In the previous two articles we have talked and discussed how a Superstition, in towns in the South of Italy since ancient times, can be imputable to both the divine and the diabolical. Of scene is a town in Southern Italy, southeastern Apulia, Locorotondo.

Find previous articles : parte 1 e parte 2.

Magic and causality

Various magical causes had similar symptoms. An accident could be attributed to temptations or ‘mmvidias, or it could be attributed to natural circumstances or the actions of another person. A decline in fortune could be the result of ‘mmvidia, a curse, the breaking of a taboo or even the nefarious power of God. Or it could simply be the product of uncontrollable financial circumstances, such as a period of macroeconomic crisis. Illness could be the result of an affascence, ‘mmvidia, a curse, God’s chastisement or simply a natural cause for which one could go to the doctor. Because the symptoms overlapped, and still some causes questioned the victim’s morality, consideration of the afflicted person’s place in the moral universe was automatic, even if the conclusions reached by or about those affected were not. The victim’s personal history, his or her particular misfortunes, and the available etiologies could, in fact, combine to leave the victim completely out of the moral mainstream.

In Locorotondo, the discussion of the morality of those who suffered misfortune was not so orderly as to accompany a specific ritual or to focus on a single elaborate symbol. Nor did people in Locorotondo sit down to formally weigh this and that possibility. Conclusions and consensus could be reached in a few words, and although as an outsider I cannot know for sure, general human experience suggests to me that people, including victims, often reached such conclusions on their own in mental dialogue. However, such thoughts were certainly expressed on some occasions, such as when, for example, families speculated about their own fates and those of others sitting at the kitchen table or gathered around the hearth.

Other sets existed as well, such as the rich range of Locorotondo proverbs or local knowledge about the law, for example, but the idiom of magical harm was particularly powerful because it implied transcendent power and because its assumptions closely reflected the nature and demands of social life in a small peasant property situation. Indeed, communal and individual reflection on the actions of others could invoke different sets of overlapping symbols; it was not limited to a single order of understanding.

For the Locorotondo peasant, the use of this symbolic spectrum to make statements about the behavior of others invoked a higher degree of moral authority than the use of some other symbolic sets, such as proverbs. Proverbs have authority based on the weight of tradition, appropriateness, and sometimes strength of poetic discourse, but not on association with the spiritual world. Attributing an individual’s suffering to a curse pronounced by another, to the nefarious power of God, or even to a wrong and returned curse would be harmful. Reading the same symptoms as a case of “envy” could absolve the victim of guilt while simultaneously commenting, perhaps, on his enviable social status or tendency to flaunt good fortune. In this case, the transcendent quality of the cause of affliction would be quite different from that implied in the operation of cursing (behind which is God’s recognition of the wrong suffered by the giver). It would reside in a mystical force, but one that is believed to be infallibly cast upon a relatively innocent victim.

Values in peasant Locorotondo were firmly centered on the link between family and labor. Beginning in the early 19th century, with the development of small peasant property, the peasant family became the main agricultural and entrepreneurial unit. Until the recent crises in viticulture and the development of alternative occupations for farm men, it was a unit closely managed by a male head of the household who not only supervised the production and processing of grapes, grain, olives, and livestock products, but also had to think about the future and provide resources for his children when they married. This management required a high degree of authority on the part of the parents both in terms of controlling the children’s labor and their marriage choices. It is clear from the interviews that two values were fundamental in Locorotondo County and, although perhaps being eroded by the penetration of off-farm work, remained so: hard work and respect for one’s parents. The latter involved obedience to parents’ wishes before marriage and, equally important, sustained respect and care for them afterwards. When the parents retired, which they generally had to do with the marriage of the youngest son, they were cared for by the latter (and his wife), who inherited part of the parents’ house and thus became their neighbor. Each son had to provide an annual allowance in food (u mantenemènte) and later, when the parents became ill, he had to share the task of caring for them.

A widespread case of divine curse was given precisely by the mistreatment of parents, or weaker members of the family. This type of superstition served as a warning against the temptation to put one’s own welfare before the legitimate needs of parents and conferred supernatural sanction on parental authority in general. A father’s authority was greatly enhanced if crossing it in earnest meant that he could cast a curse, the power of which derived from the deity, or that the deity himself would intervene to punish the son. Likewise, the belief that his curse was the most powerful of all highlighted the respect due to the mother. Supported by God’s curse and nefarious power, the parental aspect of the son-parent dyad was no longer just a matter of earthly social structure, but took on an almost divine transcendent quality. God protected the parents, upheld their authority, and supported the farm that was the fundamental core run by the father, common to the area.

Girls who were no longer virgins or, worse, pregnant, abandoned by their boyfriends were said to cast curses, as did the girls’ mothers. Indeed, an unjustly broken engagement could elicit a curse even if the girl was illibate. Among smallholder peasants, betrothal involved families in important choices for future livelihood and, again, for parent/child relationships. In this case, honor was not just an abstract quality; its control was a sign to other members of the community of the skill with which parents managed their children’s lives and family wealth for the purpose of social and economic reproduction. Engagement was a relationship that in peasant Locorotondo was not entered into lightly and had to represent a careful choice, not only on the part of the parents but also on the part of the betrothed. Breaking an engagement meant losing face, because it signaled that those choices had not been carefully made. The only legitimate reason for breaking an engagement was alleged misbehavior on the part of the woman

If a young man decided he had found a better partner or was attracted to another woman for romantic reasons, he could not casually break up with his girlfriend, because if he did he risked supernatural punishment.

Although women clearly occupied a subordinate position in Locorotondo peasant society, magic served to remedy this situation, at least in part.

We might see this form of magical harm, called “temptation,” as a direct reflection of another strong value among Locorotondo peasants: systematic and almost stakhanovist labor . Often this value was embodied by a self-made peasant who seized opportunities that offered a degree of wealth unknown in much of southern Italy. Such opportunities involved the investment of large amounts of family labor to transform land into vineyards that, through the emphyteusis contract, could become in effect peasant property.

The creation and maintenance of this land was a labor-intensive process that conditioned the development of a strong work ethic; a very important concept that should not be underestimated.

The notion of temptation conveyed the message that distraction from a systematic course could lead to disaster. In daily activities, whim was dangerous . Similarly, taboos such as those forbidding burning a yoke or pouring olive oil established strict rules of behavior. These were perhaps symbolic and didactic reverberations of other rigid rules, such as obedience to the father, that characterized family life.

Envy breeds misfortune

Improving the family’s lot was possible here, as it was not in many other places in southern Italy. However, the distribution of wealth was uneven, and some families knew considerable poverty; the potential for envy among neighbors was therefore widespread. Particularly envied were those who could become “massari” those who had the means to take on large estates under sharecropping or rental contracts-but even smallholder peasants who could increase their land holdings risked the envy of their neighbors.

The fear of envy fueled the ascetic, almost “Protestant” ethic of the countryside, in which austerity in everything was a central imperative. Consider the proverb “Ce beune ui paré, l’ossere i’i pèdde t’onne a doié” (“If you want to look good, your bones and feet must ache”). In the peasant community, prestige came not from wealth or possessions, but from a reputation as a tireless worker. In fact, neighbors accused those who seemed to acquire wealth suddenly of collecting a hidden treasure (revealed to them in a dream by the brigand who had buried it) in exchange for abandoning an “innocent soul.”

The fear of the evil eye prevented individuals and families from directly flaunting good fortune or material goods and, to some extent, may have discouraged the acquisition of wealth. The widespread ability to cure fascene and the frequent use of amulets against the ‘mmvidie suggest considerable concern for the envy of others, as does the unusual elaboration of the concept of a double evil eye…

In conclusion, every victim of misfortune in Locorotondo had a story, which could be variously constructed or interpreted according to various overlapping spectrums of elaborative symbols. In different ways, victims could be blamed for their misfortune; victims could also be absolved of their responsibility and find other culprits. At the same time, people talked about the core values of their lifestyle and took into account their behavior.

The study of the symbolism of misfortune and its use provides a particularly powerful tool for understanding the value systems inherent in particular societies. In this article I have attempted to take a step toward an anthropology of misfortune, as suggested by two well-known anthropologists Worsley and Farmer, by observing the victims of supernatural misfortune in an Italian city and exploring how the meaning of the various ways of being supernaturally harmed connects with each other and with the historical experience and emerging cultural system of the city.