Description
Book SynopsisIn this groundbreaking ethnography of "fearless governance", Stavroula Pipyrou shows how Grecanici-the Greek linguistic minority of Calabria, Southern Italy-have crafted the means to invert hegemonic culture and participate in the power games of minority politics on local and national scales.
Trade Review"Combining magnificent writing with meticulous scholarship, Stavroula Pipyrou discreetly opens multiple windows onto the souls and lives of the Grecanici, a secretive people who live in shadows that obscure even the edges of their own identity as Greek-speakers in an Italian landscape. Her valuable study is free of the nationalistic exaggeration so often associated with the romantic image of rediscovered ethnic outliers and offers rich insights into the dynamics of identity in southern Europe." * Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University *
"Deploying superb ethnographic skills and the (closely read) anthropology of Italy and the Mediterranean, Pipyrou shows how the Grecanici construct relationships of kinship, friendship, clientage, and association in an impressive exploration of what she usefully conceptualizes as 'fearless governance.'" * Jane Schneider, The Graduate Center, CUNY *
"Stavroula Pipyrou's lucid account of the hard-edged performance by which the Grecanici control and regulate their lives together makes for brilliant ethnography. Her narrative brings the anthropological archive to life." * Douglas Holmes, Binghamton University *
"Stavroula Pipyrou mounts a theoretically progressive and empirically documented analysis of the Greek linguistic minority of Calabria, combined with a rare and compelling ethnography of 'Ndrangheta social forms to present an outstanding study of cultural solidarity and political resistance." * Charles Stewart, University College London *
