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“Critical Ethnocentrism” and the Ethnology of Ernesto De Martino
Author(s) -
Saunders George R.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1993.95.4.02a00060
Subject(s) - ethnocentrism , folkloristics , sociology , ideology , ethnography , anthropology , politics , relevance (law) , aesthetics , ethnology , art , political science , folklore , law
Italian anthropologist, folklorist, and historian of religions Ernesto De Martino was an eclectic and creative intellectual who fostered a whole generation of studies on popular culture in Italy. In this article, I focus on one particular aspect of his work, a method referred to as “critical ethnocentrism,” attempting to situate De Martino's concerns in the historical moment of postwar ideological struggles. De Martino's approach, however, has a wider relevance to understanding the relationships between the ethnographer and the subjects of the research, as well as the historical and political contexts in which they meet.