Overview

Studies on magic, its efficacy and its impact on society are still of great actuality in contemporary anthropology and the study of religion. Scholars are not only supposed to make sense of historical, archaeological, ethnographic and literary texts largely perceived as alien, but also to integrate fieldwork within wider theoretical and methodological frames, thus inevitably challenging the logics of most emic discourses. Accordingly, the debate between rationality and magic/religious powers and practices naturally occupies a special place in academic debates. For instance, a burgeoning literature on ritual studies and ritual efficacy, including the impact of rites on individual and public lives, is contributing significantly to the rebuilding of ideologies, theories and methods in the study of the ethnos, suggesting different (often contradictory) logics are indeed possible.

In this chapter I will discuss the genesis of de Martino's reflections on ritual and how these led to the formulation of one of his most valuable contributions to the study of religion: the concept of ‘the crisis of presence’ (la crisi della presenza). This will be discussed with reference to de Martino's ethnographic work in two southern Italian regions: Lucania (Sud e magia, 2002c; Morte e pianto rituale, 2000b) and Apulia (The Land of Remorse, 2005).