FROM THE ANONYMOUS SKULLS TO THE COLLECTIVE TRANCE.RITUAL REPRESENTATION IN THE NEAPOLITAN UNDERCLASS
Gregory Bateson, the scholar I chose years ago as my ideal mentor, defined a story as an aggregate of formal relations scattered over time [see Capra 1988]. My goal today is to tell you a story. Actually the stories are two. Two stories closely linked together. The first one is about the cult of the souls of purgatory, the second relates to the ritual of Madonna dell’Arco. What do these two rituals have in common?