Tra controllo e diritti. Alcune riflessioni sul fenomeno della registrazione dell’identità

This article aims to offer a reflection on the historiographic trends that have characterized the study of the history of personal identification and identity registration practices in recent years. Unlike those scholars who have adopted a Weberian or Foucauldian per-spective, interpreting the birth of identification and registration systems in the wake of the Western paradigm of modernization, I will try to show the fruitfulness of a bottom-up and comparative per-spective, starting from some recent World History scholarship on the subject. Taking into account the fact that surveillance and endowment of rights are always two sides of identity registration and recognition, I will try to challenge the abovementioned prevailing narrative, highlighting the role of actors’ practices and negotiation, especially in the context of premodern societies.