinguished researchers of Mediterranean societies: this book chronicles an exemplary intellectual path from a methodological, theoretic and empirical standing…the author was one of the major innovators of the anthropology of Mediterranean societies.” · Christian Giordano, University of Fribourg
“Professor Boissevain has been among the most prominent social anthropologists since the 1960s, and this collection does justice to his vast and important research and scholarship…Moreover, since we are able to see the development in Boissevain’s thinking, we can see how the discipline has changed over the last fifty years, and how world changes as well as academic transformations have forced anthropologists to rethink their theories and methods.” · Naor Ben-Yehoyada, Harvard University
“…a well integrated collection covering a wide range of interrelated regional subjects… [that] is also admirable for its close attention to ethnographic details and their place and meaning in wider social, cultural, and historical contexts.” · Anton Blok, University of Amsterdam
Table of Contents List of Tables
List of Plates
Preface and Introduction
PART I: PATTERNS
Chapter 1. Seasonal Variations on Some Mediterranean Themes
Chapter 2. Unhealed Scars: Religious and Ethnic Diversity Around
PART II: COMMUNITIES
Chapter 3. Factions, Parties and Politics in a Maltese Village
Chapter 4. Poverty and Politics in a Sicilian Agro-Town
Chapter 5. The Italians of Montreal
PART III: QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES
Chapter 6. The Place of Non-Corporate Groups
Chapter 7. Towards a Sociology of Social Anthropology
Chapter 8. Beyond the Community
Chapter 9. Of Men and Marbles: Reconsidering Factionalism
Chapter 10. When the Saints go Marching Out
PART IV: RITUAL, INSIDERS AND OUTSIDERS
Chapter 11. Ritual and Tourism: Culture by the Pound?
Chapter 12. Revitalizing European Rituals
Chapter 13. 'But we Live Here': Perspectives on Cultural Tourism
Chapter 14. Insiders and Outsiders: Mass Tourism in Southern Europe
Chapter 15. Tourists, Developers and Civil Society
PART V: REFLECTIONS
Chapter 16. On Predicting the Future: Second Thoughts on the Decline of Feasts and Patrons
Bibliography
