Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a microhistory study of village settlements in early modern Northwest Italy that aims to expand the notion of place to include the process of producing a locality; that is, the production of native local subjects through practices, rituals and other forms of collective action.
Undertaking a micro-analytical approach, the book examines the customs and practices associated with typically fragmented and polycentric Italian village settlements to analyze the territorial tensions between various segments of a village and its neighbors. The microspatial analysis reveals how these tensions are the expressions of conflictual relationships between lay, ecclesiastical and charitable bodies culminating in a culture of fragmentation that impacts local economic and political practices. The book also traces how the production of locality survived throughout the nineenth and twentieth century and is still observed today. In this light, the study of practices and policies
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I Matrices
1. Community Building: Brotherhoods, Bodies and Municipalities
2. The Eucharist and the Generation of Space
3. Separate Lands
Part II From Law to Culture
4. Transit
5. Possession and Fiscality
6. Vindication and Oblivion
Part III After the Flood
7. Tourism and Civic Uses
8. Production of Locality Today
Conclusions
