L'antropologia riflessiva di Francesco Faeta

This essay discusses Francesco Faeta’s Le ragioni dello sguardo as a major contribution to reflexive anthropology and to the critical reconsideration of Italian demo-ethno-anthropological traditions. It focuses on Faeta’s critique of positivist realism, representational naivety and ethnographic localism, highlighting his call for a de-ethnicized and de-localized anthropology centred on the epistemology of the gaze. The article also examines Faeta’s engagement with visual practices, fieldwork, memory, power and the legacy of Italian demology, while questioning some implications of his critique of locality and cultural identity. Faeta’s work emerges as a crucial agenda for rethinking anthropology as a historically situated, reflexive and interpretive discipline.