Rileggere Magia e civiltà

In this introduction, Fabio Dei revisits Magia e civiltà (1962), an anthology curated by Ernesto de Martino, highlighting its intellectual context, structure, and enduring relevance. The volume is presented not merely as a collection of texts on magic, but as a theoretically grounded project aimed at reconstructing the historical and epistemological relationship between magic and Western rationality. Dei shows how de Martino frames magic through a long “anti-magical” tradition—from Christianity to modern science and historicism—while also warning against its persistence in contemporary forms such as political charisma, occultism, and technoscientific secrecy. The introduction emphasizes de Martino’s key insight that magic cannot be treated as a neutral object of study, since it challenges the very categories through which it is interpreted. Finally, Dei argues for the continued relevance of this work, both as a tool for understanding the history of anthropological thought and as a framework for analyzing the renewed presence of irrational and symbolic practices in modern societies.