Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Note on translation
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The life, works and influences of Ernesto de Martino
- 2 Ernesto de Martino's writings on religion
- 3 From militant ethnology to critical ethnocentrism
- 4 Religion, magic and the crisis of presence
- 5 Using de Martino to interpret religion: applications and limitations
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Conclusion
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Note on translation
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The life, works and influences of Ernesto de Martino
- 2 Ernesto de Martino's writings on religion
- 3 From militant ethnology to critical ethnocentrism
- 4 Religion, magic and the crisis of presence
- 5 Using de Martino to interpret religion: applications and limitations
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This modern struggle against every form of alienation presupposes, as a historical condition, the human effort to rescue the elementary foundation of such struggle, i.e. the presence guaranteed in the world.
(de Martino 2000a: 222; emphasis original)According to our contemporary historicist consciousness, death and pain coexist with history and culture. The eternal conflict between death and the inextinguishable duty to transcend it in meaning (valore) cannot be repressed.
(de Martino 2000b: 320)The idea of the end of the world … should entail a project of life, should negotiate a struggle against death. Even further, it should identify itself with this very project and this very struggle. … The end of ‘a’ world is therefore ordinary administration in the cultural history of humanity. It is the end of ‘the’ world – as the actual experience of the end of all possible worlds – that constitutes a radical risk.
(de Martino 2002b: 629–30)From the introduction to the last chapter, this book has explored and discussed the life and the work of Ernesto de Martino starting from one question: ‘What are we expected to do with the dead?’ It is now the time to summarize what has been achieved so far, and to give an answer to our initial query.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Ernesto de Martino on ReligionThe Crisis and the Presence, pp. 113 - 117Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2012