Diacronie. Studi di Storia Contemporanea (Jul 2019)

Esorcismo e possessione nell’Italia contemporanea: un’analisi storico-antropologica

  • Tiago Pires

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 38, no. 2
pp. 1 – 26

Abstract

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The purpose of this paper is to present a historical-anthropological analysis of exorcism and “diabolical possession” in contemporary Italian society from the 1980’s. It will be considered as documental sources, mainly, the reports written by Italian exorcists, their interviews to local newspapers and notes taken during the fieldwork at the “Exorcism and prayer of liberation” course occurred in Rome on May 2017 at the Pontifical Athenaeum “Regina Apostolorum”. In the context of a multireligious Italian society, but culturally Catholic, exorcism and possession are still considered alternatives to the existential problems, principally among those who share the Christian faith. Our theoretical prospective is based on Ernesto De Martino’s studies, in which the construction of exorcism and the possessed person develops within a historical-cultural process. For this reason, it is indispensable to consider an analysis that goes beyond the psychological field.

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