Il quarto principio della memoria culturale. Per un'antropologia delle rievocazioni storiche

Historical re-enactments are widespread in contemporary Tuscany: there are hundreds of events, involving tens of thousands of social actors. These events are the result of the intertwining of two different practices. On the one hand, the tradition of urban historical festivals, progressively developed during the twentieth century; on the other, the practice of historical reenactment born in Northern Europe and the United States. The combination of these two dimensions gives rise to a new ritual and festive language, which overlaps and partially replaces the more traditional folk festivals. The paper proposes an analysis of such phenomenon in the context of studies on cultural memory.