Cirese 101: Rereading Antonio Gramsci’s “Observations on Folklore”

Abstract

This Anniversary Forum commemorates the figure and work of Alberto Mario Cirese (1921-2011), a prominent Italian anthropologist, on the 101st anniversary of his birth. Cirese’s reading of Gramsci has been particularly influential. For this reason, the forum is built around the re-edition of the English translation of Cirese’s essay Gramsci’s Observations on folklore: Conceptions of the world, spontaneous philosophy and class instinct. The essay is followed by short critical interventions by attentive readers of Gramsci’s anthropology: Kate Crehan, Riccardo Ciavolella, Giovanni Pizza. The forum ends with a contribution by Jorge A. González, who recalls his encounter and relation with Cirese, while offering new historical insights on Cirese’s teaching, study and research activities in Mexico.