Annuaire Roumain D'anthropologie 2016

Tome 53 2016
SOMMAIRE / CONTENTS
ARTICLES ET ÉTUDES / ARTICLES AND STUDIES
LACRAMIOARA PETRE, MARIA CRISTINA NEDELCU, The Importance of Familial

Food Behavior Analysis for ASD Children with Eating Disorders: Case Study ............ 3
CORNELIA RADA, DAVID H. OLSON, Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems
(Faces III) in Romania.................................................................................................... 11
IUSEIN ERVIN, The Growth and Development of Adolescents from Two Romanian Counties – A
Comparative Study ......................................................................................................... 31
SEBASTIAN ŞTEFĂNUCĂ, National and Ethnic in the Dialectics of Identity in Skra,
Greece ............................................................................................................................ 43
ALESSANDRO TESTA, È la “tradizione” ancora buona da pensare? Riflessioni critiche su
una nozione controversa ................................................................................................ 63
RAPPORT DE RECHERCHE / RESEARCH REPORT
ELEONORA LUCA, CORNELIU VULPE, MONICA PETRESCU, MIRCEA ŞT. CIUHUŢA,

NICOLAE LEASEVICI, Anthropométrie et dimorphisme sexuel chez une sélection
spéciale des certains adultes de Roumanie .................................................................... 93
COMPTES RENDUS / REVIEWS
Marieke M. A. Hendriksen
Elegant Anatomy. The Eightheenth-Century Leiden Anatomical Collections (History
of Science and Medicine Library, 47), Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2015, xi + 249 pp.
(Review by Alexandra Ion) ............................................................................................ 109
ANN. ROUM. ANTHROPOL., 53, P. 1–122, BUCAREST, 2016

2
Séverine Langneaux
Éternel Provisoire. Ethnographie de la paysannerie roumaine à l’heure européenne,
Paris : l’Harmattan, 2016, 316 pp.
(Review by Gabriel Stoiciu)........................................................................................... 111
Participatory Mapping in Latin America / Special issue of the journal Human

Organization, vol. 62, no. 4, 2003, pp. 303-392
(Review by Marin Constantin) ....................................................................................... 112
Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei [Annuaire du Musée Ethnographique de

Moldavie], Iaşi, Maison d’Édition du Palais de Culture, vol. XV, 2015, 484 pp.
Anuarul Societăţii Prahovene de Antropologie Generală [Yearkook of Prahova

County Society for General Anthropology], Bogdan-Costin Georgescu and Sebastian
Ştefănucă (eds.), vol. I (1), Ploieşti: Mythos Publisher, 2015, 95 pp.
ANNONCE DE PUBLICATION / BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
Stefan Dorondel
Disrupted Landscapes. State, Peasants and the Politics of Land in Postsocialist
Romania, New York, Oxford: Berghahn, 2016, 252 pp. ................................................ 121
Note: L’image dans la première couverture représente le bâtiment de l’Institut d’Anthropologie

« Francisc Rainer », tel qui il a été construit et inauguré (le 20 Juin 1940), en tant qu’une institution
entièrement dédiée à la recherche anthropologique en Roumanie (Bd. Eroii Sanitari 8, Bucarest).
Notice: The main cover image represents the building of Francisc Rainer Institute of Anthropology,
as it was built and inaugurated (on the 20th of Juin, 1940) qua an institution entirely dedicated to the
anthropological research in Romania (8 Eroii Sanitari Ed., Bucharest).
ÉTUDES ET ARTICLES / ARTICLES AND STUDIES
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILIAL FOOD BEHAVIOR

ANALYSIS FOR ASD CHILDREN WITH EATING DISORDERS:
CASE STUDY
LACRAMIOARA PETRE1, MARIA CRISTINA NEDELCU
Abstract. According to the DSM 5, the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized
by the impairment of two significant behavioral areas: communication and social
interaction and the existence of a series of restrictive and repetitive behaviors. The
aim of this paper is to describe the eating disorders of a child diagnosed with ASD,
and the interventions used to improve eating behaviors and the results obtained after
one year and six months of intervention.
Keywords: autism, eating disorders, eating behaviors, family intervention.
INTRODUCTION
Autism is a complex developmental disorder, in which several risk factors are

involved (Chaste et al. 2012) and is presented as a diversity of symptoms and
combinations. According to the DSM 5 definition, this disorder is characterized by the
impairment of two major behavioral areas: communication and social interaction and
the presence of a series of restrictive and repetitive behaviors (Sung 2015).
The global incidence of this condition is progressively increasing, the
percentage rising at such a great pace and in different populations that the medical
world is talking about an epidemic. In the UK, in 1997 a prevalence of 7.2/1000
children between the age of 3 and 15 was estimated, while 9 years later, in 2006,
the prevalence in a study conducted on children of ages between 0 and 15 was of
44.4/10000 (Elsabbagh et al. 2012). In 2014, in the USA, the CDC announced a
prevalence of 1/68 children of ages up to 13 (McCarthy 2014).
One of the less studied affected areas which requires complex interventions,
which can have a long-term serious impact on health, is eating. Eating disorders in
the autistic child are fairly frequent, one study by Williams et al. (Williams et al.
2000) on ASD children between 22 months and 10 years old showing that 67% of
1
Francisc Rainer Institute of Anthropology of the Romanian Academy Biomedical department, 5
Eroii Sanitari Blv. (lacramioara.petre@yahoo.com).

4 Lacramioara Petre, Maria Cristina Nedelcu 2
parents stated their children have a high food selection. Over-selection, the refusal
to eat, problems swallowing or chewing the foods (Kadey et al. 2013), vomiting
and oral insensitivity (lack of oral sensitivity) are the most often seen eating
problems in ASD children. Most explanations for these eating habits are attributed
to sensory hyper-sensitivity and the refusal to try new things, extremely common in
autistic children. However, certain studies show that 34% of the difficult eating
behaviors and their low nutritional value are explained by a very permissive
attitude of the parents towards the culinary claims of the children and the high
degree of willingness to prepare the favorite meal of the child, separately from the
rest of the family (Seiverling et al. 2011).
The aim of this paper is to describe the behavioral disorders of a child
diagnosed with ASD, the interventions conducted in order to improve eating
behaviors and the results obtained.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The case study for this paper is that of a six-year-old child, Tudor, diagnosed
with ASD at the age of three. He had a severe eating disorder, with a refusal to eat,
the fear of trying any new food, excessive food selection with a preference for
certain specific foods manifested as taste, packaging, texture and presentation,
disruptive behaviors and vomiting. Practically, he only accepted five specific
foods, liquid Actimel yogurt taken only by straw, Lays chips with salt, Chio sticks
with salt, generic crackers and Barney cocoa cakes.
From a psychological standpoint, in order to assess the developmental level
and confirm an ASD diagnostic, specific tests were used, by a licensed
psychologist: Autism Disorder Observation Schedule (ADOS) (Catherine Lord,
Michael Rutter, Pamela DiLavore, Susan Risi, Autism Disorder Observation
Schedule, 2002) and Adaptive Behavior Assessment System II (ABAS II) (Patti
Harisson, Thomas Oakland, Adaptive Behavior Assessment System II, 2012).
From an anthropological standpoint, eating is a biological and cultural act at
the same time, the eating habits of a person reflecting family or even community
habits. That is why, the eating analysis was conducted through an open interview
(the mother was interviewed), but also through direct observation in the family
environment, focusing on behaviors correlated with eating. The mealtime
behaviors, the permissiveness of the parents to the claims of the children and of the
child with autism in particular, the types of food used in the family for the entire
family, the period of time elapsed between the inadequate behavior of Tudor and
the response of the parents and the specificity of the place where the family and
each child ate were all observed.
Also, food acceptance tests were conducted in order to analyze the existence and
types of visual, taste, texture, packaging, presentation, color and form sensitivity.
3 ASD children with eating disorders 5
Based on the observations of the psychologist and the eating behavior

specialist, the needed interventions were established, implemented by the therapist
in 1:1 sessions, by the mother during mealtime and by the eating behavior
specialist in group sessions. The intervention is ongoing, the results presented in
this paper being an evaluation after a period of one year and a half.
SETTING BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS
From a psychological standpoint Tudor has an atypical development

associated with a medium psychological and language development delay,
confirmed through specific development tests.
At the ABAS II test (Adaptative Behavior Assessment System, Second
Edition), he obtained a global score of 55 points. He obtained the lowest scores in
the areas “Communication”, “School functional skills”, “Home life”, “Self-care”
and “Social skills”, where he obtained a scaled score of 1. In the area “Use of
community resources” he obtained a score of 2. In the areas “Free time” and “Self-
direction” he obtained a scaled score of 4. The highest score was obtained in the
“Health and safety” scale, with a score of 7. From an adaptive standpoint, Tudor
can handle certain situations but requires constant supervision.
Speech exercises were recommended as part of the therapeutic program for
improving pronunciation and developing communication. Also, Tudor requires
especially adapted programs in order to make cognitive progress, as there is a
discrepancy between his chronological age and his mental development. He
receives a recommendation to be integrated in socialization groups alongside
children who are the same age and to participate in various activities, events,
birthday parties in order to achieve a lower anxiety level towards unknown
activities, places, people and events.
The ASD diagnostic was confirmed by the ADOS test. After covering the
ten activities in Module 1 a global score of 12 points (of 24) was obtained.
The most significant assessment for Tudor’s eating problems was “Snack
time” which offered an opportunity to observe his food preferences, since he
refused the food offered by the examiner (pretzels, cookies, juice). In order to see
whether the behavior during “Snack time” is adequate, if he can eat by himself and
can request more food, the mother was asked to provide preferred foods and
”chips” and ”crackers” were used.
In section A, Tudor obtains 4 points (of 10) in the “Communication” area.
The vocabulary is limited, echoic, with an impaired pronunciation, a partially
developed language, with frequent use of the others’ body to communicate
whenever he is not understood by the rest.
In section B, in the “Reciprocal social interaction” area, he obtained a score
of 8 (of 14). Tudor does not sustain eye contact for more than 1-2 seconds, he tends
to isolate himself and answers requests but does not initiate social interaction. In
section C, “Play” he obtains a score of 2 points (of 4), as the game is not adequate
for his age and lacks creativity, seeming stereotypical.
In section D, “Stereotypical and restrictive behaviors”, he obtains a score of
5 (of 6), with an unusual sensory interest in certain objects, textures. Tudor’s
interests are repetitive and he shows unusual stereotypical behaviors throughout the
entire assessment session.
In section E “Other abnormal behaviors” Tudor shows a marked negative
tendency, with powerful tantrums. This can also indicate the reason why the family had
so much difficulty in changing the eating routine and preferences until that point.
After the confirmation of the diagnostic, the start of a behavioral intervention
program to cover the deficit areas and lower the opposing behavior of Tudor was
recommended both as activities and as eating patterns.
The food analysis and the sensitivity tests conducted by the research team
have led to the following conclusions:
– the refusal to accept other foods reflects a fear of trying new things, a thing
specific to his conditions and not a severe biological hyper-sensitivity. He chews
and swallows normally, the food accepted by him had different textures (liquid,
soft, crunchy), different colors and shapes, different taste (sweet, sour and salty).
He accepts various forms of food presentation: on a plate, in their original
packaging, in bowls of different shapes and colors, as separate foods sticks or
crackers) or combined (sticks and crackers in the same packaging).
– driven by the fear that Tudor might reject the five foods he accepted at the
time, the parents were highly permissive of his culinary preferences and in order to
avoid disruptive behaviors (crying, screaming or vomiting), the favorite food was
promptly brought upon asking, without any other alternatives. Thus, they supported
over-selective behaviors and Tudor’s refusal to try new things and we feel this
substantially contributed to the deterioration of his behavior.
Taking into consideration all these findings, the following types of intervention
were established:
1. Classical desensitization in behavioral therapy session, including the
following stages: visualization, touching with the hand, smell, touching with the
lips, touching with the tongue and tasting. This was conducted for five days a week
for four months and afterwards, due to some changes in the therapeutic program,
was carried on by the mother for another two months.
2. The change of the general mealtime behavior of the family. The mother
was instructed to encourage Tudor to touch and smell various types of food, to help
her lie and clear the table, to sit have the other family members around the table
and not to offer immediately his favorite foods, to use different forms of food
presentation (to put yogurt in a cup of glass of different colors, to use various types
of straws, to encourage him to drink without a straw, to put the crackers and chips
in various containers, alongside foods that Tudor does not accept etc.). Also, the
other family members were instructed to offer Tudor the foods they ate, as him if
he wanted to try them, without insisting. The period between the start of this
intervention and the evaluation was of one year and a half, but the frequency of its
implementation was dependent on the willingness of the family and the
health/illness status of its members (the techniques were stopped when Tudor was
ill, in order to diminish the additional stress and to maintain his willingness to take
his treatment without the occurrence of unwanted behaviors).
3. Group therapy. Tudor was included in a therapy group of children
between three and ten years old, neurotypical or with ASD but without significant
eating disorders, which met on average once a month and which was led by an
expert on eating behaviors. The meetings of the children were thematic and
included educational and fun activities and were held in different locations (at the
swimming pools, at the trampoline, at a playground, at a fast food restaurant etc.)
in order to become desensitized in respect to the context and location of the eating
process. Food and making it were an important part of the activities. In the end, all
the children and adults (parents of the children) present ate together, the children
being encouraged to touch, bring, smell the foods or even to assist the meal
preparation. The foods used were diverse, and Tudor was encouraged by adults and
children to taste at least one new food at each meeting. Foods such as pizza, grilled
steak, watermelon, sandwiches, cake, chips with flavors different than those
preferred by Tudor, French fries, hot-dogs, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, bananas,
apples, waffles, donuts, bread, cornflakes, raisins, peanuts, pistachios etc. were
used during this intervention. This type of intervention lasted one year and six
months, with one session per month.
In all the types of intervention, the rewards for encouraging the child were
social (hugs, high five) or verbal (“Bravo!”, “Excellent!”, “Great!”). Sometimes, he
received a maze to solve, as this was one of his favorite activities. For the fast food
sessions, the toy received in the children’s menu was the motivation and reward for
the desensitization exercise.
RESULTS
After one year and six months of intervention, in the three approaches
described above, we present the new foods accepted by Tudor as part of his regular
diet or those he can just taste in Table 1.
Also, Tudor accepts and even takes pleasure in drinking juice (apple, pear or
orange).
The progress registered during this intervention through the three types of
approaches was different. Each contributed to the overall progress of the child and
increased the ability to accept new foods and reduce inappropriate behaviors at
mealtime, but in a different way. The classical desensitization conducted in 1:1
session with a therapist had important effects in decreasing inadequate behaviors,
increasing tolerance towards new food in terms of touching, smelling, touching
with the lips, but did not lead to an actual acceptance in the diet of neither food.
Due to the nature of the intervention and to the technical difficulties (the food had
to be fresh, similar in shape, color and taste for a long time, with the intervention
taking several months, easy to carry etc.) fruits were chosen for the first phases of
desensitization (apple, banana, orange). The first fruit in the desensitization
program was the apple and lasted for about six weeks from acceptance into the
visual field until touching with the lips and tongue. The others took three,
respectively two weeks, but neither passed the phase of touching with the tongue,
in order to be tasted in the 1:1 sessions.
Table 1
New foods accepted by Tudor after one year and six months of eating behavioral intervention
Food he tastes Foods he eats
apple bread
watermelon hot-dog
cake pizza
ice cream cheese sandwich
banana French fries (McDonalds)
vegetable soup hamburger (McDonalds)
cucumber simple spaghetti
pepper grilled steak
carrot chicken fillet
orange polenta
cornflakes donuts
raisins plain pancakes
peanuts meat-free pâté on bread
waffles
angel food cake
A real and measurable progress was noticed during the family intervention.
The desensitization was conducted here with several types of food which are
available in a household: soups, vegetables, meat, prepared and presented in
different forms. Thus, 10 types of food have already been introduced in the diet and
8 types of food have only been tasted at the time of the evaluation.
A notable progress was also noticed during group therapy. Five types of food
have already been included in the diet and four are at the taste/nibble phase, as a result
of this type of intervention. What is important to mention is that with this therapeutic
approach, sometimes a food was tasted at first contact, with all stages of the
desensitization program during one session, and that progress was stable after that time.
DISCUSSION
Eating disorders are very important and should not be neglected as they can
lead, in the case of long-term restrictive diets, to weight loss, vitamin deficiencies
(A, C, D, K) (Hyman et al. 2012), cognitive and growth delays, generating the need
for invasive medical interventions (the insertion of a feeding tube), a psycho-social

deficit and reduced academic development (Sharp et al. 2010).
In the case of autistic children, a complex analysis of the biological and
cultural factors which may cause those behaviors is required. We believe an
anthropological analysis of eating behaviors is the best approach in this case. In
this case, although the child has a severe good hyper-selectivity, the data analysis
has shown this was not a biological sensitivity, but more likely a set of cultural and
familial factors supporting the child’s fear of trying new foods. The intervention
based on these findings was shown to be adequate and as a result has led to notable
progress. The changes in the behavior of the family towards Tudor and his eating
habits led to a notable progress and the acceptance of a significant number of foods
in his daily diet. This fact supports the importance of the family feeding behaviors
analysis and the need for behavioral intervention at this level.
REFERENCES
Chaste P., Le Boyer, M. 2012, Autism risk factors: genes, environment, and gene-environment interactions,
Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 14, 3, 281-292.
Elsabbagh Mayada, Divan, G.,Yun-Joo K., Shin Kim, Y., Kauchali, Marcin, C., Montiel-Nava, C.,
Patel, V., Paula, C.S., Wang, C., Taghiyasamy, M., Fombonne, E. 2012, Global prevalence of
autism and other pervasive developmental disorders, Autism Res; 5: 160-179.
Hyman S. L., Stewart, P.A., Schmidt, B., Lemcke, N., Foley, J.T., Peck, R., Clemons, T., Reynolds,
A., Johnson, C., Handen, B., James, J., Patty, Manning. P., Molloy, C., Ng, P.K., 2012,
Nutrient intake from food in children with autism, Pediatrics, 130 (2): s145-s153.
Kadey H. J., Roane, H.S., Diaz, J.C., Merrow, J.M. 2013, An Evaluation of Chewing and Swallowing
for a Child Diagnosed with Autism, J Dev Phys Disab, 2013, 5 (3): 343-354.
McCarthy M., 2014, Autism diagnoses in the US rise by 30%, CDC reports, BMJ; 348.
Seiverling L, Hendy HM, Williams K. 2011, The screening tool of feeding problems applied to
children (STEP-CHILD): psychometric characteristics and associations with child and parent
variables, Res. Dev. Disabil., 32(3):1122-1129.
Sharp, W. G., Jaquess, D. L., Morton, J. S., Herzinger, C. 2010, Pediatric Feeding Disorders: A
Quantitative Synthesis of Treatment Outcomes, Clinical Child and Family Psychology
Review, 13, 348–365.
Sung Koo Kim, 2015, Recent Update of Autism Spectrum Disorders, Korean J. Pediatr., 58 (1): 8-14.
Williams P.G., Dalrymple N., Neal J. 2000, Eating Habits of Children with Autism, Pediatr. Nurs.,
26:259-264.
CIRCUMPLEX MODEL OF MARITAL
AND FAMILY SYSTEMS (FACES III) IN ROMANIA
CORNELIA RADA1, DAVID H. OLSON1
Abstract. Useful for clinical evaluation as well as to evaluate the efficacy of marital
and family therapeutic intervention is Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation
Scales III; the functional family models have moderate scores in cohesion and
flexibility. Objectives: Identifying the influence of residence environment, age and
gender on Adaptability and Cohesiveness the evaluating power of FACES III on a
sample of 1215 subjects aged between 18 and 74 in comparison with the results
obtained by interview with 324 subjects. Mid-range and Balanced type families are
the most frequent. Families from urban environment tend to lack somewhat in
cohesion, showing increased flexibility. For Romanian cultural space some of the
items should be reworded because in the case of extreme scores the evaluation should
be verified by interview.
Keywords: family, adaptability, cohesiveness, Circumplex Model.
INTRODUCTION
A Presentation of the Family Adaptability and Cohesiveness Evaluation

Scale III, or the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems
One modality of conceptualizing the family is using the cohesion, flexibility

and communication constructs, proposed by Olson and collaborators as the Family
Adaptability and Cohesiveness Evaluation Scale III, (The FACES III), or the
Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems. Very high scores, in the
extremes, are indicative of dysfunctional families (Olson, 1991). Other extensive
studies have indicated a higher correlation between high scores and functional
families (Green et al. 1991). Due to the model’s reduced capacity to precisely
represent the very high cohesion and adaptability levels, Olson and collaborators
1
Francisc Rainer Institute of Anthropology, Romanian Academy, Biomedical departament,
8 Eroii Sanitari Blv., O.P. 35, C.P. 13, Sector 5, Cod E 050474, Bucharest (corneliarada@yahoo.com).
1
David H. Olson, Professor Emeritus, Family Social Science, University of Minnesota,
e-mail: dholson977@gmail.com.

12 Cornelia Rada, David H. Olson 2
realized FACES IV that seems to have more power in diagnostics (Olson & Gorall,
2006; Olson, 2011).
D.H. Olson designed FACES III to be useful for clinical evaluation,
treatment, as well as to evaluate the efficacy of marital and family therapeutic
intervention (Olson, 1993; Olson, 1996:59-80).
The cohesion parameter, from low to high, is expressed via the following
four functioning sub-models of the conjugal and family system: disengaged,
separated, connected and enmeshed. The flexibility parameter, from low to high, is
expressed via the following four functioning sub-models of the conjugal and family
system: rigid, structured, flexible and chaotic.
16 conjugal system models result from the combination of these eight sub-
models, which can be constrained – from center to periphery – within three types:
Balanced, Mid-range and Unbalanced.
In principle, when referring to the family, we consider its members as
animated by an emotional bond, that is to say by cohesion. Very high cohesion
scores indicate a symbiosis between family members which, contrary to
expectations – at least in the long term, is not exactly a good indicator of family
functionality (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Representation of cohesion in the conjugal and family system.
Family members need autonomy, a certain space for harmonious personal

development. Two trees with conjoined trunks will not develop very well in the
contact areas. The infant and the mother have a symbiotic relationship, it is
understood, but later on it is necessary for the situation to change. When a partner
depends on the other member, we are talking about a symbiotic relationship.
The family system requires leadership, rules, discipline, but also the capacity
to negotiate, to change leadership, roles and norms, within certain circumstances.
Flexibility was defined in FACES III as the sum of changes in family leadership,
role relationships and relationship norms. Flexibility may vary from very low to
very high (Figure 2).
As in the case of cohesion, as far as flexibility is concerned, the capacity of
the family to change obsolete rules that became counterproductive in relation to the
3 Circumplex model of marital and family systems (Faces III) in Romania 13
life cycles of the family members, as well as changing roles and leadership if the
situation so requires, is very important (Drăghici, 2015). Structured and flexible
conjugal relationships are democratic – all family members participate in the
decision making, children being actively involved as well. The change of one rule
in favour of another, more age appropriate rule, is explained.
Figure 2. Representation of flexibility in the conjugal and family system.
Communication, being a parameter which facilitates the other two parameters, is

not graphically represented. The communication parameter helps the families
modify their cohesion and flexibility levels. It is not only about clarity, but also
about the ability to share with other family members, the capacity to empathically
listening, with respect and appreciation, to the emotions generated by their joys and
sorrows (Olson & Gorall, 2003:514-542; Popa, 2013).
These models become more obvious during the transitions within life cycles,
such as the emergence of the parent status after childbirth, or as a result of an
unpleasant, stress-generating event, such as illness or accident. During stress, the
Balanced systems tend to change the model type in order to adapt; on the contrary,
the Unbalanced systems tend to remain stuck in the extreme system (Olson, 1999).
Some studies which have used FACES III
A study on two groups of mothers was conducted using FACES III. The first
group consisted of 15 mothers which were summoned by the local authority
because their children aged 12 to 15, skipped school, due to fear, for up to 6
months. The second group consisted of 25 mothers, suffering from depression,
involved in a program for preventing the problem development in their own
children. Mothers whose children refused to go to school predominantly saw their
families as Flexibly Enmeshed, whereas mothers suffering from depression saw
their families as Rigidly Disengaged. Although the mothers of the children who
refused to go to school were also clinically depressed, they saw their families
differently (Flexibly Enmeshed). The study shows that the child’s refusal to go to
school acts more strongly on the dynamics of the family relationship than the
mother’s depression (Place et al. 2005).
Nevertheless, studies indicate that mothers suffering from depression
reported a higher degree of emotional detachment within the family, a fact that
must be considered in the intervention programs (Brownrigg et al. 2004). Thus, it is
imprudent to consider in an a priori manner that a child who refuses to go to school
is part of, or the product of a moderately involved family environment.
A study conducted on a sample of 2087 American subjects of Asian descent
investigated the power of influence of the generational rank and of the family
cohesion on those who have used mental health services between 2002 and 2003.
The family cohesion and the generational rank in Asian-Americans influenced the
call for mental health services. Thus, the need for medical assistance, in general,
and for mental health assistance, in particular, is higher among the first generation
of Americans coming from Asia than it is in the third. This indicates the
importance of the family system support and that the public health programs should
take into consideration immigrants, as well as individuals lacking family support
(Ta Van M. et al. 2010).
In a study conducted in Greece (Tsibidaki & Tsamparli, 2009) on 30 families
which were raising children with severe disabilities, the Family Adaptability and
the Cohesion Evaluation Scale, FACES-III (Olson, 1986) were used, along with
semi-structured interviews, in order to compare these families with those without
children suffering from disabilities. The study did not any discover significant
differences between the two family types regarding the cohesion and the flexibility,
both functioning within Balanced parameters, or in the “healthy zone”, as it is
called in the revised Circumplex Model (Olson, 1991).
A study undertaken on 79 women who were subjects to domestic violence and
required care or shelter utilized the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems.
The first conclusion was that women who were victims of violence
perceived their relationship at the time with their partners in such a way that it
conformed to the rigid-disengaged model, according to the Circumplex Model.
Furthermore, the abused women had expectations for an ideal relationship so that
from this perspective they fitted into the chaotic-enmeshed model, at the other end
of the spectrum. It is a fact which should be considered in support therapies for
these abused persons. Furthermore, the discrepancy between the perception of the
current family and that of the ideal family may be indicative of the degree of
satisfaction of the individuals in the current family system (Shir, 1999).
A study undertaken on 87 sociology students from the USA aimed to find a
correlation between the type of family evaluated via the Circumplex Model of
Marital and Family Systems and religiosity. Inter-confessional marriages registered
lower functionality levels than marriages within the same faith. It is possible that,
due to differences regarding religious convictions, conflicts arise, conflicts which

may influence the cohesion levels, which, in turn, lead to reduced functionality
levels of families (Coldwell, 2004).
METHODS
Designing the sample
The data were collected between 2011 and 2012, in the following cities:
Bucharest, Craiova and Satu Mare, as well as in the rural area, in the communes of
Cioroiaşi (Dolj County), Stolnici (Argeş county) and various communes in Satu
Mare county. When choosing these locations it has been taken into account that
these statistical units have certain socio-demographical and cultural characteristics,
such as the age of the settlement, the density of the population, the access to
transportation by car, by train and by plane, its rank according to the Plan for
national territory arrangement – all of these features offering them a certain
specificity (Figure 3).
Figure 3. The localities from which research subjects were selected

<http://www.rovt.ro/romania_map_ro.htm>
The sample, unrepresentative for the entire country, includes N=1,215

subjects, 672 from the urban environment, and 543 from the rural environment.
The subjects are 18–74 years old; the draw up of these age limits has been done
taking into consideration the official age of adulthood and the average life span at
the national level in 2008, which was 73.03 years (women – 76.68 years, men –
69.49 years) (***The annual Romanian statistic directory, National Statistics
Institute, 2009).
Random sampling stratified according to gender and age group was used.
Subjects were selected relatively homogenously within these layers (Table 1).
Table 1
Subject distribution according to gender, residence environment and age group
Basic structure of Age groups (years)
the sample 18–24 25–34 35–49 50–59 60–74 Total
Male N 51 97 110 44 39 341
% 15.0 28.4 32.3 12.9 11.4 100
Female N 59 93 108 44 27 331
% 17.8 28.1 32.6 13.3 8.2 100
Total N 110 190 218 88 66 672
urban % 16.4 28.3 32.4 13.1 9.8 100
Male N 55 48 73 47 42 265
% 20.8 18.1 27.5 17.7 15.8 100
Female N 77 59 56 51 35 278
% 27.7 21.2 20.1 18.3 12.6 100
Total rural N 132 107 129 98 77 543
% 24.3 19.7 23.8 18.0 14.2 100
Furthermore, the obtainment of a balanced configuration according to the

educational level was pursued throughout the sample group.
Of the 672 subjects from the urban environment which answered the FACES III
questionnaire, 324 subjects were selected to participate in focus group type
interviews, 108 from each settlement – Bucharest, Craiova and Satu Mare. Each
interview group comprised 9 subjects. In order to allow the delineation of the
family models according to generation, the choice was to pursue a distribution as
even as possible, with respect to gender and age group. The individuals which were
widowed or divorced, in consensual union or which have received counseling or
psychotherapy services were not interviewed. 72.8% of the subjects were married.
197 persons with children, married or in a consensual union of over three years
described their current family (family of procreation). 127 persons without children
(married or not married) recounted and answered thinking of the family in which
they grew up (family of origin).
Measuring instruments
FACES III is comprised of 30 items, 16 of which evaluate cohesion, and 14

of which evaluate adaptability (Olson 1993; Olson 1991; Ravi & Shirali, 1992;
Rodick & Henggeler, 1986).
The cohesion parameter is evaluated through two items at a time, which
correspond to the following eight concepts: emotional bond, family bond,
coalitions, time management, space, friends, decision making and interests (leisure,
relaxation, hobbies). The flexibility parameter is evaluated through two or three
items at a time, corresponding to the following concepts: assertiveness, leadership,
discipline, negotiation, rules and roles. The item answer variants are displayed on a
Likert type scale of 5 intensities, starting from 1 (Never) to 5 (Almost Always).
Through the structured (focused) interview, the interlocutors were asked to
recount about communication, cohesion and flexibility in their families, based on an
interview guide with specific questions regarding: boundaries between family
members, availability to share space and time with other family members, the
emotional bond and the ability to adapt to change. For the interview guide, ten
questions concerning cohesion, five concerning flexibility and six concerning
communication within the family were used, inspired by FACES III. The scale used
within the interview guide to evaluate cohesion and communication ranged from 1 to 8,
where 1 was very low and 8 was very high. The flexibility scale represented the
inverted version of the one designed to measure cohesion and communication.
The objectives of the study are: 1) Analysis of family types according to
FACES III. 2) The influence of residence environment, age and gender on
adaptability and cohesiveness. 2) Identifying the evaluating power of FACES III in
comparison with the results obtained by interview.
The study fills a vacuum, due to the fact that only a few studies have been
identified in the scholarly literature which would evaluate the conjugal and family
systems in Romania, based on FACES III. Furthermore, this study represents the
introduction to the following study, which will be undertaken using FACES IV.
RESULTS
Analysis of family types according to FACES III, within the entire sample
The registered scores within the cohesion parameter are indicative of a relatively
egalitarian distribution of disengaged 28.5%, separated 29.6% and connected families
28.6%, enmeshed families being the least frequent 13.3%. Concerning the flexibility
parameter, the highest share was registered by the chaotic families 37.6, with relatively
equal shares concerning the structured (27.2%) and flexible families (24.4 5%). The
rigid family is the least represented 10.9%.
The distribution of the family models according to the Circumplex Model within
the entire sample is represented in Figure 4. The Chaotically Connected model (234
families) and Structurally Disengaged model (156 families) are predominant.
Figure 4. The distribution of the family models according

to the Circumplex Model within the entire sample.
Throughout the sample, most families function according to the Chaotically

Connected model. The average to high cohesion score is indicative of a bonded
family, which would be characterized by emotional closeness with a certain degree
of separation, loyalty being expected. The involvement is strong but personal
distance is allowed, affective interactions being preferred. The conjugal
relationship is described as close, with a certain degree of separation. The parent-
child relationship is close, with clear generational demarcation. The family is more
often together than separated, more often inside than outside the family. The very
high Flexibility score is indicative of a chaotic family, which would be
characterized by limited leadership, unsuccessful parental control, and laissez-faire
leadership, very tolerant, with lengthy negotiations or impulsive decisions, less
clear roles, often changed or inconsistently applied. Table 2 shows a predominance
of the Mid-range and Balanced functional families.
Table 2
The distribution of FACES III family functioning types
Family functioning types
according to FACES III N % % Cumulative
Balanced 400 32.9 32.9
Mid-range 533 43.9 76.8
Unbalanced 282 23.2 100
Total 1 215 100
Analysis of family type according to FACES III, based on residence

environment and age groups
Represented on the histogram, the 16 family models are indicative of a

higher concentration within the urban environment of the Structurally Disengaged
model (Figure 5). Families in the urban environment tend to do less well
concerning the cohesion and more well concerning flexibility (adaptability).
Figure 5. The distribution of the Circumplex Model family models in the urban environment.
The family functioning model which prevails throughout the sample,

Chaotically Connected, predominates in the rural environment as well. Mainly, it is
characterized by healthy cohesion (low to average scores) and too high flexibility
scores (Figure 6).
Figure 6. The distribution of the Circumplex Model family models in the rural environment.
The Mid-range type families and Balanced type families is larger in the urban
environment (p<0.01) (Table 3).
Table 3
The distribution of the family functioning types, according to FACES III,
based on residence environment
Family functioning types Residence environment
according to FACES III Urban Rural Total
Balanced 51.5 48.5 100
Mid-range 61.2 38.8 100
Unbalanced 49.6 50.4 100
Total 55.3 44.7 100
At the beginning of the study, we launched the hypothesis that within the
conjugal and the family systems, the two parameters – cohesion and flexibility –
would be different in a statistically significant way, according to the age groups of

the subjects. However, when analyzed separately, the hypothesis was confirmed
only regarding the flexibility (adaptability) parameter. Thus, the intensity of the
cohesion tends to be distributed homogenously within age groups, throughout the
sub-models. From a cohesion point of view, the largest share – 58.2% – is held by
the connected sub-model family type, identified in individuals over 35 years old.
The statistic is indicative of significant differences (Pearson Chi-
Square=16.504, df=3, p=0.001), the rigid sub-model family type being
characteristic for persons aged 35 or younger (Table 4).
Table 4
The distribution of the flexibility sub-models according to the Circumplex
Age groups (years)
Flexibility sub-models according FACES III
<=35 >35 Total
Chaotic 42.2 57.8 100
Flexible 45.3 54.7 100
Structured 47.0 53.0 100
Rigid 62.1 37.9 100
Total 46.4 53.6 100
Model (FACES III), based on age group
Concerning functionality, the family type differs according to the age group,
the Unbalanced type holding a larger share in families comprised of individuals
aged 35 or younger (Pearson Chi-Square=7.815, df=2, p=0.020) (Table 5).
Table 5
The distribution of the family functioning types, according to FACES III, based on age group
Family functioning types Age groups (years)
according to FACES III <=35 >35 Total
Balanced 47.5 52.5 100
Mid-range 42.4 57.6 100
Unbalanced 52.5 47.5 100
Total 46.4 53.6 100
Cohesion, Flexibility and Communication

within the sub-sample used to conduct the interviews
According to FACES III, within this sub-sample, which took part in the
focus groups, the Structurally Disengaged and the Chaotically Connected family
models are predominant (Figure 7).
Figure 7. The distribution of the family models according to the Circumplex Model,
within the interviewed sub-sample.
Almost half of this sub-sample is part of the Mid-range family type.

Within the interviews, it can be observed that circa half of the interviewed
individuals described a family with very high cohesion, very low flexibility and
average to high communication (Table 6).
Table 6
The distribution of cohesion, flexibility and communication scores obtained via the interview
Cohesion Flexibility Communication
Intensity
N % N % N %
Very low 4 1.2 166 51.2 12 3.7
Low, to medium 34 10.5 102 31.5 52 16.0
Medium, to high 126 38.9 33 10.2 186 57.4
Very high 160 49.4 23 7.1 74 22.8
Total 324 100.0 324 100 324 100
Almost three quarters of the interview participants described their families as

very cohesive, regarding the following four aspects: 1) emotional-affective closeness;
2) family member interaction; 3) relationships between parents/spouses/ partners;
4) relationships between parents and child/children. In most discussions, the
evaluation tended towards a scale with very high scores (7, 8). The introduction of
the symbiotic attachment concept into the discussion, by the moderator, highlighted
the fact that they feel love towards the family and its members, a healthy, secure
attachment and belief that they find love within their family, they find the affective
environment which they need and that they are not dealing with symbiosis. The
Balanced cohesion did not correlate with the satisfaction within the couple. The
interviews were indicative of the fact that high couple satisfaction levels were
correlated with extremely cohesive couples, with balanced flexibility. Furthermore,
all those who awarded maximum scores to the four relationship aspects describing
cohesion, affirmed the presence of the inter-generational support, the perception of
the family as a nurturing environment of affection and the fact that they had not
seen their parents hitting each-other or heard them quarrelling.
The other six items used to determine cohesion within the family system,
regarded the family members’ internal and external demarcations. The scores drop
to 5-6. Thus, the following aspects tend to be average to high: the physical and
emotional space, intimacy, communal decision making, communal interests, and
reference for communal rather than separated activities.
Regarding the settlements, within groups, a low cohesion expression was
evident in Bucharest and very high cohesion expression in Satu Mare. The tendency
for men to describe less emotional involvement between family members than
women was noticed. Once more, no specific elements based on age group regarding
cohesion intensity were identified in communication transactions during interviews.
Also, in the case of the individuals with children, an enmeshed type of
cohesion was expressed, the subjects focusing on the discussion with their children,
their importance and their dedication to them. The average age was 46, and for
most of them, the happiest events of their lives were “the birth of their children,
grandchildren” and “my marriage, my children’s/grandchildren’s marriage”.
The individuals without children, homogenously expressed a very high
enmeshed type cohesion and average to high connected type cohesion, highlighting
however more personal autonomy. The average age was 25, and for most of them,
the happiest events of their lives were “getting into college, graduating from
college, academic and professional achievements”.
Over half of the participants in the interview described their families as
displaying a very low flexibility regarding control, discipline, negotiation and
rules, which corresponds to the rigid sub-model. This was expressed throughout the
discussions through a remarkable respect towards rules, which once established,
must be respected. The children’s position is subordinated to the parents, their role
being to execute, the parental control being of authoritative type. These opinions
were expressed just as strongly by individuals with and without children.
Within the groups, the most traditional in respecting discipline, roles and
rules was the group from Satu Mare, followed by the group from Bucharest. In
Craiova, a tendency towards negotiation and democratization was identified.
Regarding the couple and the family, women expressed more flexibility and
tolerance, whereas men exhibited a more pronounced tendency towards imposed
decision and authoritarianism. Circa half of the interviewed individuals confessed
that they had occasionally used corporal punishment in order to correct behaviours
and to impose discipline. The group from Satu Mare expressed greater agreement
regarding the statement that “the woman must take care of the household and raise
the children, because that is the custom”. “The woman is better than the man at
these activities, what would a man do surrounded by pots and pans, he’d be more
of a bother...” Also, the group from Satu Mare expressed total agreement with the
statement “a woman cannot make a decision without the husband’s approval,
because he is the head of the family”. The interchangeability of roles between the
partners, identified within the Bucharest and Craiova groups, had different
motivational expressions. In Bucharest, the situational motivation was expressed in
a natural way, whereas in Craiova, the motivation of the egalitarian role
distribution and the interchangeability were expressed rather in a more vindictive
fashion, from positions denoting gender frustrations. In the case of the Bucharest
group, comments such as these were recorded: “Of course we help each-other; he
does the shopping according to a list drawn by me, I cook, he does the dishes, I lay
the table; I like it for us to be complementary in what concerns certain things and
alike regarding others; I wouldn’t like staying in a relationship in which I would
have to ask the other one to do something just because I liked it.” “We have days
when we meet common friends, and days when I meet up the girls and him the
boys, and when we see each other again, we have more energy.” “In our household,
my parents are very particular about respecting schedules and rules; this taught me
to be methodical, which helps me gain time, so I don’t regret having been scolded,
punished, when I would break promises.”
In the case of the Craiova group, comments such as the following were
recorded: “Gone are the days when the woman would tend the pot and be a servant,
let them pull their weight around the house too, football games and beer won’t cut
it anymore.” “If he has fun, I have fun too, if he works, I work too, but I like it
when he admires me, when he appreciates how well I’m doing.”
The discussions based on the six items which evaluate communication have
shown that more than half of all participants described an average to high
communication within the conjugal system. Only 12 persons described a very low
communication in their family. Men and women thought similarly with respect to
communication, considering that their family promoted respect, appreciation,
confessions about oneself and one’s feelings. However, women complained that
often their partners would not listen carefully and empathically, often feeling they
were doing monologues rather than establishing a dialogue with their partners. On
the other hand, most men considered it quite tiring for them, even frightening, to
speak about emotions so much. The highest communication potential was recorded
within the Craiova groups. Communication within the families of procreation of
older persons with children was described in the same positive terms as the
younger persons without children used when describing their families of origin.
The main theme of communication within the families was the raising and the
education of children and the attribution and distribution of domestic roles. The
interviewed participants, who were married with children, mostly stated that they
had discussed the number of desired children and aspects of family planning with
their partner, as well as selecting the preferred contraception method.
DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
1. The results of applying FACES III on the entire sample are indicative of the
lowest representation of the families belonging to the enmeshed and rigid sub-models,
which denotes a democratization and autonomy of parental, communication and role
exertion styles, a transition from the traditional to the modern family. The fact that over
three quarters of the subjects described their family as FACES III Balanced and Mid-
range denotes the fact that the Romanian family has good closeness and adaptability
potential and a healthy functioning method.
2. Results following the application of the interview guide indicate, in almost
½ of the sample, low-to-medium and medium-to-high scores regarding the
cohesion and flexibility, which would correspond to the Mid-range type; for the
Romanian family, this is also indicative of good emotional and adaptive resources.
A good communication potential of the contemporary Romanian family is
indicated by the fact that over ¾ of subjects obtained average-to-high and low-to-
average scores regarding this parameter.
3. The small size of the population, the ethnographic and folkloric traditions,
smaller challenges regarding interior displacement etc. have determined that,
habitually, the rural environment be regarded as more poetic, emotional, cohesive,
settled, quiet, etc. Contrary to expectancies, this study shows that the Mid-range
and Balance functioning potential is higher in the urban environment. A possible
explanation is the massive migration abroad of the adults in the rural areas, in
search of employment. An overwhelming majority of children and adolescents are
being raised by grandparents, and authentic physical contact with parents is
established only about twice a year, at Easter and Christmas (Gulei, 2011).
4. Some details are necessary regarding higher rigidity among younger
persons between 18 and 35 years. Probably they adopted a lifestyle with strict rules
and roles. Statistically, for most people, this interval is concentrated on
professional and family adaptation, intensifying professional experience,
emergence of the parent status, and only around the age of 35 does certain stability
occur. Another challenge is finding a balance between the career and the family
life, which can lead to difficulties within the couple.
Secondly, it may be that this rigid family sub-model, resulting from a

description of low flexibility intensity, is apparent precisely due to the perception
of the external pressure in order to record and manage these new identities to the
best of one’s ability. Just as there is a biological clock, there is also a social clock,
represented by social norms connected to each stage of development to which the
individual relates in order to evaluate the degree of similitude of one’s own
evolution. An event occurring prematurely or with delay most often creates
discomfort, which explains this rigidity, be it self-perceived or self-imposed
(Neugarten, 1979; Barrett, 2005; Ciobanu, A.M., Popa, C., 2013).
Thus, it seems that the difference between the families’ functioning modality
is not defined by cohesion, but rather by the measure of the status and role changes
taking place during this time, by the amount of flexibility.
5. The fact that, during the interviews, the highest share of uninvolved,
emotionally disengaged families with very low cohesion scores, named via FACES
III as the disengaged sub-model, was recorded in Bucharest may be an indicator of
marital dissatisfaction (Craddock, 1991). This very low cohesion within Bucharest
groups may also be a risk factor for heart health, studies showing an association
between arterial hypertension and low marital cohesion (Baker et al. 1999). A
possible explanation is the throbbing rhythm of the Romanian capital, with the
highest number of inhabitants, the most important educational center and the most
important national and international road, railway and air transport node in the
country (Institutul National de Statistică, 2009).
The fact that in Satu Mare a very high expression of cohesion was recorded,
along with the affirmations regarding the domestic roles, is more an indicative of a
traditional family model (Fowers &Olson, 1993).
Satu Mare County is located in a border area with a high rate of prevalence
of the temporary migration abroad. In this context, expectations would have leaned
towards a modern and postmodern family model, with more autonomy and less
cohesion. In spite of this, the area is one of the most steadfast keepers of the
ethnographic and folkloric traditions, the local population’s solidarity being well
known (Direcţia Judeţeană de Statistică Satu Mare).
Furthermore, along with the Romanians and the Orthodox Christians in the
Satu Mare area, a large part of the population is comprised of ethnic – mainly
Hungarian – and religious – mainly reformed, Roman-Catholic and Greek-Catholic
– minorities. As a result, another aspect which should be considered and should
represent a research subject in the future is the influence of the religious and ethnic
allegiance on the family type (Walsh, 2010). Being sensitive to ethnic, cultural and
religious diversity, FACES III is especially useful in the comparative research on
immigrant families.
Gender differences concerning woman’s increased need for emotional
closeness and higher tolerance may be explained via the traditional distribution of
the affective role of the woman within and without the family unit.
6. The main problems which the FACES III evaluation raises on one hand,
and highlights in comparison to the interview scores and the descriptions within the
interview discussion, on the other hand, are those concerning the cohesion and the
flexibility extremes. Around half of them have obtained very high scores with
respect to cohesion and flexibility, and the majority of the interviewed individuals
described their family as cohesive and rigid, but, through FACES III, the majority
of the families are recorded as moderately cohesive and chaotic. Thus, yet again,
the highest difference is due to perception of flexibility.
The results obtained through interviews seem to contradict Olson’s statement
that very high cohesion, corresponding to the enmeshed sub-model, is unhealthy.
This is only partially true, because in this model the types of families are
combinations between cohesion and flexibility sub-models and are not taken
separately. Only very high (enmeshed) or very low cohesion (disengaged), in
combination with very low (rigidity) and very high flexibility (chaotic) indicate an
Unbalanced family.
Thus, we can affirm that the relevant family is situated in one of the 16
family categories, but not that the four extreme family models are Unbalanced or
unhealthy families. It might be that these four family types (high scores, very low
scores) are faced with a difficult life event, which determined them to be that way
in order to “function”. For Romania, a good example is represented by the
grandparents who are required to completely replace the absent parents, left to
work in other countries. The parents-children contacts only occur during the two
great religious celebrations – Christmas and Easter, when they can afford to return
to Romania. On the one hand, through a desire to cope, grandparents may adopt a
rigid educational system. On the other hand, the grandparents may adopt a very
close emotional style, in order to compensate for the absence of the parents.
Additionally, the grandparents are also parents with children situated very far away
which can lead to them projecting all the love they cannot offer their children
towards their grandchildren. In Romania, the situation of the families with
members working abroad, as a result of the lack of resources, has been a way out of
poverty, or a means to survive, but has had unwanted effects on the relationship
between family members and most of all, on children.
The partial inconsistency obtained between the data collected via interviews,
when compared to the data obtained from the FACES III family subtypes, shows
the importance which should be given to doubling the application of the evaluation
scale with interviews. For example, in the current case, marital satisfaction was
associated with very high cohesion and positive connotations were attributed to
very low flexibility. Also, the fact that marital satisfaction was correlated with very
high cohesion suggests that a family will function well if its members’ expectations
are met by that family, even if it exhibits an extreme model.
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Acknowledgments
The subjects within the sample group belong to “The identity values of the contemporary Romanian
family in the framework of the globalization – an anthropological approach” research, financially
supported by the European Social Fund Sectorial Operational Program for Human Resources
Development, within the project “Turning to account the Cultural Identities in the global processes”
Contract POSDRU/89/1.5/S/59758/2011-2013.
A part of this article was presented and published on the occasion of PSIWORLD 2013, The
International Conference, “Psychology and the realities of the contemporary world”, 4th Edition,
Bucharest, 18-20 October 2013.
THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF ADOLESCENTS
FROM TWO ROMANIAN COUNTIES – A COMPARATIVE STUDY
IUSEIN ERVIN∗
This article presents the results of a comparative study on two samples of high school
adolescents from two different cities in Romania – Bucharest and Iaşi. The two cities
were chosen due to the socio-economic differences they display: the adolescents in
Bucharest come from families with a high monthly income and parents that are
university graduates. The adolescents from Moldova come from the villages
surrounding Iasi city. Their families have a low economic profile and most of the
parents are secondary school or high school graduates, while a few are primary school
graduates only. The aim of the study was to observe the differences in growth at the
age of 14-15 between the adolescents developing in the different socio-economic
context. Anthropometric measurements were performed (height, sitting height,
weight, BMI, adipose tissue, arm thorax and hip circumferences) and a questionaire
was applied to investigate age of puberty, among others. The results demonstrate the
existence of differences in growth and development of adolescents from the two
different Romanian regions studied, especially in boys. The data could contribute to a
better understanding of the current context in which adolescents in Romania are
developing and help in taking the correct measures to reduce the socio-economic
differences between different regions of Romania.
Keywords: adolescents, growth, socio-economic factors, height, sitting height, weight,
BMI.
INTRODUCTION
The factors involved with human growth and development are classified into
two major groups: factors related to the internal environment (genetic, metabolic,
endocrine) and those related to the external environment (nutrition, disease, level
of education, professional status, income, urban/rural environment etc.). All these
factors can be favorable to both health and development or, equally, can have a
negative impact, leading to severe disruption and affecting the process of growth.
As in every contemporary population, among the Romanian society there is
a diversity of socio-cultural factors directly or indirectly affecting growth and
∗
PhD student, Francisc Rainer Institute of Anthropology, Romanian Academy
(iusein.ervin@ichb.ro).

32 Iusein Ervin 2
development at different ages. One such a factor worth mentioning is the socio-
economic difference that may rise between different communities.
The recent statistics show that, in 2011, 40.3% of the Romanian population was
exposed to the risk of poverty and social exclusion (Eurostat 2011). According to
the last Eurostat report, the north-eastern part of Moldova is the poorest region in
Romania with an income of 29.5% per capita/UE average. On the other hand, the
richest regions in Romania are represented by the cities of Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest,
Sibiu and the Ilfov county.
All this data show important socio-economic differences between different
regions, which would have a direct impact on the growth and development of
individuals. According to Blum and Baten (2011) and others (Pradhan, 2003;
Moradi, 2005) the coeficient of variation of human stature (CV) is directly
proportional with the degree of inequality in a given society and can, therefore, be
used as an indicator. The purpose of our study is to reveal the differences in growth
and development of adolescents from two socio-economically different regions in
Romania in order to contribute to the understanding of the impact of the economic
differences on teenagers, at the present.
MATERIALS AND METHOD
The results presented in this paper come from the first year of research of a
longitudinal study conducted in two different Romanian regions: the capital city of
Bucharest and the city of Iaşi, located in Moldova. The study is being performed on
a number of 140 adolescents (age 14-15), from two highs schools located in
Bucharest and Iaşi, respectively. The adolescents in Bucharest come from families
with a high monthly income and parents that are university graduates. The subjects
study in a private high school where parents pay an annual fee.
The adolescents from Moldova mostly come from villages neighbouring Iaşi
city and live in the public school’s dormitory. Their families have a low economic
profile and most of the parents are secondary school or high school graduates,
while a few are primary school graduates only.
Anthropometrical measurements have been performed and recorded (height,
sitting height, weigth, BMI, arm, thorax and hip circumferences) for both groups.
At the same time, each individual’s mass of adipose tissue was measured using a
professional Tefal scale through the method of bio-impedance and the results were
recorded as such. The BMI was also reported automatically by the same
instrument. Adolescents were also given a questionnaire in order to investigate
their eating and sleeping habits, preferences related to food, level of physical
activity, age of puberty etc.
Data related to puberty were collected as subjects were asked a question in
the questionnaire related to puberty including the specification of age (age of first
menarche for girls and age of first shaving for boys, in case the events mentioned
took place so far).
3 The growth and development of adolescents from two Romanian Counties 33
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Among the 70 students in Bucharest, 34 were girls (all having already

reached the age of puberty and menarche) while 36 were boys (of which 31 having
reached puberty). Out of 70 students in Iaşi, 40 were girls (all having reached
puberty and menarche) while 30 were boys (10 of these had reached puberty while
20 had not at the moment of study). The average age of menarche for girls from
Bucharest is 12.1 years, while for the girls from Iaşi is 13.4 years.
So, at the time the study took place, 86% of the boys measured in Bucharest
had reached puberty while in Iaşi, only 33.3% of the boys had reached this stage.
This finding is consistent with the literature: the tendency is that adolescents living
in large cities with good socio-economic conditions reach earlier the puberty and
are, on average taller, at this age, with respect to the others (Tanner et al., 1976;
Muller et al., 1989; Hauspie et al., 1996). Our data suggests obvious differences
regarding boys at this age. All girls would have reached puberty by this age
regardless the county they live in.
No. of individuals Girls

20
15
10
5
0
Bucharest Height range (cm
Figure 1. Height distribution in the two groups (boys and girls samples from Bucharest and Iaşi).
34 Iusein Ervin 4
The graph representing the boys height values from Bucharest indicates a first
peak between 165 and 169.9 cm (12 individuals) while the interval with the largest
number of boys from Iaşi is the one between 170 to 174.9 cm (12 individuals).
There is a second, smaller peak for the boys in Bucharest at the interval 175-
179.9 (9 individuals). The number of boys with heights above 175 cm from both
cities drops down, with fewer individuals from Iaşi with higher values than in
Bucharest. The mean value of height in male sample from Bucharest is 174.2 cm,
while for the boys measured in Iaşi is 171.3 cm. The mean for height as well as the
graph indicates that, on average, students from Bucharest are ahead in terms of
height by comparison with the ones from Iaşi.
The graph for height distribution from the two regions also shows that the
tallest individual (187.8 cm) at this age is also found in Bucharest rather than Iaşi
(maximum height recorded 181.4 cm). The difference between the two samples is
statistically significant (Fig. 2).
This is also consistent with the previous findings from similar studies,
(Bogin, 1999): there is a higher number of taller teenagers living in highly
developed urban areas, with good socio-economic conditions compared to the ones
living in rural or urban areas with poorer socio-economic conditions. Students from
Iaşi may catch up in height with the ones from Bucharest during the next years of
growth. Our longitudinal study will show whether or not this tendency is confirmed
in the given particular case, during the following years.
Sample Mean t value p result

statistically
Boys Bucharest 174.2 0.0358 < 0.05 significant
Boys Iaşi 171.3
statistically
Girls Bucharest 162.1 0.1322 < 0.05 insignificant
Girls Iaşi 163.1

Figure 2. Mean values and t-test results for height in the four groups.
Most of the girls from Bucharest have height values between 150 and 164.9
cm, the mean being around 162.1 cm. The majority of girls from Iaşi are also found
in the same interval but there are more individuals between 160-164.9 cm than in
Bucharest, the mean being 163.1 cm. The graph from Iaşi peaks at this values,
while, for the girls in Bucharest we can see a larger distribution of height. There is
a small number of individuals having heights higher than 165 cm for both cities.
In Bucharest none of the girls measured had heights of 175 cm and above, while
in Iaşi the maximum heights measured were between 175-179.9 cm (3 individuals).
The maximum height recorded in girls is from the Iaşi city – 177.8 cm.
The mean values for height in girls from the two regions show, even if there
are small similar values for this parameter, the difference being statistically
insignificant, at this age (Fig. 2).
No. of individuals Girls

20
10
0
70‐74.9 75‐79.9 80‐84.9 85‐89.9 90‐94.9 95‐99.9
Sitting height range (cm)

Bucha res t
Figure 3. Sitting height distribution in the two groups
(boys and girls samples from Bucharest and Iaşi).
Sitting height gives a measure of the length of the trunk as well as of the legs
since it can be substracted from the total height. These provide information about the
variation of the length of trunk and legs as an important indicator of the secular trend.
The first graph shows that the largest number of boys measured in Iaşi have
a sitting height between 80 and 84.9 cm with only a few having heights larger than
this range. The boys from Bucharest show a larger distribution of sitting height,
mostly between 80 and 89.9 cm. In the range between 90 and 94.9 cm, there are
seven individuals in Bucharest in comparison to only two in Iaşi. In girls, the
distribution of sitting height is more uniform than in boys. Both graphs peak at the
fourth interval (between 85 and 89.9 cm). The largest number of girls from Iaşi fall
in this interval for the sitting height parameter.
36 Iusein Ervin 6
As expected there is a statistically significant difference for this parameter in

boys: the subjects from Bucharest have a higher mean for sitting height than the
ones from Iaşi – 86.4 cm for Bucharest in comparison to 84.5 cm for Iaşi (Fig. 4).
Instead we observe no significant difference for the sitting height in girls, means
for this parameter being very close – 87.7 cm for Bucharest in comparison to 86.7 cm
for Iaşi (Fig. 4).
Both curves peak at BMI values between 20.1 and 22 with a larger number
of boys from Iaşi (16 individuals). The curve for Iaşi drops down fast after a BMI
of 24, the highest BMI value calculated being 26.3. The curve for Bucharest has a
larger distribution with a second peak at a BMI interval of 28.1 and 30
(6 individuals). The highest BMI value calculated for boys in Bucharest is 30.3. There
is a statistically significant BMI difference between boys from the two counties with a
mean of only 21.8 for Iaşi in comparison to 24.1 in Bucharest (Fig. 6).
The BMI values for girls show an even distribution for both cities. Both
graphs peak at the interval between 20.1-22 with a larger number of individuals
from Iaşi (12) than Bucharest (11). After this value there is a steep drop down in
the number of individuals with higher BMIs.
The highest BMI value for girls in Iaşi falls in the interval 28.1-30. Three of
the girls measured in Bucharest have a BMI that falls in the last interval of 32.1 to
34. Even though there is a slighlty higher number of girls from Bucharest with a
higher BMI value, the difference for this parameter between the two counties is not
significantly different (Fig. 6).
However, the highest BMI value among the female sample was calculated
for the girls from Bucharest. In the total sample, the highest BMI value was
calculated also in Bucharest, among the female sample, surpassing the highest
values recorded for the boys – 34.2 compared to 30.3.
The group from Bucharest has got slightly more individuals with an amount
of fatty tissue between 10-12 kg. Most of the boys measured from both counties
fall in the second interval with a fatty tissue between 10 to 12 kg (25 individuals in
Bucharest compared to 21 from Iaşi).

Boys Bucharest 86.4 0.0274 < 0.05 statistically significant
Boys Iaşi 84.5
Girls Bucharest 87.7 0.3135 < 0.05 statistically insignificant
Girls Iaşi 86.7

Figure 4. Mean values and t-test results for sitting height in the four samples.
No. of individuals
Girls
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
20 0
22 2
26 6
28 8
30 0
32 2
4
24 4
18 8
‐2
‐2
‐2
‐2
‐3
‐3
‐3
‐2
‐1
.1
.1
.1
.1
.1
.1
.1
.1
16
BMI range (kg)

Bucha res t
Figure 5. BMI distribution in the two groups (boys and girls samples from Bucharest and Iaşi).
Sample Mean t value P result

statistically
Boys Bucharest 24.18 0.0004 < 0.05 significant
Boys Iaşi 21.81

statistically
Girls Iaşi 21.04

Figure 6. Mean values and t-test results for body/mass index in the four samples.
38 Iusein Ervin 8
Girls
30
20
10
0
8.1‐10 10.1‐1212.1‐1414.1‐1616.1‐1818.1‐20
Bucharest
Figure 7. Fatty tissue distribution in the two groups

(boys and girls samples from Bucharest and Iaşi).
There are five boys from Iaşi with a fatty tissue of less than 10 kg, in
comparison to only one from Bucharest. There is a small number of individuals
from both counties with an adipose tissue of over 12 kg, the maximum value for
this parameter being 16.1 kg in a boy from Bucharest. The means for the fatty
tissue in the two samples of boys are very close, being no statistical difference for
this parameter (Fig. 8).
Similar to the case of boys, most of the girls measured from both counties,
also fall in the second interval with a fatty tissue between 10 to 12 kg. However
there are more girls from Iasi than from Bucharest (20 individuals from Iasi in
comparison to 16 from Bucharest). There are more girls with a fatty tissue of less
than 10 kg from both counties than the boys (7 girls in Bucharest and 6 in Iaşi).
There is a small number of individuals from both cities with an adipose tissue of
over 12 kg, the maximum value for this parameter being 19.6 kg, registered in a
girl from Bucharest. There are four girls from Bucharest with a fatty tissue of 18 to
20 kg in comparison to none from Iaşi than fall in this interval. The means for the
fatty tissue in the two samples of girls are close, being no statistical difference for
this parameter (Fig. 8).
Overall girls show a higher value for the fatty tissue in comparison to boys,
the highest mean for this parameter being the one from the girls in Bucharest –
12.24 kg.
Sample Mean t value P Result

statistically
Boys Bucharest 11.66 0.2004 < 0.05 insignificant
Boys Iaşi 11.19

statistically
Girls Iaşi 11.47
Figure 8. Mean values and t-test results for fatty tissue in the four samples.
CONCLUSIONS
There are differences in growth and development between adolescents (age

14-15) from Bucharest and Iaşi. The fact that the largest percentage of boys from
Bucharest (86%) have reached puberty in comparison to a small percentage in
those from Iaşi (33.3%) is in line with a general trend: the improved socio-
economic conditions and easier access and exposure to information through media,
commercials etc. will cause an earlier puberty in individuals developing under such
circumstances (Halpern et al., 1993; Karlberg, 2002; Euling et al., 2008). The
remaining larger percentage of boys from Iaşi will reach this stage with a delay
compared to those from Bucharest.
On the other hand, regardless of county, all girls have reached puberty. At
this stage of development girls are ahead of boys: this finding clearly shows the
delay in time related to puberty between the two genders.
In terms of height, on average, students from Bucharest are taller at this age.
At the same time a larger variation of height was observed in the boys from
Bucharest while the height distribution tends to be more uniform in male subjects
from Iaşi. In girls there is no significant difference in terms of height, the means
being very close. This is also related to the fact that girls are more advanced in
their growth at this age, so the height does not vary as much as in boys in the two
different counties.
40 Iusein Ervin 10
Boys from Bucharest show a greater variation for sitting height and have
higher values for this parameter in comparison with the ones from Iaşi. Sitting
height is related to the overall height so there are significant differences in this
respect too. Girls from Bucharest also have a greater variation of sitting height
related to the ones from Iaşi, but the differences are smaller than in boys. Just as
with height, girls from the two regions tend to be more uniform in terms of the
sitting height variation compared to the boys.
According to the results of this study, on average, male individuals from
Bucharest show a larger distribution for the BMI value. In Iaşi, the largest
percentage of boys have lower BMI values and no subject was found to have BMI
values exceeding 28. The significant difference in BMI of the boys from the two
counties is in relation with the diet, indicating a higher risk of overweight for the
subjects with a better socio-economical status.
In girls the difference in BMI between the two cities is not significant, most
of the subject having a BMI value of around 21. This finding is related to the fact
that all girls have reached their puberty stage at the moment of study.
There are no major differences in terms of mass of adipose tissue in both
genders from the two countries included in the study. Slightly more boys from
Bucharest have a higher mass of fatty tissue whereas in girls the situation in
inversed, with more girls from Iaşi. In general adolescents with a richer socio-
economic status have a higher tendency towards obesity or being overweight.
The research following in the next years will provide more data that will
contribute to a better understanding of the current trends in growth and
development of adolescents in our country including the impact of the
contemporary regional differences.
REFERENCES
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with Anthropometric Indicators, Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, 62 (2): 107-138.
Bogin, B. 1999b. Patterns of human growth. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Davey Smith, G. and Lynch, J.W. 2004. Life course approaches to socioeconomic differentials in
health. A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology, Oxford, Oxford University
Press: 77-96.
Euling S.Y., Selevan S.G., Pescovitz O.H., Skakkebaek N.E. 2008. Role of environmental factors in
the timing of puberty, Pediatrics, 3: S 167-71.
Eveleth P.B., Tanner J.M. 1991. Worldwide variation in human growth, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Faulkner, F.T. and Tanner, J.M. 1986. Human Growth: A comprehensive treatise. NewYork, Plexum.
Ferrie, J., Rolf, K., et al. 2009. ‘… Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise? Physical, Economic and Cognitive
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Impact of Early Life Events II Workshop, National Poverty Center, University of Michigan,
March 2009’.
Floud, R., Wachter, K., et al. 1990. Height, Health and History: Nutritional Status in the United
Kingdom, 1750-1980. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Fogel, R.W. 1993. New sources and new techniques for the study of secular trends in nutritional
status, health, mortality and the process of aging. Historical Methods 26: 5-43.
Halpern C.T., Udry R.J., Campbell B., Suchinddran C. 1993. Testosterone and pubertal development
as predictors of sexual activity: a panel analysis of adolescent males, Psychosomatic
Medicine, 55, 436-47.
Hauspie R.C., Vercauteren M., Susanne C. 1996. Secular changes in growth, Hormone Research in
Paedriatics, 45, 8-17.
Himes, J.H. 2006. Long-term longitudinal studies and implications for the development of an
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199-211.
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McEvoy, B.P., Visscher, P.M. 2009. Genetics of human height. Economics and Human Biology 7:
294-306.
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Anthropometric Estimates. World Development 33 (8): 1233-65.
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Pradhan, M., D. E. Sahn, S. D. Younger 2003. Decomposing World Health Inequality. Journal of
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35: 263-285.
Steckel, R.H. 1995. Stature and the Standard of Living. Journal of Economic Literature, 33: 1903-1940.
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http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat
42 Iusein Ervin 12
NATIONAL AND ETHNIC
IN THE DIALECTICS OF IDENTITY IN SKRA, GREECE
SEBASTIAN ŞTEFĂNUCĂ∗
Abstract. The processes involved in identity evolution represent a topic of great

interest in social anthropology. The present study approaches these processes, taking
into account the case of a small community from the north of Greece, traditionally
inhabited by Vlachs. This identity evolution takes the form of a dialectics in which
national and ethnic elements are intertwined. Based on a substantial empirical ground,
the conclusion is that while the national element is taken for granted in the identity
equation, the ethnic element does not seem to constitute a category of relevance.
However, certain ethnic boundaries can be traced on the coordinates of a particular
past or of the cross-border kinship. This permits in the end to ascertain the degree of
irrelevance of the ethnic element.
Keywords: ethnic, ethnic boundary, national, past, Vlachs.
INTRODUCTION
It is not uncommon in socio-cultural anthropology for a carefully researched

scientific plan to change once we find ourselves doing the fieldwork. Sometimes,
the anthropologist changes the entire topic (Okely, 2012: 48), responding to anything
that the fieldwork reveals. This happens even more when the researcher gets
involved in a fieldwork project without a specific plan in mind, led by a desire to
experience long-term fieldwork in a monographic way1, following the classical
canon of initiation in socio-cultural anthropology. Moreover, he has a limited
knowledge about the population that is to be investigated. This knowledge consists
only in a few identity stereotypes that may appear indifferent to the social reality
after a more intense research. Right from the early stages it was pointing towards
being a different sort of reality; therefore, the researcher’s expectations on the
Romanian background of a small Hellenic settlement’s (from a region known more
widely by its old name: Meglen) population’s collective identity are empirically
disproven by another identity hypothesis’ configuration likely to be lacking any kind
∗
Independent researcher (seb_filozof@yahoo.com).
1
I am talking about an anthropological fieldwork from Northern Greece (on the Kilkis
prefecture), between September 2011 and April 2012.

44 Sebastian Ştefănucă 2
of Romanian feature. It concerns a hypothesis according to which the collective

identity is revealed from an entirely different perspective, as a result of a dialectical
relationship between two factors: national and ethnic. After a couple of weeks it
became certain that the link between the two factors was not just a statement based
on an assumption. But the result of their dialectical relationship was only going to be
clarified after months2 of prolonged observation, multiplied by daily ad-hoc
discussions and even more by in-depth interviews.3 The data collected in these
methodological frameworks was to be gradually recorded mainly in a diary and field
notebook, and could easily take the form of a “statistical documentation by concrete
evidence” (Malinowski, 1987: 22). However, the reader is not going to deal with any
kind of tables, as “statistical documentation” may indicate. The two following
paragraphs are meant only for stringing of the facts and not to their trimming, and
this extends to an ethnographic description. In this way the fieldwork was not put
aside even when the final form of the study was drafted.
Solving the dialectic relationship in favor of the national factor (not so much by
its outward affirmation as by the irrelevancy of the ethnic factor) associates only to a
certain extent with a perspective of total dissolution of the ethnicity elements inside of
an amorphous mass of a national identity ideology. Some details are repeated until they
get the strength of social facts and the acceptance of ethnical boundaries as well, and
thus become hints of a still existent ethnicity, an ethnicity “in-itself” (Geană, 2006: 12),
“created and sustained from the inside” (Roosens, 1994: 85) etc., as it has often been
characterized in previous studies over the years.
Once these observations are established, the intentions of the current study
are to be taken to their final conclusion. To establish a fully ethnological
understanding1 of the facts exposed means undertaking further studies performed
across several dimensions. From amongst them, the most relevant regarding the
causality perspective – always the primary concern of science – is what we call the
dimension of social (local and regional) post-war history.
TESTIMONIES OF HEROISM IN A SMALL GREEK VILLAGE
Skra is a beautiful mountain village of no more then a hundred and fifty

houses, near the northern border of Greece. Evzonoi, the main border crossing
2
It refers to the period of time spent in the village of Skra (December 1st 2012 – April 16th
2012). The other time periods (September 13th 2011 – November 30th 2012 and accordingly April 17th
2012 – April 26th 2012) had been spent in the Ezvonoi village, 24 kilometers away to the East of Skra.
3
To them are added the cabinet analyses and several returns to the fieldwork in a frame
time between a week and a month, in order to achieve a final form for the current text.
1
I use the term “ethnological” only as far as we stay between the boundaries of the case and
its internal logic, avoiding to involve the term in extensive comparative approaches that would point
towards any conclusions with a generally universal validity, since that would mean a step into what is
labelled as “anthropological”.
3 National and ethnic in the dialectics of identity in Skra, Greece 45
point with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,2 lies 24 km to its east. In
administrative terms, Skra belongs to the δήµος (municipality) of Paionia, in the
νοµός (prefecture) of Kilkis. A visitor leaving the county road to enter the village
sees a metal archway over the road reading, in block capitals, Καλώς ήρθατε στο
ηρωικό Σκρα! (“Welcome to heroic Skra!”). A hundred metres later, on the left,
stands a monument honouring the memory of the approximately one thousand
fighting men, both officers and soldiers, who died in battle or of wounds received
in the celebrated Battle of Skra against Bulgarian and German invasion forces on
May 17th (30th new style) 1918. The names of the fallen heroes from the Seres,
Arhipelagos and Kriti divisions are engraved on the memorial plaques on the back
of the monument. Every year, these heroes are remembered at this monument in
the presence of the bishop of Polikastro, Axioupoli and Gumenissa,3 of
representatives of the local, regional and central authorities, and of many ordinary
citizens. In addition to a commemoration ceremony at the monument, there is a
church service and an artistic programme in the πλατεία,4 presented by various
specially invited traditional Greek dance groups (σύλλογοι). This rich variety of
activities gives to the event the atmosphere of a πανηγύρι or patronal festival.
Throughout Greece such festivals regularly take place on the day of the patron saint
of each local church. However, there is no connection between the date of the event
described here and that of the Skra patronal festival, which is observed in the
autumn, on Saint George’s Day. The festive atmosphere of the May commemoration
involves festooning the whole village with national flags large and small.
In the plateia there is also a small First World War museum. It exhibits
firearms, bayonets, shells, shrapnel fragments, lead shot, helmets, uniforms and
other military items from the combatants on the Macedonian Front in general and
from the Battle of Skra in particular. They belonged to the Greek, French and
British contingents on the one side and to the Bulgarian and German forces on the
other. Copies of photographs and articles from contemporary newspapers can also
be examined. In front of the museum there is a bust of Eleftherios Venizelos, the
political architect of victory in the battle, who was prime minister of Greece at that
time. Venizelos had earlier won a different battle, against Kings Constantine and
Alexander, who wanted Greece to align itself militarily with the Central Powers.
Portraits of all three hang in the museum.
2
Although some countries accept the designation ‘Macedonia’ for one of the countries
formed as a result of the disintegration of Yugoslavia, in this article we will be using the present title.
Pending the resolution of the dispute between Greece and the newly-formed state regarding its name,
the acronymic form FYROM is the term most commonly used in international documents. Whenever
the term Macedonia appears in this paper, it refers to the region of Macedonia, which takes in the
whole of the northern part of Greece from the border with Turkey (also including the western part of
Thrace) to the border with Albania. The term all Greeks employ to the FYROM is ‘Skopia’,
presumably after the name of its capital.
3
The parish of Skra belongs to this diocese.
4
Plateia, the central square to be found in every Greek village.
The Battle of Skra, waged against the strongest Bulgarian position on the
Macedonian Front, had tremendous importance. The keeping of Macedonia – only
recently ceded to Greece by Bulgaria as a consequence of the Balkan Wars of
1912-13 – within the borders of Greece was at stake. But the preservation of this
new status quo needed to be secured through victory on the whole Macedonian
Front. According to Nikolaos Emmanuel Papadakis (2008: 40), that more general
attack against the German and Bulgarian forces, involving the reputation of the
Greek army, which Venizelos had taken such pains to build up through strenuous
diplomatic endeavour, hung on the outcome of this battle. Only victory here could
convince the Entente of the importance of the Macedonian front and as a
consequence persuade it to give Venizelos more substantial help thereafter.
These are not the only testimonies of heroism at Skra. Other monuments
related to historical events both prior to and after the First World War can also be
visited, and those from the latter period can still be paralleled by vivid recollections
in community memory. In the schoolyard, a memorial plaque commemorates
Haralambos Garţios, a hero of what was named Mακεδονικός Αγώνας (the battle
for Macedonia) (∆ρογίδης, 1996: 8), murdered by “barbarian enemies”5 in 1913.
Above the village, near a now-abandoned military barracks, stands the tomb of
Georgios Papageorgiu (1893-1951), a lieutenant-general from Skra, who also took
part in the military events of the first half of the twentieth century.
The heroic event with the greatest resonance in the memory of many elderly
locals is related to the 1946-1950 civil war, the so-called εµφύλιος πόλεµος.6 At
that time upholders of a communist future for Greece were battling against
government forces who were advocates of a liberal democratic regime. In the battle
concerned, the population of Skra – as high as 800 in those days (ibidem, 5) – was
to pay its tribute of blood. The date of 13th November 1946 is kept alive both
through monuments and in the memories of many villagers, some of whom were
only children then: “I remember very well, the things that happened were bizarre
things (παράξενα) for a child” (Dionisis). On that day, communist αντάρτες7 shot
around fifty people (estimates differ), including the ten or twelve soldiers in the
guardhouse. Their names and ranks are engraved on the marble plaque of the
cenotaph in the La Crútsi cemetery, which is situated on the edge of a patch of
forest, before one enters the village. Both the tomb of Georgios Papageorgiou and
the military cenotaph are obligatory places of funeral ritual during the λάβαρα, a
procession that takes place on the second day of Easter. On that day flags brought
from Mount Athos are carried around the village and holy bread from Easter night
is placed in holes made in the trunks of three trees, two of them near the above-
mentioned tombs.
5
An expression found in the text engraved on the plaque.
6
A collection of narratives about this period, above all about what took place on 13th November
1946, could fill the pages of an entire volume.
7
Αντάρτης (fem. αντάρτισσα), “rebel”, “insurgent”, “insurrectionist”, “guerrilla fighter”, “partisan”
(Brad-Chisacov [coord.], 2007: 66).
But of all the self-sacrificial acts of those days none is as highly honoured as
that of the schoolmistress Vasiliki Papathanasiou, a bust of whom stands in the
middle of the schoolyard. Every year, on the day of her martyrdom, the teaching
staff gathers here to pay tribute to her heroism.
TRACES OF ETHNICITY AT SKRA
The village is known in the region as a village of Vlachs. It is part of a group

of villages and hamlets constituted by Koupa, Arhangelos, Perikleia, Livadhia and
Langadhia, as well as Huma and Muin, which lie over the border in the
F.Y.R.O.M. While the testimonies of events and heroic deeds described in the
previous paragraph are well preserved and promoted,8 everything related to the
ethnicity of Skra can rather be seen as traces that are disappearing step by step.
Something of significance from this point of view is the fate of the small
ethnographic museum (λαογραφικό µουσείο). The solid iron door with its seized,
corroded lock was a clue that no-one had entered for many years. Only through a
window, looking between the bars, could one see some books on a shelf, some
photographs, a packsaddle, an iron-toothed brush probably used for carding wool,
and an old typewriter on a desk. Some months later,9 the windowpanes were
broken. I never heard the local people – irrespective of whether they were
permanent residents of Skra or live elsewhere – talking about the fate of this
museum. By contrast, a chapel of the Ascension built by “brothers from Geororgios
Vasilios Vlaicos in the Macedonian battle”, which faces the museum across the
yard, is well preserved.
Another significant indication of a loss of sense of ethnicity is the
abandoning of the old “la Selíşti” cemetery (the name means “at the place where
the village once was” in the local Vlach dialect). Here, the funeral slabs and stones
made of sedimentary river stone, which only by a great effort of thought could be
described as funeral crosses, are covered by moss and become less visible with
every layer of leaves that falls from the oaks among which the graves are scattered.
Recent graves are few; nowadays the other graveyard is used, with funeral
monuments consisting of crosses and slabs of white marble, geometrically laid out,
as may be seen in all the villages I visited in Macedonia.
The same disappearing traces of ethnicity may be discovered at the level of
social organisation and of a number of cultural features. Marriages are in most
cases exogamous. Endogamous couples are rather an exception10 and are composed
8
The door of the First World War museum is permanently open to visitors at weekends and
on feast days. I remember that the first thing I was advised to do on my arrival at Skra was to visit this
museum.
9
The fieldwork at Skra was carried out between 1st December 2011 and 16th April 2012,
followed by many subsequent visits.
10
I could only find fewer than ten such couples.
of elderly people. In their turn, exogamously constituted couples in which both

partners are Vlachs are not in a majority. At least as numerous are couples where
there has been a marriage between a native and a non-Vlach partner from
elsewhere, regardless of his origin: ντόπιος (“native”), Pontian, or from Asia
Minor, etc.11 However, at the kinship level, traces of a recent endogamous marriage
pattern are still to be found: the entire village appears to be a large group formed in
accordance with a criterion of kinship
Those families in which both partners are in employment do not live in Skra
all the time. The vast majority of them have settled either in the small towns along
the Axios river valley,12 Axioupoli and Polikastro, 25 km SE of Skra, or in
Thessaloniki, 80 km away, or in some other town where there are job opportunities.
Living abroad is quite rare. People who have moved away return to the village only
occasionally: for weekends, at major festivals and for holidays. It is perhaps for
this reason that the settlement has acquired the air of a holiday destination.
These two factors – the mixed profile of families and the fact of extra-local
residence – contribute to the education of children in which the language used is
modern Greek. Although they spend their holidays at Skra, nowadays the children
neither speak nor understand the Vlach language. As a generalisation, people of
local provenance aged over fifty can easily use βλαχικά (the Vlach language),
while those between thirty and fifty have some competence in using this language
and those aged under thirty are not able to use the Latin dialect at all.
Architecture, clothes and textiles all follow the same logic of ethnic
evolution. The houses of today – the architecture of which has been so greatly
changed that they look like pretty holiday villas, resembling the houses in Plagia
and Fanos13 – have resulted from the modification or extension of three-roomed
houses. All of these were built by the Greek government at the beginning of the
1950s in order that civil war refugees could return home from the towns in the
valley. One could not say that the building of these houses followed a traditional
Vlach architectural style. Houses with the same plan and architecture can be found
at Evzonoi, a village where the majority population is from Pontus.
As for “traditional” clothes, I did not find a single such garment. Neither did
I find any old photographs from which this type of costume could be studied,
whether the festival or the everyday type, as worn in the years before the Second
World War or perhaps a short time afterwards. While I happened to be watching (at
a tavern in the plateia) the popular television show Κυριακή στο χωριό (“Sunday in
the village”) shown on the ET 3 channel, then being transmitted from the village of
11
Greek populations moved from Turkey to Greece as a consequence of the Treaty of
Lausanne (1923).
12
A river that rises in the F.Y.R.O.M. (where it is known as the Vardari) enters Greece at
Evzonoi and flows into the Aegean west of Thessaloniki.
13
Villages lying 15 km east of Skra, toward Evzonoi, and populated by people from Asia Minor.
Klisoura in the prefecture of Kastoria, somebody pointed out that the traditional
clothes worn by the dancers were Vlach and had once existed in Skra too.
Some textiles formerly woven on looms in the village are still to be found. In
spite of this, no interest exists in their preservation, much less in their being
exhibited as markers of a particular ethnic identity. I could find such textiles in
evidence as bedclothes or floorcoverings in only one of all the houses I visited, the
home of an old woman. In the house where I stayed, and in another inhabited by a
friend and informant, textiles woven on looms in the village (but with models the
provenance of which can more confidently be considered regional, and in any case
Vlach) were kept in storerooms. The conditions under which they were kept were
quite unsuitable, as if it would be no great loss if they were to rot.
In the past three decades, so-called πολιτιστικοí σύλλογοι (cultural
assemblies / associations) have been founded and set up in places all over Greece
to preserve and promote the traditional music and dances of different peoples and
regions. These associations are having great success; almost every Greek is or has
been a member of such an association. The public scene of their activities usually
consists of performances at various community festivals (I mentioned the πανηγύρι
in the previous section). It is well known that music and dance can have a powerful
ethnic appeal, even when other markers of ethnic identity have become blurred.
Thus, “the act of listening, dancing, arguing, discussing, thinking and writing about
music, provide the means by which ethnicities and identities are constructed and
mobilized” (Stokes, 1994: 5), in a context in which the music, as a collective
activity, induces in the participants a powerful emotional experience of social
identity (ibidem, 21). However, the activities of the Skra σύλλογος are insufficient
to touch the chords of ethnicity. Any active preservation of local and regional
music is lacking. If Vlach dances are (also) included in dance repertoires, these are
dances that can be found all over Macedonia. One old man, not a member of the
σύλλογος, was able to remember fragments of some “vlăşeşti” (Vlach) songs. I do
not have comparative benchmarks to allow me to tell whether these songs had a
local or a general-regional circulation. All I can say is that he was the only person
singing (or who wanted to sing) these songs whom I could find. Such a benchmark
could have been provided by songs recorded “on a tape” in the neighbouring
village, Koupa, also a part of the Skra κοινότητα14 and affected by the same
processes of ethnic evolution. But the tape was nowhere to found. Returning to the
σύλλογος, its members meet for rehearsals extremely rarely, a few times a year, the
most recent occasion known to me being before the performance celebrating the
battle of Skra (May 2014).15 As for the costumes they were dressed in for this
festival, the few dancers, whether adolescents or not, were not sure whether these
were copies of costumes worn in the old days by their Skra παπούδες
(“grandfathers”) and γιαγιάδες (“grandmothers”).
14
Κοινότητα, “community”, a minor administrative unit, headed by a πρόεδρος (“president”).
15
This paper was written in the autumn of 2014.
A DIALECTICS OF IDENTITY
WITH TAKEN-FOR-GRANTED ASPECTS
The second and the third sections of this study have been devoted to facts. In
them I have described the empirical grounds which support the dialectical relation
announced in the title. I have tried to use a method of “statistical documentation by
concrete evidence” (Malinowski, 1987: 22). This is an inductive method in which
the appearances of phenomena are studied up until the point at which the
conclusions (regardless of their nature) become self-evident, making any contrary
hypothesis improbable. The method is well adapted to long-term fieldwork.16 Such
fieldwork makes it possible to correct many errors in the very place where the data
was collected. An additional advantage of proceeding in this way is that the time
factor does not then act as an element of psychological pressure that brings with it
the temptation to consider only facts that support the hypothesis while ignoring
those that contradict it.
My title also announces the place of reference for the anchoring of the
dialectical relation – a small Greek community – and the first two lines of the
second section specify its size. I am thus allying myself with an anthropological
tradition that favours ethnographical depiction of a microscopic type (Geertz, 1973:
21), in which “It is merely to say that the anthropologist characteristically
approaches such broader interpretations and more abstract analyses from the
direction of exceedingly extended acquaintances with extremely small matters”
(ibidem). But I should make it clear that I do not intend this study to be a
contribution to the analysis of the relation between national and ethnic generally. I
am focusing on a local analysis of it, in which the key to the relation lies in the
local experiencing of ethnicity.17 In the neighbouring village, Arhangelos, different
ecological conditions could lead to a different experience. The analysis and the
conclusions drawn from here can be used as a basis for generalisations about, say,
the entire Vlach population of Greece only with a very high degree of prudence. It
is safer to remain within the limits of a generalisation of the type “given conditions
x, y, z… it is likely that phenomenon X will appear.”
Moreover, the facts described (mainly in the first section) are
anthropologically irrelevant if they are not methodologically paralleled by what has
been called the “everyday ethnicity approach” (Koziura, 2014: 2). Aspects of this
approach have appeared chiefly in the third section. For the facts described in the
second section, there is no need for these to have metonymic importance in local
ethnicity. In the context of a dictatorial regime, for example, huge monuments
16
Malinowski founded this method in the wake of a fieldwork exercise of this kind.
17
This local experiencing is in its turn not uniform. I consider that anthropology has much to
gain from its contact with the methods of sociology, according to which a social phenomenon must be
approached by its reflection at the levels of social layers, classes, groups etc. However, I shall treat
ethnicity in a synthetic way, being also helped, within the above-mentioned methodological
framework, by the smallness of the Skra community.
could be built, but this would not reflect the ethnic and national-patriotic
convictions of citizens.
On the basis of the facts recounted and within the specified methodological
framework,18 it is possible to say that for the inhabitants of the small village of
Skra – regardless of their degree of residence, temporary or permanent – the
national aspects are taken for granted in the dialectics of identity while the ethnic
aspects do not form a category of relevance. When talking about “national
aspects”, these are not to be thought of as implying, without fail, a state ideology.
On the contrary, the nation is one thing, the state is other: “Ellada is the most
beautiful country. We have sea, sun, music, food. But we do not have politicians”
(Petros). The state may or may not be worthy of a nation the identity poles of
which are configured by Hellenic antiquity on the one hand and by the Roman and
Byzantine inheritance on the other (Στρατουδάκι, 2014).19
This is not a unique phenomenon. Anthropological literature already records
similar situations. For the inhabitants of the multi-ethnic Rize region of Turkey,
ethnicity does not seem to be a major source of identity.20 On the contrary, both
objectively (through means of greater possibilities of communication and social
mobility, by prosperity brought by the cultivation of tea etc.) and subjectively too, the
inhabitants consider themselves as full members of the new national entity, the
Gellnerian national model being thus confirmed (Hann, 2003: 5-6). In another study,
this time not of regional but of local extension, in the city of Chernivtsi, Ukraine, it
has been noticed that regardless of ethnos, Ukrainian, Romanian, Polish, Jewish, “in
the everyday life, the marked category of ‘Ukrainianness’ became an unmarked and
taken for granted category for ordinary people. [This] is a sign of the successful
nationalizing efforts of the Ukrainian state” (Koziura, 2014: 14).
The frontal approach to ethnicity, so as to establish its importance in the
identity dialectic on the basis of the relation between national and ethnic (a pairing
that in studies of Southern Europe seems to exclude other theoretical alternatives
[Şerban, 2007: 245]), confirms the conclusion from the observed facts. When
children and young people socialized in mixed families (and the younger the
population category, the more numerous these are) at Skra were asked about their
ethnic identity affiliation, the answers given seem to show that this was an issue
that was not of interest for them. These answers to “accidental” questions tend not
to cluster around a common core. Some constants might be found by quantitative
18
Many other facts of observation could be added, but I have stopped short of including them,
not wanting the study to be inductively overloaded.
19
That means that in the case of Greece the overlapping between ethnic nation and political
territorial nation (an ideal situation in the theory of the nation expressed by Anthony D. Smith
[1986]) is never complete, if we equate political territorial nation with the state. But the ideal situation
never comes about. If the state does not properly perform its protective function, it risks losing the
support of the members of the nation (Grosby, 2005: 26).
20
For both Lazi and Hemşinli, “ethnic identity is not inherently more important for social
organization than a local or geographical affiliation” (Hann, 2003: 13).
approaches, for example by means of a questionnaire. For the moment, all that can
be said is that these young people are not preoccupied by a particular identity. Nor
is national identity greatly emphasised either. This data must not be allowed to
deceive us, if we take into account other observed facts too (only some have been
set out in this study), and the conclusion is that it does not make sense to speak
about national identity because this identity goes without saying.
The few conversations I had with parents about the identity of their children
bring in as a novelty the involvement of kinship. Although family descent is
patronymic, emotionally it is bound up with the name given to the newborn baby.
Thus, he/she has to have the name of one of his/her grandparents. Sometimes
quarrels may arise between them regarding the name, although some rules do exist;
for example, the name of the first grandson has to be taken from the parents of the
father. There is a question as to whether it is not the case that together with the
name a part of the ethnicity of the grandfather also has to be taken on.
The conclusion to draw, following this approach, is that the ethnicity of the
children of mixed marriages is uncertain.
ETHNICITY AT SKRA. LINES OF RESEARCH
While aspects of a national type are not problematic in the dialectics of

identity,21 aspects of an ethnic type give birth to analytical impasses. These
deserve, for this reason, a thorough treatment if we are to understand to what
degree they do not form an identity-dialectic category of relevance for the
community. This lack of relevance could have as an extreme consequence identity
resignation. After an initial overview of the fieldwork data, the concept on which I
decided to concentrate was that of “identity change”. A subsequent scientific paper
was to focus on the description and analysis of this process. But Gheorghiţă Geană
(of the Francisc I. Rainer Anthropology Institute of the Romanian Academy),
following a discussion in which the empirical sections of this study were briefly
presented to him, advised me to speak directly about identity resignation. As a
precedent, he gave me the example of some Romanian nobles who lived in
Transylvania in the long period of Hungarian and Austrian domination. These
people accepted Magyarization because they were attracted by the prospects for
political, social and economic benefits this new identity would give them. Identity
resignation, irrespective of its nature and causes, is not an entirely new or unusual
thing.
The mode of thinking initiated in 1969 by Fredrik Barth makes me very
cautious about assigning labels. That was the point when the equivalence between
ethnic identity and cultural identity was questioned. In the introductory chapter
(Barth, 1969a) of the collective volume Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. The Social
21
As long as one remembers to make an appropriate distinction between “nation” and “state”.
Organization of Culture Difference, the idea is advanced that some ethnic

boundaries are maintained regardless of cultural changes and the movement of
persons, so long as “ethnic groups are seen as a form of social organization”
(ibidem, 13). The phenomenon can be read in the list of the characteristics of self-
ascription and ascription by others (ibidem). Thus, the organizational sense of
ethnicity does not directly depend on such cultural features as language, religion,
myths, history etc. The chapters that make up the rest of the volume, as well as
those of an anniversary volume published twenty-five years later, The
Anthropology of Ethnicity. Beyond ‘Ethnic Groups and Boundaries’, are devoted to
the development of this idea. Many social phenomena that function as ethnic
boundaries are described, some of which in fact retrieve the culture: thus, ethnic
groups are social categories, to which a certain status is given, with inter-ethnic
relations organized on this basis (Eidheim, 1969: 39), and labels that can take the
form of social stigma (ibidem, 40); hospitality (Haaland, 1969: 69-70); the
assigning of particular social meanings to a limited set of actions (Blom, 1969: 74),
in the context of occupying different ecological niches and the developing of
certain symbiotic relationships as the result of a need for capital (ibidem, 79);
competition within the same ecological niche can also produce a strengthening of
some ethnic boundaries (Knutsson, 1969: 94-95); the over-communication of
cultural differences (Henning, 1969: 101), with the consequence that the results of
government policies of assimilation are limited (ibidem, 105-105); a number of
value orientations (male autonomy, equality, aggressiveness etc.), which can be
subsumed under the concept of honour (Barth, 1969b: 120); the common origin and
consciousness of ethnic identity seen in migrant communities (Roosens, 1994), etc.
This rich variety of social situations which can represent so many ethnic
boundaries inspired me to search for similar phenomena at Skra. Returning to the
facts and observations, we should take account of the narration of some stories with
historical-mythological associations and of references both to origins and to cross-
border relatives, since these could represent lines of research by which the past
might obtain the dignity of an ethnic boundary.22 Even if this dignity is an arguable
one, we will surely discover the persistence of a “benign / gentle ethnicity”,
recognizable in “the oral history area, the remembrance of the respective group
origin, as well as in ad-hoc explanations through which the specific group explains
its particular characteristics” (Şerban, 2007: 250, applying a concept taken from
John Rex to the special case of minority groups in South-East Europe). Thus,
maybe not coincidentally, at the outset of my fieldwork at Skra I was perceived as
22
Only the third line of research – which temporally is related rather to the present – sends us
ad litteram to social organization. The first two are instances of cultural features. Barth’s theory does
not eliminate such situations, inasmuch as differences are communicated through them, but deals with
the special case of situations of inter-group cultural transformations and cultural homogenization.
Social organization (Barth endeavours to make clear what is to be understood by this) is the reason
why cultural homogenization does not represent, at the same time, ethnic homogenization as well.
being interested in the history of the village. In those first days I noticed the
recurrence of one particular story. I reproduce it from my field journal: “Seven
brothers dug the earth to cultivate potatoes. In another place, a mother and daughter
in their turn dug to cultivate potatoes. A Turkish chieftain from Fanos (the
neighbouring village to the east, then inhabited by Turks) came and kidnapped the
girl, seeing that she was beautiful. The mother quickly ran to the brothers and told
them what had happened. On hearing her story, the brothers ran speedily after the
Turk. They caught him and killed him. In order not to be found by the Turks who
were coming to look for the dead chieftain, they came down to Skra to hide among
the houses and villagers. Skra was more extensive then than it is now.” The traces
of this event are still present in local toponymy. A forest road which starts from
Skra has as a landmark part-way along it a place named “Επτά αδέρφια” (“Seven
brothers”). Another place called “Grupu Coinarului” in the local Vlach dialect
marks the spot where the Turk is supposed to have been killed. Also, the seven
brothers would have been buried in the old cemetery. Now this story is compatible
with three types of identity: local, ethnic and national.23 It can be placed in a
historical series the core of which is represented by the struggle of the Hellenic
people for national status, independence and territorial reintegration. The story
begins with the struggle against Ottoman domination (inaugurated by the
Revolution of 1821) and continues with the Balkan Wars, the two World Wars and
the Greek Civil War. The resistance to the military junta in the years from 1967
and 1974 can also be included. The series, as we have pointed out, is very well
represented at Skra.
But the reference to origins doubtless instantiates the core of a possible
ethnic boundary related to a specific past. The genealogical discourse, in all its
forms, has autochthonic stresses. The Vlachs of Skra and Koupa have always been
there, unlike Vlachs in other villages of the region. Those in Livadhia would have
come from Moskopoli (Albania). The Vlachs of Arhangelos and Perikleia must
also have different origins, as they speak a dialect that has more in common with
Romanian.24 Irrefutable evidence of this is provided by a marble plaque found
when excavations were being carried out in order to build the Skra school building.
It is inscribed in Latin and the wording includes the name Marcus Evrilius. This
23
The category of narrations with historical-mythological associations also includes the one
regarding the provenance of the flags used in the procession held on the second day of Easter. This is
also compatible with the three types of identity. But Maria G. Papagheorghiou’s Tales. From the tales
of the ancient lost Hellenic poetic operas and other tales of the Vlachophone village of Skra
(Liumniţa) (Thessaloniki, 1984) refers us, by its very title, to ethnic identity. I very seldom heard the
villagers talking about this. Another book by the same author, Opinions on the “Cross” on the graves
in Skra (Ed. Purnara, Thessaloniki, 1976), despite my best efforts, was nowhere to be found in Skra.
24
The ethno-logical consequence of these beliefs is that it is not possible to speak of a
homogeneous ethno-cultural and linguistic group, that of the Meglen Vlachs (much less to use the
name of Megleno-Romanians, preferred by linguists), as it exists in literature. In the entire duration of
my fieldwork, I met this designation only once, on a flyer advertising a hostel in Arhangelos.
plaque is now in the museum in Kilkis, the main town of the prefecture. In another
version, told by the dentist Trifon from Koupa, the opinions of a historian are
invoked. In this account, the Vlachs there are descendants of Roman soldiers who
guarded Egnatia Odhos [the Via Egnatia], the road that led from Constantinople to
Illyria, part of present-day Albania. They married native woman and settled in the
area. The local language was formed as a consequence of this.
The references to origins exclude any direct kinship relation to the Romanian
people. The relation can be at most an indirect one, with the Vlachs being a people
sprung from the same Latin root. The similarities with Romanian often seem to be
“curiosities”. Local opinion frequently expresses the conviction that linguistic
connections with Romanian are no more important than connections with Italian, or
even with French. In any event, language cannot represent an important criterion of
ethnicity. The idea derived from this empirical ground is also to be found in
Anthony Smith’s ethnic theory (1986: 27). But here, by contrast, language
differences do not necessarily signify differences of ethnicity.
There is a third line of research that can also be linked to the category of the
past as an ethnic boundary, but this is one that goes beyond the limits of a local
ethnicity. Mentioning my Romanian national identity led to my being informed by
villagers about their relatives living in Romania, especially in Cerna, a village in
the Tulcea district. These relatives would have gone to Romania on a migration
trail that began in 1926 and would have been relying on promises of a better life.
The huge plane tree in the plateia of Skra is said to have been planted then. The
maintaining (often the discovery) of these kinship relations both in Skra and in
other villages, for example in Arhangelos, is often of great interest.25
All these three lines of research, which instantiate the past as a possible ethnic
boundary, are opened up by processes of auto-ascription. A move towards hetero-
ascription might have as a result another constellation of ethnic circumscription. As
25
I was to observe the same interest during a short visit to Cerna, on which occasion I was
accompanied by an “arumun” (a member of another Vlach population in Greece) from Agrinio
(150 km west of Athens, on the continental side of Greece). Seeing us, some people from one
neighbourhood shared with us their desire to renew contact with their relatives in Greece, or their
happiness where these links had already been re-established. Stelu Şerban (2007: 244) refers to a
situation of “self-construction of ethnicity [that] affectively implies different ethnic groups that live
together”, addressing here the special case of some communities of Rudari (gypsies) in Bulgaria. But
the phenomenon needs to be considered in conjunction with some processes of pragmatic order. This
self-construction implies emotional reactions in the face of myths of origins, oral histories, value
judgements regarding the Other, etc. However, in the case of the present study, the engaging of
kinship confers on the process a more literal meaning. Institutionally, Şerban evokes a “top-down”
situation. But for a solid ethnic consciousness, my case has a “bottom-up” aspect. A parallel regarding
the construction of a national consciousness for the Romanian people is to be found in Gheorghiţă
Geană’s theory. The elite, in their endeavour to promote a sense of nationhood, were working on a
soil of national consciousness already prepared by the regular meeting of the different Romanian
populations at two or three folk fairs held on the ridge of the Carpathians (Geană, 2006).
Roger Brubaker (2006) observes,26 ethnicity is a topic people seldom speak about;
however, it can be deduced from stereotypes and prejudices. The present case invokes
the special force of stereotypes and prejudices regarding the Other. The local ethnicity I
am concerned with is treated in an indirect way; we are not dealing with a merely
regional ethnicity. These stereotypes target all the Vlachs in Greece. Their common
feature is the poor populational status given to Latinophone communities. I will
establish my theory by using data gathered in Evzonoi.27
Evzonoi is a border village, not much greater in population than Skra. It is
affected by the same process of migration, with people looking for jobs in the small
cities of Polikastro and Axioupoli, or further away in Thessaloniki.28 The few
families of Pontians who arrived here at the beginning of the 1920s have over the
course of time replaced the local population, the Pontians being today in the
majority. My study includes both categories.
In their gentle form, the stereotypes regarding Vlachs have hospitality as a
subject. “People are not the same everywhere. People of one kind are here, people
of a different kind are there”, I was warned by Stratos when he heard that I was
going to Skra for the winter. “Do they treat you there?” I am asked by Thanasis in
one of my short returns to Evzonoi. “Better here!” Andronicos concludes. In fact,
hospitality seems to be a key identity benchmark for a Pontian or a person from
Asia Minor, a visiting card often ostentatiously displayed: “Not to say later you had
gone to the Pontians and they didn’t treat you” (unknown person, Rodhohori,
Nousa prefecture). This shows that the Vlachs’ hospitality model does not match
that of the Pontians.
Although in a gentle form, answers do appear when we ask for an ad-hoc
estimate of the level of prestige enjoyed by Vlachs. I asked Panaiotis (aged 31,
unmarried) to locate the Vlachs on a scale of the social prestige of Hellenic
populations. He located them without hesitation in bottom place. He would never
marry a Vlach woman. However, there is general agreement regarding the superior
beauty of these women.
In a more poignant tone, we may find both deprecatory allusions to the
Vlachs’ character, and stereotypes of derision: “The Vlachs are πονηροί άνθρωποι”
(“disingenuous people”), according to Evripidis, and I heard him say so many
times. I also had an opportunity to verify the power of this prejudice at the level of
behaviour. A quarrel between an elderly married couple was related to the issue of
buying or not buying potatoes from a Vlach who was selling them on the streets of
26
Quoted by Karolina Koziura, 2014: 3.
27
The second place where I lived for a considerable period during my Greek fieldwork, for
two and a half months before Skra and two weeks afterwards. Thanks are due to Father Mihai Savu,
the priest in Evzonoi, for his assistance.
28
This situation is also to be found in the villages of Fanos and Plagia, localities in between
Skra and Evzonoi, inhabited by descendants of Greeks who arrived here from Asia Minor (especially
from present-day Izmir) as a result of population movements that began in 1923.
Evzonoi. The facial expression of the wife left me in no doubt regarding the true
reason behind her refusal. Something had to be wrong with the potatoes, since they
were being sold by a Vlach.
Two pieces of local folklore reveal stereotypes of derision related to Vlachs.
I was only able to gather these after a long period during which the researcher and
some members of the local community became familiar with one another. One joke
describes the way one Vlach discovered counting (in his language): “He found out
one, two, as far as nine. But he did not know what to call ten. Then a donkey farted
and it sounded like <<za∫e>>. In this way he found out ten.” Or, “When a Vlach
farts, he looks behind him to see if it is big!”
However, I did not notice any cases of spontaneous ripostes of the Vlachs
from Skra (or anywhere else) to these stereotypes, prejudices or attitudes, as if they
were not conscious of their existence. When I stirred the situation, the reactions
were at rather a low level: “Pontians have big heads.” For my area of interest, any
spontaneous answers would have been very significant: they would have marked
the ethnic boundary with maximum clarity.
FINAL REFLECTIONS
While the majority of the people groups distributed across the territory of
Greece historically regard themselves as being Hellenic populations, the Vlachs
belong to a population category (in which can also be included, for example, the
Turks of the western part of Thrace) with a different provenance. This category is
in the first place linguistically marked. Hence the relation between national and
ethnic,29 in which the national (marked in the present case by the Hellenic ideal) is
something other than the ethnic, takes on the appearance of a dialectical relation in
the identity equation. It is therefore right to speak not about an identity dynamics
(valid when the two terms are one and the same) but about an identity dialectics.
This study adds to a series in which the dialectic evolves without tensions: the
national is taken into account, while the ethnic is deprived of relevance. Unlike the
previously mentioned studies by Chris Hann and Karolina Koziura, which are
largely concerned with throwing light on the nature of the national “taken for
granted / goes without saying”, my research points to the other term of the relation.
It focuses on the degree to which the ethnic is deprived of relevance. Situations of
29
A relation that cannot be neglected in contemporary studies on the subject of ethnicity.
Barth (1994: 20-21), re-examining his initial theory, adds that such a study must take into account the
connexions between three levels: micro, medium and macro. The first is embodied by the individual,
the second by the collective, and the third by the state (and the last of these – pace all the objections
that might be raised – can be assimilated to the nation). He remarks that most studies of ethnicity
focus on the medium level. The present enterprise belongs to a category that is concerned with
connections between the medium and macro levels.
“wholly relevant” or “thoroughly deprived of relevance” are quite few in number.30

The identification of some ethnic boundaries is a good indicator in this regard.
Primordialist theoretical approaches cannot accommodate cases of the irrelevance
of the ethnic. Situationalist approaches, in which “the ethnic groups and their
features are produced [“activated”, could also be used, my addition, S. Ş.] under
particular interactional, historical, economic and political circumstances” (Barth,
1994: 12), can do this. Moreover, when situationalism takes the form of
instrumentalism31 – the gaining of benefits on ethnic grounds – we have an
indication that the degree of irrelevance is low.
In the case of a local approach to ethnicity that I am concerned with, the
degree of irrelevance of the ethnic is a high one. It is less high from the point of
view of a hetero-ascription. But this hetero-ascription occupies second place in the
internal experiencing of ethnicity. From the other perspective, related to auto-
ascription, the possibilities of the appearance of certain presumptive ethnic
boundaries – with the possible exception of cross-border kinship – anchored in the
past are not incompatible with a national logic based on unilateral contradiction
(Noica, 1986: 46). Katherine Verdery (1994: 46), commenting on Brackette F.
Williams (1989), observed that the latest trend in homogenization imposed by the
state is to give “socio-political significance to the fact of difference”. These
differences may be concerned with “ethnicity, gender, locality, class, sexuality and
race” (ibidem). The mode of action of the unilateral contradiction is that if the
differences contradict the ideal of state-national homogenization, the State, for its
part, does not contradict them. The diversity follows the vector of national
homogenization, in spite of an apparent lack of unity. Thus, the particular past of
the Skra community, even if it seems to be incompatible with a Hellenic national
ideal, is recovered in this way in a synthesis of homogeneity. This is the same
phenomenon as occurs, for example, in the case of every community of Pontians
with a three-thousand-year history in the southern and eastern parts of the Black
Sea area. In the thinking of Constantin Noica, all these are particulars contributing
towards the national general. In fact we meet here the ideology of multiculturalism.
But the multicultural policies of the Greek government regarding the Vlachs are in
line with the observation that multiculturalism does not always mean
30
Here we may see one of the differences between the anthropologist and the journalist. The
latter readily uses labels (for example “fundamentalist”, “extremist”, “separatist” etc.) to characterize
whole communities and populations. The former knows from his experience that the bracket of
uniformity must be employed only with great caution.
31
The papers by Stelu Şerban and Karolina Koziura (also) adopt this approach. For Stelu
Şerban, the receiving of political support on an ethnic basis (although here the ethnic is not without
relevance), for Karolina Koziura, the gaining of benefits of a different nature (for example, having an
identity as a Romanian or Pole in the Ukrainian context facilitates access to the European job market.
The Romanian people’s ethnically grounded protest against military mobilization to take part in
events in the east of Ukraine in 2014 would have been another valuable piece of evidence for
Koziura’s position).
multilingualism (Schöpflin, 2010: 200). Whole population segments – as is the case

of the village of Skra, for reasons that seem phenomenally internal32 – are thus
deprived of an essential instrument of “cultural reproduction” (ibidem, 201).33
In this context, the Greek government encourages the promotion (and where
this is possible, revitalization) of “traditions”. The so-called cultural associations
(πολιτιστικοí σύλλογοι) are very active in this regard, especially in relation to
dance and music. The poor functioning of the Skra σύλλογος represents a
significant indicator of what we have called the degree of irrelevance of the ethnic.
In these circumstances, Gheorghiţă Geană would not be going very far wrong were
he to speak of ethnic resignation.34
The only realm in which it is still possible to stimulate high ethnic
consciousness and a low degree of irrelevance is, in the end, cross-border kinship. I
would prefer to consider this aspect of local ethnicity as part of regional ethnicity
(also), for the reason that I do not at this point have a detailed picture of this
phenomenon at Skra.35
The existence of relatives living in Romania is a contingent fact. But the
linguistic kinship of the Vlach language with Romanian seems to be an argument
for an ethnic kinship, as it is for Romanian scholars in their studies of various
topics relating to the Vlachs (hence also the unproblematic use of such terms as
Megleno-Romanians, aRomanians etc.). But in the local and regional context of
ethnicity this kinship is ruled out. As far as I know, the same could also be said
about other Latinophone populations (Aromanians / Sarakatsani etc.) in Greece.
For this reason, any attempt by the Romanian state to have these populations
recognised as Romanian minorities will be rejected by the populations themselves
and will create tensions in its relations with the Greek state. In the memory of
people over seventy-five years old there are still images of a Romanian school that
was opened at Skra in the early ’forties. These memories do not seem to have any
ethnic resonance. They are recollections brought to light in a childlike manner.36
But a pamphlet by Dimitiros Drogidhis, a short biography of the schoolmistress
Vasiliki Papathanasiou, killed by communist αντάρτες on 13th November 1946, a
32
See the small fragment on native language in the third section.
33
George Schöphlin makes these observations when considering the special case of
immigrant cultures.
34
According to Vintilă Mihăilescu (National School of Political Science and Public
Administration, Bucharest / personal communication), an expression such as “irrelevance of the
ethnic” must be introduced only with great caution. A parallel analysis of the political context, for
instance, could be compatible with the introduction of different concepts, such as “silent” or “hidden”
(ethnic) identity (here we remember the Greek crypto-Christians in the time of the Ottoman Empire,
who had a public religious identity as Muslims). Similarly “identity resignation” could more correctly
to be regarded as “identity duality”, in the opinion of my wife Anişoara Ştefănucă, an ethnographer.
35
A study of this topic would most probably be conclusive in assessing the degree of irrelevance.
36
For one of my informants, the presence of a Romanian was a good opportunity to recite the
first lines of a short poem learnt at the Romanian school, “Puppy with a curly coat”. But this was
rendered in a jokey manner, to entertain his hearers.
pamphlet that can be seen as belonging to the category of national-intellectual

discourse, bears strong indications of the rejection of any kind of Romanianism. Thus,
Papathanasiou’s heroic predecessor, the schoolmaster Haralambos Gartsios, “was
killed in 1913 by the agents of Romanian and Bulgarian propaganda” (∆ρογίδης, 1996:
8). The schoolmistress Papathanasiou is regarded as an apostle of illumination for the
ξενοφώνων κατοίκων (“inhabitants speaking a foreign language”) (ibidem, 13) and a
representative of a “wronged generation who saw Elladha battling against the enemies
(Bulgarians, Italians, Romanians and Germans) of that epoch” (ibidem, 5). The name
“Vlach” as a description of the inhabitants of Skra is to be found nowhere in the
pamphlet. Through her death, Vasiliki Papathanasiou becomes a symbol of the entire
Greek people, a “symbol of the unity of Greece that has given to the foreigners the
values of the humanities” (ibidem, 1).
Future studies will need to focus in depth on the causes that have resulted in
the relation between national and ethnic in the dialectics of identity that we have
shown to be the case at Skra. The causes taken into consideration may be diverse:
migration (to Germany in the early 1960s, towards urban areas today), mixed
marriages, the fact of periods marked by a government policy of the repression of
local languages and Latinophone manifestations, etc. All that can for the moment
be said is that for the inhabitants of this small Hellenic village “the nation is a
social relation of collective self-consciousness” (Grosby, 2005: 10). But – unlike
the content of this self-consciousness for Grosby – although we are differentiated
by language, historical tradition, etc., we all contribute to the building of the same
national ideal.
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È LA “TRADIZIONE” ANCORA BUONA DA PENSARE?
RIFLESSIONI CRITICHE SU UNA NOZIONE CONTROVERSA
ALESSANDRO TESTA*
Abstract. The general aim of this article is to reflect critically on the notion of
tradition. This is done through an assessment of the pertinent literature, and a
discussion on historical and ethnographic case studies. The article is divided into four
chapters: the first one summarises the most important studies and debates where the
notion of tradition is discussed in the fields of history, anthropology, and folkloristics;
the second and the third ones challenge some rather radical conclusions on tradition
that have been advocated by some Italian and French scholars working on the notion
of tradition as well as on social facts usually qualified as traditional; in the fourth
chapter I offer some further considerations, both theoretically and ethnographically
informed, about how and why, in spite of the deconstruction it has been the object of
in recent years, tradition could still be used as an analytical notion in historical and
anthropological sciences.
Keywords: tradition, anthropology, ethnology, historical anthropology, folklore,
theory in anthropological sciences, modernity and post-modernity, Europe.
DALLA TRADIZIONE ALL’INVENZIONE DELLA TRADIZIONE
Quello di tradizione è un concetto stratificato, abusato persino, già definito

“problematico e polisemico”1, “ambiguo e fuorviante”2 o addirittura “urticante”3. È
quindi d’uopo, a mo’ di incipit, definirne meglio i contorni teorici e gli usi che lo
caratterizzano nella storia degli studi.
Si tratta di una nozione la cui stessa etimologia tradisce una relazione con il
passato e con il concetto di trasmissione: nel passaggio dal latino alle lingue neo-
latine (ma anche al Tedesco e all’Inglese), il termine ha mantenuto pressoché
intatto il suo significato principale e basilare, che si riferisce a “ciò che si
*
Postdoctoral research fellow, Department of European Ethnology, University of Vienna
(alessandro.testa@univie.ac.at). Questo studio si inscrive tra i risultati del progetto di ricerca
individuale M 1828-G22, finanziato dall’FWF – Austrian Research Fund.
1
Dei, Simonicca 1998: 109.
2
Faeta 2011b: 136.
3
Palumbo 2009: 48.

64 Alessandro Testa 2
tramanda”4. Le tradizioni sarebbero dunque i tipici fenomeni sociali che si situano

sull’asse della diacronia. Non sorprende quindi la constatazione che, oltre a esser
sempre state oggetto di investigazione di etnologi e antropologi, la tradizione e le
tradizioni abbiano suscitato un particolare interesse presso gli storici e gli studiosi
afferenti a discipline alla frontiera tra storia e scienze sociali, come la storia
culturale, il folklore (o la demologia, per utilizzare la dicitura italiana), e la storia
delle religioni.
È invece necessario considerare, ora, che se de da un lato è all’interno di questa
cornice teorica che va compreso un certo tipo di studio della tradizione e delle
tradizioni, specie in Europa e specie se europee, dall’altro le discussioni sulla tradizione
non si esauriscono affatto alla problematica appena esposta. Al contrario, il dibattitto,
proprio come nel caso della nozione di cultura, è stato negli ultimi trentacinque anni
all’incirca particolarmente ricco e fecondo, sebbene talvolta funestato da una eccessiva
polarizzazione delle diverse posizioni teoriche e correnti di pensiero. Proprio come la
nozione di cultura, inoltre, quella di tradizione è stata oggetto, grossomodo nello stesso
arco di tempo, di un profondo ripensamento.
Uno tra i primi e i più importanti passi verso tale ripensamento non fu
intrapreso da filosofi o antropologi, come ci si potrebbe aspettare, bensì da un
gruppo di storici – certo fortemente influenzati da altre scienze sociali, e da Marx –
che prepararono un saggio che all’epoca della pubblicazione fece scalpore e che da
allora è rimasto giustamente celebre: L’invenzione della tradizione5.
4
Il termine proviene dal verbo latino tradere, che vuol dire, tra le altre cose, “trasmettere”,
“tramandare”.
5
Hobsbawm, Ranger 2002 (1983). In realtà, già negli anni ’50, ’60 e ’70 diversi studiosi
avevano affrontato in termini critici e teoricamente maturi la questione della natura e delle proprietà
dei fatti tradizioni, spesso in aperto contrasto con visioni più semplicistiche e acritiche, o peggio
ideologicamente orientate. Si possono qui ricordare le precoci e acute osservazioni – sebbene riferite
pressocché unicamente a esempi africani – contenute nel celebre libro di etnometodologia De la
tradition orale, del belga J. Vansina (Vansina 1961), oppure il di poco più tardo dibattito, nato e
sviluppatosi all’interno del mondo accademico tedesco (ma pochi anni dopo ripreso anche altrove in
Europa e negli Stati Uniti), sul cosiddetto “folklorismo” e sulla “autenticità” delle tradizioni popolari,
e che vide contrapposti da un lato Hans Moser, dall’altro Hermann Bausinger (i termini di questo
dibattito sono riassunti e discussi in Bendix 1997: 177-185 e in Tauschek 2011: 57-59; va ricordato
che esso prendeva a sua volte le mosse dalle osservazioni di molto precedenti di R. Dorson sul “Fake
lore” [Dorson 1950]). In Italia, negli stessi anni, si andava affermando una solida e ramificata branca
di studi sulle tradizioni orali caratteristiche del mondo contadino “subalterno” italiano, corrente in
larga parte – ma non esclusivamente – ispirata dalle riflessioni di Antonio Gramsci sulla cultura
popolare. Anche se in termini e con finalità euristiche (e politiche) abbastanza diverse da quelle che
alimentavano, grosso modo negli stessi anni, gli studi sopra ricordati, una riflessione sulla tradizione
si rintraccia anche in questa temperie di ricerca tutta italiana. Due summae esaurienti e teoricamente
convincenti dei dibattiti e delle questioni sulle tradizioni (popolari) che animarono, tra gli anni ’40 e
gli anni ’70, l’allora giovane demologia italiana, si trovano in Cirese 1973 e in Clemente, Meoni,
Squillaciotti 1976. Tuttavia – e al netto dell’indubbia e importante influenza delle summenzionate
precedenti esperienze di riflessione sulla tradizionalità – è a mio avviso solo con il testo edito da
Hobsbawm e Ranger che tutta una serie di nodi sia teorici che storici vengono affrontati per la prima
volta, e in modo convincente, ciò che permise sia di ripensare vecchi problemi che di modellarne di
3 È la “tradizione” ancora buona da pensare? 65
Per ‘tradizione inventata’ si intende un insieme di pratiche, in genere

regolate da norme apertamente o tacitamente accettate, e dotate di una
natura rituale o simbolica, che si propongono di inculcare determinati
valori e norme di comportamento ripetitive nelle quali è
automaticamente implicita la continuità col passato. […] Vogliamo
sostenere, insomma, che l’invenzione di una tradizione è
essenzialmente un processo di ritualizzazione e formalizzazione
caratterizzato dal riferimento al passato, se non altro perché impone
ripetitività6.
I saggi contenuti in questo libro ponevano il problema della tradizione sotto

una nuova luce. Essi, basati su solide e originali indagini storiche, proponevano un
approccio all’epoca decisamente innovativo. La stagione di graduale ma
inesorabile de-reificazione della tradizione aveva così inizio, ed essa perdeva
definitivamente il suo statuto ontologico di “essenza” delle cose per esser
ricondotta a una dimensione storica e processuale.
Il libro curato da E. Hobsbawm e T. Ranger interpellava apertamente dei temi –
per la precisione quelli legati al nazionalismo e alla costruzione dell’identità – che di lì
a poco sarebbero diventati convenzionali, per non dire di moda, nell’antropologia, e
non è un caso che esso fu presto apprezzato e utilizzato soprattutto da antropologi. Del
resto l’antropologia (così come la storia delle religioni, che però captò e partecipò al
dibattito con un certo ritardo), vantava tra i propri padri fondatori degli studiosi che si
erano ampiamente occupati proprio di tradizioni popolari e religiose (si pensi a figure
come Mannhardt, Lang, e, soprattutto, Frazer)7.
Di lì a poco, altri studi contribuirono alla ridefinizione delle problematiche
concernenti la tradizione come pratica sociale e quindi come oggetto di conoscenza
antropologica. Più che all’invenzione della tradizione per se, maggiore attenzione
si cominciò a dedicare alla costruzione di specifiche tradizioni, e ai meccanismi
sociali e culturali, etnograficamente osservabili e interpretabili, inerenti a tale
processo8. La teoresi riguardo ai fenomeni tradizionali trasse gran giovamento da
nuovi. È questo testo che getta una luce che illumenerà da allora in poi gran parte della successiva
teoresi sulla tradizione e la tradizionalità, così come lo studio di concreti fatti tradizionali.
6
Hobsbawm 2002a: 3 e 6.
7
La relazione genetica e di complementarità tra la teoria dei fatti tradizionali e lo studio delle
tradizioni popolari in quella disciplina che in Europa ha assunto diversi nomi (tra cui “demologia” o “storia
delle tradizioni popolari”, “Folklore” o “Folkloristics”, “Volkskunde”, “Ethnologie de l’Europe”)
meriterebbe di esser qui discussa maggiormente. Purtroppo, ragioni di spazio non permettono di sviluppare
tale argomento al di là di questa breve menzione in nota. Lo scrivente lo ha tuttavia affrontato
sistematicamente altrove: Testa 2014a: 21-32; sulla questione cfr. anche Clemente, Mugnaini 2001, Dei
2002 e Dei 2012: 120-123; si vedano anche gli studi citati in nota n. 5 di questo scritto.
8
L’invenzione della tradizione come problematica antropologica e come oggetto di etnografia
è stata una questione visitata anche in Italia, sebbene con significativo ritardo (cfr. Clemente 2005,
Faeta 2005, Palumbo 2006a, 2009, Poppi 1992, Pizza 2004). Sulla ragione di questo e di altri italici
“ritardi”, Cfr. Faeta 2011a e Palumbo 2009: pp. 12-69.
questa temperie culturale. In pochi anni, da oggetto statico, a-temporale, reificato e

ripetitivo per eccellenza, la tradizione divenne, ben al contrario, “an ongoing
interpretation of the past”, anzi un vero e proprio “model of the past”, per citare le
due interessanti e precoci ri-concettualizzazioni di R. Handler e J. Linnekin9: da
oggetto veicolante soltanto forme, simboli e significati di lunga durata a
catalizzatore culturale attraverso il quale si esprimerebbero le relazioni di potere, si
legittimerebbero le poetiche sociali, si negozierebbero rivendicazioni politiche e
identitarie, si drammatizzerebbero passioni religiose. Per questo, dall’interesse per
la teoria della tradizione si passò presto allo studio della pratica, con particolare
attenzione alle forme effettive e processuali della eventuale invenzione, della
trasmissione e del cambiamento delle tradizioni. Anche in questo caso, tuttavia,
l’esperienza degli storici e la curiosità degli antropologi interessati alla storia fu
dirimente, visto che lo studio delle forme di una pratica sociale che si tramanda del
tempo non può che giovarsi del ricorso ai metodi dell’indagine storica:
It would be a mistake to see the invention of a tradition as a process of

creation ex nihilo. In fact, Eric Hobsbawn already noted ‘the use of
ancient materials’ in his introduction to The Invention of Tradition. […] I
should like to suggest that what was traditionally described as the
transmission of a tradition (or, as Bourdieu called it, ʻcultural
reproduction’) is more a process of ‘continuous creation’. Whatever the
would-be transmitters think they are doing, the process of passing a
culture on to a new generation is necessarily one of reconstruction, of
what Lévi-Strauss called bricolage and Certeau [sic] ‘re-employment’.
The process is driven in part by the need to adapt old ideas to new
circumstances, in part by the tensions between traditional forms and new
messages, in part by what has been called ‘the inner conflict of tradition’,
the conflict between the attempt to find universal solutions for human
problems and the necessities or the logic of the situation10.
9
Handler, Linnekin 1984: 274 e 276.
10
Burke 2008: 101. Simili considerazioni in Wolf 2001b: 354: “tradition is not a corpus of
objects, acts and ideas handed down integrally from ancestors to descendants. Its components are
more often invented, rearranged, and reorchestrated in transfers from generation than fixed and
immemorial”. Orientato verso una messa in luce degli aspetti creativi e immaginativi della tradizione
è anche il saggio introduttivo di S. Bonner (Bonner 2000). Del resto già alla fine dell’800 lo scrittore
e critico William Morries osservava che “change is the natural state of tradition” (citato in Glassie
1995: 405). Per J. C. Heesterman, la tradizione si costituirebbe come esito di un conflitto ideologico
tra l’immaginazione di un ideale ordine immanente e il vissuto radicato nel mondo reale del
cambiamento (Heesterman 1985: 2-15). Per R. Hutton, “tradition is a process of inherent adaptation
and mutation” (Hutton 2008: 267; cfr. le pp. 266-269 per le interessanti considerazioni di Hutton sulla
dimensione processuale della tradizione). La questione del rapporto tra rotture storiche, mutamenti
sociali e tradizione è brevemente ma efficacmente compendiata in Dei 2012: 21. Anche se non nei
termini di una discussione sulla tradizione, una parte della produzione di M. Sahlins affronta
apertamente queste problematiche (cfr. Sahlins 1981, 1985 e 1999). Un testo molto interessante, ma
Non è un caso che nel brano appena citato Burke interpelli, nello spazio di
poche righe, studiosi apparentemente molto diversi tra loro come Hobsbawm,
Bourdieu, de Certeau e Lévi-Strauss: si tratta di studiosi accomunati dall’interesse
per le forme della trasmissione del sapere – e di ciò che, insieme al sapere, può
essere veicolato nel tempo, come la condizione sociale, o le strutture –, tra cui
quelle “tradizionali” costituiscono una classe privilegiata11.
Al sapere è d’altronde collegata una dimensione che negli studi antropologici e
storico-antropologici è andata assumendo sempre maggiore importanza, negli
ultimi decenni: quella del potere, e in effetti per ciò che concerne gli studi sulla
tradizione e i fatti tradizionali attenzione particolare è stata dedicata alle relazioni
tra questa dimensione e quella delle forme politiche moderne e contemporanee,
occidentali e non, legate al nazionalismo e alle identità nazionali. Al riguardo è da
segnalare tanto un particolare interesse per le dinamiche storiche di sviluppo delle
identità nazionali sulla base delle tradizioni, quanto un ancora più marcato interesse
per quei processi, attivi nel presente ed etnograficamente osservabili, di costruzione
e negoziazione ideologica e culturale di quelle stesse identità12. Questa temperie di
studi e i suoi prodotti hanno costituito un set di strumenti e conclusioni molto
importanti, anzi imprescindibili.
Il ruolo della tradizione come modello ideologico del passato nel modellamento
e nell’attivazione di strategie culturali e politiche di vario tipo non può più esser
disconosciuto. In particolare, è da mettere in evidenza il ruolo giocato dalla invenzione
delle tradizioni come espediente finalizzato al raggiungimento di determinati fini da
parte di individui o gruppi sociali. Negli ultimi anni è emersa con veemenza, più
specificamente, la tematica del potere. Al riguardo F. Faeta ha scritto:
poco noto in Italia, su quelli che si potrebbero definire i “meccanismi della tradizione” (filiazione,
ricezione, trasmissione, riproduzione, manipolazione, innovazione, legittimazione, consenso,
dissenso, rifiuto) è il saggio “Tradition” di E. Shils (Shils 2012: 45-120; in particolare, per una
teorizzazione di tali “meccanismi” inerenti ai processi tradizionali e di tradizionalizzazione, cfr.
Prandi 2012: 26-32 e Glassie 1995).
11
Per ragioni di spazio e coerenza tematica, non si discuterà qui delle forme di
tradizionalismo consapevole – cioè consapevole di essere tale –, spesso legate a correnti di pensiero
reazionarie, religiose quando non esoteriche. Una lista ideale sarebbe molto lunga e potrebbe
comprendere numerosi casi, dal “Tradizionalismo” evoliano e della destra spirituale europea, alla
“filosofia perennis” di René Guénon, Ananda Coomaraswamy ed Elémire Zolla, al fondamentalismo
cattolico di matrice lefebvriana. In queste tradizioni, la tradizione è non solo reificata, ma anche
spiritualizzata. È comunque da notare, in questa sede, che in Italia un esemplare esempio di
decostruzione storico-letteraria di saperi tradizionali – o presunti tali – “alti” si rintraccia
precocemente: Il pendolo di Foucault di U. Eco (Eco 1988).
12
Di questi argomenti hanno scritto sia storici che antropologi fortemente legati alla storia:
cfr. Dietler 1994, Hobsbawm 2002b, Morgan 2002. In particolare, però, è stata l’antropologia politica,
della (post-)modernità e delle società complesse, a partire dagli anni ’80 (con un precedente:
Boissevain 1975), ad approfondire l’analisi delle relazioni tra fatti culturali e sociali “tradizionali” e
fenomeni come il nazionalismo, la costruzione delle identità e delle poetiche nazionali, le burocrazie e
agenzie nazionali e transnazionali: cfr. Anderson 1991, Abélès 1990, Faeta 2005, Handelman 1990,
1999 e 2004, Handler 1988, Herzfeld 1982, 1992 e 2003, Istenič 2012, Macdonald 2013, Palumbo
2006a, 2009 e 2010a, Wolf 2001a.
Manipolare forme di cultura popolare, inventare le ‘tradizioni’, riferirsi ad

un passato mitizzato e reificato; operare affinché tali manipolazioni e
invenzioni si radichino nel vissuto, animino l’immaginario, muovano
sentimenti ed emozioni locali appare oggi, nella realtà postmoderna,
periferica e marginale, una delle più importanti operazioni possibili ai fini
del conseguimento dell’egemonia politica e sociale: e in tale operazione i
gruppi che si confrontano per il potere, siano essi colti o popolari,
posseggono un raffinato, pur se a volte inconsapevole, know-how13.
È LA TRADIZIONE UN FENOMENO PRETTAMENTE MODERNO?
Da un lato questa relativamente recente attenzione per la componente

creativa e per così dire strumentale di alcune tradizioni e per la loro (re)invenzione,
dall’altro il consequenziale nuovo ricalibramento metodologico nello studio
etnografico dei fenomeni tradizionali, sono due dei fattori che hanno determinato,
tuttavia, il rischio di sottovalutare la componente diacronica, e quindi gli aspetti
storici (e storiografici), inerenti a detti fenomeni. In altre parole, la messa in
evidenza dei processi e delle dinamiche relativi a tale o talaltra circostanziale
“invenzione” o “riplasmazione” o “rifunzionalizzazione” di una data tradizione, ha
talvolta lasciato in ombra gli aspetti legati invece alla continuità culturale e alle
ragioni e dinamiche della persistenza di forme e funzioni. Questo tipo di approccio,
come cercherò di dimostrare in questa e nella seguente sezione, sembra
caratterizzare particolarmente quelle analisi incentrate sulla dimensione politica dei
fatti tradizionali. In accordo a questo approccio, le tradizioni, più che costituire i
loci della riproduzione e trasmissione di simboli e altre dimensioni culturali
dell’esperienza umana, avrebbero una funzione per l’appunto precipuamente
politica, legata cioè alla dimensione del potere. Le tradizioni sarebbero dunque, in
questa prospettiva, dei meri espedienti egemonici, funzionali a fattori contingenti, e
la cui dimensione storica sarebbe del tutto secondaria.
Spingendo le conseguenze di questa impostazione ancora oltre, in alcuni casi
si è voluto, mi sembra, ridurre la tradizione in sé, cioè in quanto categoria o ambito
dell’agire umano, a strategia sociale politicamente opportunistica e (quindi)
culturalmente essenzializzante, ovvero una modalità esperienziale tipicamente
moderna (o tardo-moderna), imbrigliata inestricabilmente nel reticolo delle
relazioni di potere. La tradizione sarebbe dunque particolarmente attraente come
oggetto di studio antropologico proprio in ragione della sua politicità e del suo
essere un dispositivo socio-culturale per l’appunto specificamente moderno: “la
‘tradizione’ è un’invenzione della ‘modernità’”, ha scritto B. Palumbo14. Questo
13
Faeta 2005: 159. Cfr. anche Bravo 2005: 21-24 e Palumbo 2006a: 12-73.
14
Palumbo 2006a: 21. La citazione è tratta dall’introduzione a una giustamente celebre
ricerca etnografica intrapresa dall’autore in Sicilia orientale. Il lavoro sul campo e i problemi teorici
da esso mobilitati durante tale ricerca portarono Palumbo a formulare alcune conclusioni abbastanza
approccio, tuttavia, non risolve tutti i problemi legati all’interpretazione dei fatti
tradizionali, e rischia anzi di appiattirli sulla base di un certo “presentismo
metodologico” (questa espressione verrà discussa più avanti; nelle successive
righe, invece, cercherò di argomentare perché considerare la tradizione come una
realtà prettamente moderna non sia del tutto convincente, mentre la questione del
potere verrà affrontata più avanti nel testo).
Affermare che le cose si tramandano nel tempo è una constatazione che, pur
nella sua ovvietà, non è poi così ovvia, così come non così ovvia fu un tempo la
constatazione che tutte le tradizioni, anche quelle più remote, sono state inventate,
in qualche tempo, in qualche luogo e per qualche scopo. La continuità culturale (sia
essa relativa a fenomeni o procesi sociali caratterizzabili come formali, strutturali,
funzionali, etc.), e quindi la persistenza nel tempo di alcuni oggetti o fatti o
processi socio-culturali, è di per sé un dato da interpretare, non una spiegazione. E
in ultima istanza, sebbene si possa connotare terminologicamente tale continuità
dandogli qualsivoglia nome (“tradizione”, “canone”, “consuetudine”, etc.), la realtà
a cui il nome rimanda resta tale.
Per esempio, che la “tradizione” di suonare la zampogna sia diffusa da
secoli, in alcune aree dell’entroterra montano molisano, è un dato di fatto, non
(solo) una essenzializzazione della rappresentazione che del proprio passato e delle
proprie tradizioni fanno i promotori del patrimonializzato e patrimonializzante
“Festival della Zampogna” di Scapoli, per ragioni più o meno politiche15. Ritengo
tuttavia necessario spingere oltre la critica della concezione della tradizione come
invenzione della modernità, e a questo fine citerò ora tre esempi storici, ciascuno
tratto da tempi remoti tra loro e da noi. La giustapposizione di questi esempi potrà
sembrare a tutta prima metodologicamente audace, per non dire problematica, per
questo essa sarà giustificata, spero in modo convincente, nelle successive righe.
1) Le liste reali sumeriche sono dei documenti redatti in diverse versioni e in

diverse epoche, durante il III millennio a. C. La loro ragion d’essere
apparente è di natura calendariale e mitica; in realtà, la loro funzione
precipua era quella di sostenere e comprovare la realtà di un passato, o
radicali sulla natura dei fenomeni “tradizionali”. Nel testo dal quale traggo l’estratto, Palumbo
sorregge questa sua affermazione citando un articolo di P. Boyer (Boyer 1989a). In realtà la posizione
di Boyer, come vedremo, è più sfumata e non altrettanto radicale.
15
Qui evoco le categorie di patrimonio e di patrimonializzazione poiché entrambe rimandano
a processi di istituzionalizzazione del passato, un processo ovviamente legato alle poetiche e pratiche
della tradizione. Ciò vale principalmente per quello che è ormai definito convenzionalmente il
“patrimonio culturale immateriale”. La letteratura antropologica sui patrimoni culturali e sui processi
di patrimonializzazione, e sulle questioni politiche a essi legati, è ormai enorme: cfr., tra gli studi a
mio avviso più rilevanti, Bendix 2009, Berliner 2012, Bortolotto 2011a, Brumann 2014, Fourcade
2007, Handler 1988, Hertz, Chappaz-Wirthner 2012, Kuutma 2007, Macdonald 2013, Maffi 2006,
Palumbo 2006a, 2010a, 2010b, Smith 2006, Tauschek 2011. Lo scrivente se ne è occupato in diverse
occasioni: Testa 2012, 2014a, 2016a, 2016c e 2016d.
meglio di una rappresentazione del passato, funzionale a rivendicazioni

“politiche” così come a necessità religiose, a loro volta correlate alle prime16.
2) J. Scheid, tra i massimi studiosi della religione di Roma antica, ha
recentemente scritto che “quella romana è una religione ritualistica e come
tale severamente tradizionalista”17 (e continua sostenendo, forse perché ha
letto Hobsbawm, che “ciò non le impedisce di evolversi e di integrare nuovi
elementi, poiché l’apertura dei nuovi cittadini ai nuovi dèi era tradizionale a
Roma”18). La sacralità, per i Romani, era un prodotto di una concezione
della storia e del passato. I loro riti e le loro pratiche erano sostenuti da una
credenza inderogabile: quella nel mos maiorum, una nozione latrice di una
precisa poetica della storia, fondata sull’assunto del valore superiore e
normativo di quanto tramandato dagli antenati, dagli illustri cittadini romani
vissuti nel passato. Una espressione, quella di mos maiorum, che non esiterei
a tradurre con “tradizione”19.
3) Quando Marsilio Ficino fonda l’Accademia platonica, a Firenze, nel 1459,
per promuovere lo studio delle dottrine platoniche, neoplatoniche ed
ermetiche, egli si pone sul solco tracciato da altri filosofi, anche di tempi
remoti, che guardavano alla “tradizione” platonica come punto di riferimento
intellettuale fondamentale – cos’altro è, infatti, una “dottrina”, se non una
forma di tradizione? Allo stesso tempo, e sua volta, Ficino diventa il
capostipite di una nuova “tradizione” di studi, quella degli studi neoplatonici
in Italia. Il filosofo toscano ritiene che l’eredità di Platone e degli antichi
filosofi ermetici sia un sapere misconosciuto, da recuperare, e vi si dedica
con grande passione, una passione nutrita dalla consapevolezza di porsi in un
solco tracciato da illustri predecessori (“antenati intellettuali”),
consacrandosi allo studio dei filosofi del passato sulla base di necessità
intellettuali e spirituali ben radicate nel suo presente20.
La tesi che qui sostengo è che, una volta giustapposti, gli esempi degli scribi
sumerici, degli antichi Romani e di Ficino, pur nella loro grande diversità, risultano
nondimeno associati da un comune denominatore culturale di importanza centrale:
quei soggetti storici utilizzavano e riproducevano una concezione e rappresentazione
16
Traggo tutte le informazioni su questo esempio storico da Liverani 2003.
17
Scheid 2009: 29. Fa eco un’affermazione di C. Bell: “in the fixity of ritual’s structure lies
the prestige of tradition and in this prestige lies its power” (Bell 2009: 120). Per altre interessanti
considerazioni sul carattere tradizionalista della religione romana e delle religioni antiche in genere,
cfr. Kerényi 1977: 34 e Sabbatucci 1988: 3.
18
Scheid 2009: 29.
19
Quello di mos maiorum – o vetus mos (Cicerone, De re publica. 5, 1) o mos antiquus (Tacito,
Dialogus de oratoribus, 28, 2) – “is the core concept of Roman traditionalism” (Kierdorf 1996: 1).
20
Traggo tutte le informazioni su questo esempio storico dal bel libro La tradizione classica
nel pensiero del Rinascimento (Kristeller 1969). Altri interessanti esempi storici pre-moderni di
concettualizzazione della tradizione si trovano in Prandi 2012: passim e in Glassie 2013: 405-408.
del passato che può a buon diritto esser classificata come “tradizionale”, e che si
basava, come si basa tutt’ora, su meccanismi socialmente costruiti e quindi
operativi sia sul piano dell’immaginario collettivo che su quello individuale. Questi
meccanismi sono, sostanzialmente, quelli della reificazione o meta-storicizzazione
dei simboli, dell’immaginazione/idealizzazione (positiva o negativa) del passato, e
l’uso di poetiche e pratiche che diventano socialmente significative e “dense”
grazie alla dimensione di trasmissione e profondità temporale (reale o presunta) da
cui sarebbero caratterizzate. In questo senso, tanto le tradizioni “popolari” che
quelle “colte”, tanto quelle religiose che profane, e tanto quelle antiche che
moderne, rispettano tutte il medesimo principio di autorità del passato e di adesione
più o meno fedele ai da esso trasmessi modelli (quale che sia la loro natura).
Osservata da questa prospettiva, quella della “tradizione” è, credo, una
dimensione che esiste fin dai tempi più remoti cui la storia ci permette di risalire,
una dimensione non esclusiva né della modernità né, all’opposto, delle società che
non a caso si era soliti definire “tradizionali” (in opposizione a quelle, appunto,
“moderne”), in antropologia21.
Le liste reali sumeriche, i riti dei romani, le traduzioni di Ficino, i miti dei
Bororo così come il rogo del fantoccio di carnevale o gli esempi etnografici che
verranno citati e discussi nelle ultime pagine di questo contributo rispondono tutti,
mutatis mutandis, a una medesima necessità: essi costituiscono e costruiscono gli
elementi di una concezione del tempo, e, più in particolare, di una rappresentazione
21
La definizione di “società tradizionale” è legata, essenzialmente, al regime comunicativo:
“la distinction entre deux catégories de société [la società tradizionale e quella moderna] d’après la
manière dont elles se lient à leur passé n’est pas sans fondement. Elle tient non à la plus ou moins
prégnance de la tradition mais au mode de sa transmission: oralité, écriture” (Pouillon 2007: 711). Le
società cosiddette tradizionali sarebbero quindi quelle dell’oralità (un argomento simile è sviluppato
da J. Goody, a cui Pouillon in parte si appoggia: Goody, Watt 2005). In effetti, il fondamento storico
di cui parla J. Pouillon, sulla scorta di Goody, è relativo a uno scarto differenziale che non è di ordine
interpretativo: una società o è caratterizzata dalla scrittura o non lo è, ma questa distinzione regge a
condizione che si sottintenda una omologia assoluta tra “oralità” e “tradizione”, ciò che non è affatto
ovvio, soprattutto alla luce della constatazione che ogni società è caratterizzata dalla trasmissione del
sapere, quindi ogni società è, a suo modo, tradizionale. La cultura in sé, per alcuni, si baserebbe su
questo principio, che sarebbe, per giunta, non esclusivamente antropico: incidentalmente, ricordo che
gli etologi parlano di “culture animali” proprio in relazione a fenomeni come la trasmissione di
saperi: “molti animali sono capaci di scambiare informazioni e trasmetterle da un individuo all'altro
per via non genetica. La loro cultura non è basata sui libri o sulle parole, ma non per questo è meno
sorprendente. […] Memoria, comunicazione e creatività costituiscono la base delle tradizioni culturali
animali, mentre l'imitazione e l'apprendimento ne sono il motore” (dalla quarta di copertina di
Bisconti 2008). Memoria, comunicazione, creatività, gli stessi elementi che, abbiamo visto, sono alla
base delle dinamiche tradizionali. Anche la riflessione di Boyer si è orientata verso la messa in
evidenza delle proprietà gnoseologiche, interattive e comunicative della tradizione. Per Boyer, al fine
di evitare di cadere nella trappola di una reificazione del concetto-oggetto di “tradizione”,
bisognerebbe concepirla come una modalità di trasmissione del sapere, piuttosto che come una
caratteristica – o una tipologia – del sapere stesso. La tradizione come modalità sistematica di
acquisizione e comunicazione (e quindi trasmissione) di saperi pre-determinati ma sempre
socialmente significativi (Boyer 1989a: 16).
del passato, dal quale, a loro volta, ricevono il loro crisma, siano essi ritenuti, a
torto (i re sumerici regnanti per 2000 anni), o a ragione (i testi di Platone), come
cose esistite nel passato e tramandate e tramandabili nel tempo. Cose che dovevano
essere tramandate poiché tradizionali (quale che fosse il termine relativo utilizzato
per descriverne la componente diacronica e conservativa – che noi definiamo
“tradizionale” appunto – e quali che fossero, nella realtà, le effettive e sempre
contingenti forme della trasmissione – e quindi del mantenimento/cambiamento –
di quelle stesse cose). Come per il mito, non a caso già definito basilarmente come
un “tradizional tale”22, il potere della tradizione e delle tradizioni, siano esse
radicate nella continuità storica o meno, sta nel loro carattere fondante costruito sul
sentimento, socialmente prodotto, del prestigio di un certo passato, e, ipotizzerei,
sulla necessità esistenziale di trascendere la caducità del presente e l’incertezza del
futuro. In altre parole, la componente temporale che caratterizza i fatti tradizionali
poggia tanto sul passato che sulla sua immaginazione (donde le metafore come
“radici storiche” o “basi storiche”). In questa prospettiva, la tradizione sarebbe uno
degli elementi per immaginare “origini” da congiungere al “presente” al fine di
costruire il senso del proprio stare al mondo e, quindi, dare senso alla storia: una
rappresentazione del passato, una strategia identitaria, una poetica della memoria, e
una pratica del ricordare e trasmettere23.
Da quanto precedentemente argomentato, si può quindi desumere che, oltre
al fatto, oggettivo in sé, della trasmissione di certe cose nel tempo, anche la
riflessione sulla tradizione – o sulle cose tramandate nel tempo – è storicamente
rintracciabile in epoche pre-moderne, così come l’uso del passato e delle sue
rappresentazioni per scopi religiosi, culturali e politici. Ogni società che “usa” il
proprio passato e ne fa oggetto di riflessione e trasmissione è, a suo modo,
“tradizionale”. Nessuna delle proprietà tradizionalmente ritenute determinanti il
concetto di tradizione si rinviene esclusivamente nella modernità, tutte le sono
precedenti, talvolta anche di molto. Figlia della modernità è solo la salutare,
quando ragionevole e ben temperata, prospettiva critica e riflessiva sulla tradizione,
la quale è una realtà culturale che ha assunto forme, funzioni e significati diversi a
seconda del contesto e che pertanto può e deve esser oggetto di ricerca
antropologica e storica.
Sostenere la natura specificamente moderna della tradizione (e, ne consegue,
delle tradizioni), invece di chiarirne la funzione sociale, la oscura e l’appiattisce:
osservare e interpretare l’invenzione e l’uso (anche e forse soprattutto politico) di
alcune tradizioni non dovrebbe far tralasciare l’interesse della persistenza di altre
22
“Morphologically speaking, myths and folktales are the same. […] Myth is a traditional
tale with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance [corsivo dell’autore].
Myth is traditional tale applied; […] The phenomena of collective importance which are verbalized
by applying traditional tales are to be found, first of all, in social life” (Burkert 1979: 18).
23
Sugli aspetti psico-sociali del senso di appartenenza a un passato riferiti a una – o alla –
tradizione, cfr. Shils 2012: 62-68 e Macdonald 2013: 1-51, 79-108 e passim.
(sempre tenendo in debito conto il fatto che, in ultima istanza, tutte le tradizioni
sono inventate, e che molte, ma non necessarimente tutte, sono caratterizzate da
una dimensione politica). Direi anzi che, paradossalmente, l’invenzione e la
riplasamazione delle tradizioni confermano proprio quella continuità (vera o
presunta) e soprattutto quella caratterittazione genuinamente culturale (nel senso
olistico che M. Sahlins dà al termine cultura24), più che prettamente o
esclusivamente politica. Questa proprietà che le permette di essere una materia e
allo stesso tempo uno strumento di riproduzione, creazione e ricreazione culturale,
pur essendo consustanziale a tutti fatti sociali detti tradizionali, sembra essere uno
degli aspetti più invisi alle correnti antropologiche post-strutturaliste o post-
foucaultiane. Queste ultime sono caratterizzate da una decisa tendenza a diluire la
cultura e le dimaniche prettamente culturali nella sfera del politico e quindi nelle
dinamiche di potere, oppure a rifiutare il primato della cultura come realtà umana
olistica e immanente, concedendolo invece alla dimensione del potere, intesa a sua
volta come olistica e immanente, e di fatto sostituente la prima nel suo ruolo di
fondamento dell’agire umano – e quindi dell’organizzazione della vita sociale e dei
suo vari aspetti.
“Non tutte le tradizioni, in un certo contesto storico-sociale, sono suscettibili
di essere inventate”, ha giustamente scritto F. Dei 25. Nulla si inventa o si crea ex-
nihilo, e semmai l’invenzione delle tradizioni conferma proprio quella dimensione
di riappropriazione del passato socialmente significativo (e dunque di continuità
temporale) che rappresenta un aspetto di primaria importanza nei fatti sociali
tradizionali. In altre parole, sarebbe forse più corretto parlare, come propone M.
Sahlins, di “inventività” della tradizione, piuttosto che, più semplicisticamente, di
invenzione26. Sarebbe altresì auspicabile abbandonare la credenza nel suo essere un
fatto socio-culturale soltanto o precipuamente moderno.
La concezione storicamente ed epistemologicamente “debole” di tradizione
che è stata precedentemente discussa ed esemplificata nella radicale conclusione di
B. Palumbo si può rintracciare anche altrove, seppure sediversamente argomentata,
nella letteratura antropologica italiana. F. Mugnaini, interpretando un testo di G.
Lenclud, ha scritto che “la tradizione non è un prodotto del passato, ma una
riappropriazione selettiva di una porzione di esso, una filiazione inversa. Il passato
(che esiste come sapere del presente) offre al presente stesso parte della sua
24
Sahlins 1999.
25
Dei 2002: 87. Considerazioni simili in Burke 2008: 101, Glassie 1995: 405-406, Sahlins
1999: 408-412, 2000: 467 e passim, Wolf 2001b: 354.
26
Sahlins 1999: 408. È chiaro che siffatta conclusione implica l’adesione a un modello non
più solo strutturale, ma già idealistico. Non è possibile discutere dettagliatamente questa problematica
in questa sede. Sembra che per Sahlins la tradizione – o meglio il pensiero e la pratica tradizionali –
preesisterebbe, per così dire, come opzione culturale umana universale, e si manifesterebbe in
concrete forme empiricamente osservabili attraverso processi sociali di riproduzione, trasmissione e,
per l’appunto, “inventività” e creatività culturale. Non sorprende una siffatta concezione nel
“secondo” Sahlins, notoriamente e radicalmente influenzato dallo strutturalismo lévi-straussiano, non
a caso già acutamente definito un “kantisme sans sujet trascendental” (Ricoeur 1963: 24).
legittimità: la tradizione fornisce al presente la sua giustificazione, la garanzia di

autenticità”27. Che il passato offra al presente una parte della sua legittimità e che la
tradizione sia una riappropriazione selettiva di una porzione di passato sono idee
del tutto condivisibili; eppure, le restanti affermazioni di Mugnaini mi sembrano
andare nella stessa direzione di quelle di Palumbo, o quantomeno ne hanno lo
stesso portato anti-storicista, secondo il quale il passato, e quindi la storia, non
esiterebbero, nella realtà sociale, che nella forma degradata di retoriche e poetiche
(ovviamente motivate da ragioni politiche). Il testo di Mugnaini si presta dunque a
diverse interpretazioni, ma rimane ambiguo su un aspetto molto importante: da
esso non trapela chiaramente che è la conoscenza del passato a esistere come
sapere del presente, non il passato in sé. Certo, si replicherà, la tradizione ha un
potere fondante sul presente nella misura in cui produce sentimenti di autenticità (e
l’autenticità, in effetti, non è una realtà storica, bensì una poetica sociale28), ma, di
nuovo, il fatto oggettivo della possibile, documentabile trasmissione di determinate
cose nel tempo, cose definite come “tradizionali” dagli agenti sociali, sembra esser
del tutto misconosciuto, o comunque sottovalutato.
La tradizione del Palio di Siena è certamente una realtà del presente, ma è
altrettanto certamente un prodotto del passato29, allo stesso modo in cui la Colonna
traiana non è solo una rappresentazione né esiste solo come “sapere del presente”,
ma è un prodotto del passato, oggetto portatore di temporalità indipendentemente
dai sentimenti con cui questa qualità oggettiva è caricata dalle poetiche sociali30. Se
è lo sguardo dell’osservatore a delineare e modellare la cosa osservata, questo non
vuol dire che essa non esista al di fuori del modello che ne fa l’osservatore, e ciò
malgrado la mancanza di modelli originari cui compararla o di misure con cui
valutarne la storicità. La posizione di Lenclud e Pouillon, che è discussa da
Mugnaini e su cui le argomentazioni di questo in parte si basano, mi sembra in
realtà essere, al riguardo, più mitigata e condivisibile:
La tradizione non è ciò che è sempre stato, ma ciò che la si fa essere.
[…] In tutte le società, le nostre comprese, la tradizione è una
‘retroproiezione’, formula che Pouillon esplicita in questi termini:
27
Mugnaini 2001: 37. Il testo di Mugnaini da cui traggo questo estratto è uno studio di taglio
teorico precisamente sulla tradizione e lo studio delle tradizioni nella prospettiva dell’antropologia
contemporanea.
28
Sull’autenticità come poetica sociale di primaria importanza nello studio antropologico
delle cose tradizionali, cfr. Bendix 1997, Bortolotto 2011b, Handler 1988, Heinich 2012, Istenič 2012,
Macdonald 2013 e Testa 2016e.
29
“La tradizione non è nient’altro che una strategia fondativa, che legittima un atto o una
pratica riferendola a un passato idealizzato. Alcune feste durano per secoli, attraversano formazioni
sociali distinte e forse addirittura mantengono alcuni tratti formali intatti; però trasformano i propri
significati e funzioni, adattandosi alle necessità dei propri soggetti che si rinnovano di continuo.
Come dice Vovelle, la festa è un’invariante che non ha mai smesso di variare” (Ariño 1997: 14-15).
30
“Nulla di quanto accade sfugge del tutto alla presa del passato […] Gran parte di ciò che
esiste è sopravvivenza o riproduzione di ciò che già esisteva prima. […] Il mutamento, esattamente
come la persistenza, è ancorato al passato” (Shils 2012: 45; cfr. anche le simili considerazioni in
Glassie 2013: 405-406).
‘Noi selezioniamo ciò da cui ci dichiariamo determinati, noi ci

presentiamo come i continuatori di coloro che abbiamo reso nostri
predecessori’31. La tradizione istituisce una ʻfiliazione inversa’: non
sono i padri a generare i figli, ma i figli che generano i propri padri.
Non è il passato a produrre il presente, ma il presente che modella il
passato. La tradizione è un processo di riconoscimento di paternità. Si
potrà forse obiettare che bisogna bene che il passato ci sia stato, che in
una certa misura persista, perché il presente possa a sua volta
servirsene, e che, quindi la sua invenzione non sarebbe totalmente
libera. Non ci sono dubbi al riguardo32.
Lenclud percepisce la tensione polarizzante (presente-passato) che

caratterizza l’oggetto tradizionale, e il pericolo di cadere nell’anti-storicisimo o
addirittura nell’anti-realismo obliterando uno dei due poli, e ritene perciò
necessario precisare esplicitamente che la tradizione riguarda entrambi. Per
esemplificare nuovamente: il Palio di Siena è una “tradizione” passibile sia di
analisi antropologica che storica, né l’immaginazione del passato che essa veicola,
in quanto oggetto di studio dell’antropologia, dovrebbe essere ritenuta cosa più
rilevante o “oggettiva” della realtà della sua trasmissione, ché tra antropologia e
storia non esiste gerarchia epistemica. Il passato, come qualsiasi altra cosa, è un
oggetto conoscibile, anche se solo parzialmente33.
31
Pouillon 1975: 160.
32
Lenclud 2001: 131. La teorizzazione di Lenclud sembra fare eco a quanto era stato scritto
qualche anno prima dall’altra sponda dell’Atlantico da R. Bauman, e che qui merita di esser riportato:
“The term tradition is conventionally used in a dual sense, to name both the process of transmission of
an isolable cultural element through time and also the elements themselves that are transmitted in this
process. To view an item of folklore as traditional is to see it as having temporal continuity, rooted in
the past but persisting into the present in the manner of a natural object. There is, however, an
emergent reorientation taking place among students of tradition, away from this naturalistic view of
tradition as a cultural inheritance rooted in the past and towards an understanding of tradition as
symbolically constituted in the present. Tradition, so reconceptualised, is seen as a selective,
interpretative construction, the social and the symbolic creation of a connection between aspects of
the present and an interpretation of the past”. Tale fatto sociale collettivamente costruito può quindi
esser ripensato in termini di “tradizionalità”, più che di tradizione sic et simpliciter: “Traditionality
implies sopraindividuality, insofar as it involves intergenerational transmission, continuity, and
customary authority within a social group” (Bauman 1992: 31-32). Questo parallelismo è stato colto
anche da F. Dei, che ne discute in Dei 2012: 121. Chiaramente la “emergent reorentation” di cui parla
l’Autore va contestualizzata: sono gli inizi degli anni ’90, e tale tendenza, allora giovane, è stata negli
ultimi venti anni ampiamente sviluppata, fino ad esser sistematizzata in forma compiuta, e sulla base
di una letteratura ormai enorme, da S. Macdonald, che definisce la tradizione come una delle possibili
tipologie di “passato presente” (“present past”: Macdonald 2013: 27 e passim). Questo stesso
contributo può essere considerato come un prodotto di quel riorientamento teorico.
33
Un’altra corrente di studi che privilegia decisamente un approccio sincronico, ma che
ciononostante prende molto sul serio la tradizione, la tradizionalità e le cose tradizionali come oggetti
di studio (pur non avendo mai teorizzato sistematicamente al riguardo della categoria “tradizione”) è
la cosiddetta scuola etnologica francese del “simbolico”, i cui rappresentanti maggiori sono D. Fabre,
DECOSTRUIRE LA DECOSTRUZIONE DELLA TRADIZIONE
Fin qui si è discusso della tradizione, della sua fortuna come concetto, e delle
diverse maniere in cui essa è stata studiata e concettualizzata in alcune correnti
storiografiche e antropologiche. Si è poi visto che, in Italia, una eminente opinione
espressa da uno studioso significativamente influenzato dal pensiero di Foucault
vuole che la tradizione e i fatti tradizionali siano fenomeni prettamente moderni,
caratterizzati da una relazione solo debole (poiché principalmente di natura
rappresentazionale) con il passato, e sarebbero altresì caratterizzati da una
dimensione – o meglio da una “funzione” – precipuamente politica, in accordo alla
vulgata per l’appunto foucaultiana per cui è il potere, e non la cultura, a configurare
e orientare l’agire degli individui e le relative configurazioni sociali.
A mio avviso, questa posizione possiede in nuce un vizio non solo anti-
storicista, dovuto alla sopravvalutazione della dimensione sincronica a discapito di
quella diacronica, ma anche potenzialmente anti-realista: essa sembra condividere
con altre tendenze cosiddette post-moderne l’idea che esisterebbe un incolmabile
abisso tra i fatti sociali (e la stessa realtà “in sé”) e le strategie ermeneutiche e
testuali adottate dagli studiosi per descriverli e interpretarli (strategie di volta in
volta qualificate come “retoriche” o “narrative” o “discorsive”34). L’idea che, al di
là dell’interpretazione non sia possibile risalire alla realtà (storica e contestuale,
dunque culturale) dei fatti sociali, e che pertanto esistano solo interpretazioni di
fatti di per sé essenzialmente inafferrabili35. Di conseguenza, se la realtà non può
G. Charuty e C. Fabre-Vassas. Questi e altri studiosi si riallacciano alle – e reinterpretano – tradizioni

di studio di studio abbastanza diverse come quelle afferenti a A. van Gennep, C. Lévi-Strauss, E. de
Martino. Caratterizza questa scuola di ricerca etnologica l’attenzione per le codificazioni e
ricodificazioni simboliche e rituali di fatti sociali trasmessi dal passato, principalmente in contesti
europei: la loro non è una prospettiva folklorica, poiché essa non privilegia le forme degli oggetti
tradizionali e/o le modalità della loro trasmissione, ma piuttosto i valori, i significati e le funzioni che
assumono nel presente e che sono etnograficamente indagabili. Tutti questi studiosi sono decisamente
distanti da posizioni che potremmo definire decostruzionistiche o generalmente post-moderne (i testi
metodologicamente più significativi sono Charuty 1995, 2010, e Fabre, Fabre-Vassas 1995; alcuni
studi esemplari, in cui è evidente come tipiche “tradizioni popolari” europee possano esser studiate e
interpretate in modo antropologicamente convincente pur senza decostruire radicalmente la loro
dimensione e caratterizzazione per l’appunto tradizionale, sono Fabre, Camberoque 1977, Fabre-
Vassas 1987 e Puccio 2002). Più di recente, un altro studioso francese, ma di una generazione
successiva a quella degli studiosi testé ricordati, Laurent-Sébastien Fournier, ha proposto una serie di
studi in cui fa proprie e rielabora convincentemente diverse istanze dell’etnologia del simbolico, della
più ampia temperie di studi dell’antropologia e dell’etnologia dell’Europa, e dell’antropologia dei
patrimoni culturali e dell’istituzionalizzazione culturale, senza mai propendere per un approccio
tipicamente decostruzionista (Fournier 2011 e 2012). Anche in questo caso, gli oggetti di studio
emicamente caratterizzati come “tradizionali” sono al centro dell’interesse dello studioso.
34
Caratterizza questo approccio anche il rifiuto di utilizzare la distinzione metodologica tra
dimensioni etiche ed emiche, il cui valore esplicativo è rifiutato sulla base della convinzione della
circolazione costante e fluida dei saperi, e dell’insistenza sul primato delle strategie retoriche piuttosto
che sui contenuti che queste veicolano.
35
Questa idea si basa chiaramente sull’assunto nietzschiano, riletto in chiave foucaltiana
(Bielskis 2009), secondo il quale “non esistono fatti, solo interpretazioni” (Nietzsche 1954: 458). Al
che esser filtrata dalla “griglia” dei discorsi egemonici e dai regimi di verità
(ovviamente nell’accezione foucaultiana36), considerati “sempre politici”, che la
esprimono, allora le scienze sociali non sarebbero che discipline dell’interpretazione
delle rappresentazioni dei fatti, mai dei fatti in sé, e sarebbero quindi basate su una
teoria della conoscibilità della realtà che è una sorta di “trascendentalità al contrario”:
la “griglia” (i discorsi, le narrazioni, i regimi di verità) succede alla – e di fatto
impedisce la – conoscibilità dei fatti empirici; ne consegue che ciò che determina tali
fatti è inconoscibile. La scienza stessa non sarebbe, in questa prospettiva, che un
sistema di procedure di natura in ultima istanza puramente ermeneutica (e quindi
soggiacente al principio della circolarità ermeneutica37), senza alcuna legittimità ad
affermare qualcosa di vero sul mondo. Questa convinzione è ovviamente il prodotto di
uno Zeitgeist (accademico) preciso, quello della cultura (accademica) cosiddetta “post-
moderna”, e non può che destare perplessità, specie in quegli studiosi, come a esempio
gli storici, che tentano di risalire alla realtà fattuale, cioè alla realtà dei fatti avvenuti nel
passato, e ciò attraverso l’applicazione di metodi che malauguratamente non possono
giovarsi di tutti gli accorgimenti riflessivi che costituiscono il privilegio metodologico
degli antropologi e dei teorici sociali38.
Trovo che sia la sottovalutazione degli effetti di questa dimensione
paralizzante – evidentemente tanto incorporata da essere ormai impercettibile –
della decostruzione metodologica a costituire la ragione per la quale uno studioso
pur attento e acuto come B. Palumbo ha potuto sostenere la natura prettamente e
solo moderna della tradizione. È questa la ragione, inoltre, per cui lo stesso
studioso conclude, in un suo più recente lavoro, che “la decostruzione cui il lavoro
etnografico e antropologico degli ultimi decenni ha sottoposto la nozione di
‘tradizione’, [la rendono] di fatto inutilizzabile come concetto esplicativo insieme a
tutto il fascio di presupposto concettuali e ideologici e di dicotomie nei quali era
avvolta39. Certo, il concetto di tradizione inteso come categoria esplicativa è
riguardo delle derive intellettuali di questa idea, Boyer ha scritto che “l’activité ‘deconstructrice’ met
en doute la possibilité même de constituer des données culturelles objectives, rejoignant en cela une
tendance persistante et peut-être intrinsèque, anti-positiviste et anti-réaliste, de l’anthropologie
culturelle” (Boyer 1989a: 3). Considerazioni simili si trovano in Brumann 1999, Harris 2000, Sahlins
1999 e 2000. Si può far risalire al giustamente celebre Scrivere le culture (Clifford, Marcus 1997
[1986]) il definitivo travasamento di questa “idea” nella teoria antropologica, sebbene il libro sia
formato da saggi che presentano una grande varietà di approcci: dalle ragionevoli ed eleganti
posizioni critiche di J. Clifford e R. Rosaldo alla prospettiva decisamente anti-realista di S. A. Tyler.
36
Weir 2008.
37
Greisch 1998.
38
Queste perplessità riguardanti la pratica della storia come disciplina sono state intercettate e
convincentemente problematizzate anche da B. Palumbo: “[esistono] difficoltà, se non proprio
impossibilità, di cogliere attraverso fonti scritte quei livelli emozionali, incorporati e abitudinari della pratica
umana sui quali gli antropologi [portano] il loro sguardo. […] Come cogliere, infatti, la fluidità, la
stratificazione, l’ambiguità e la dinamicità della pratica umana, con le quali l’interazione etnografica mette
noi antropologi in diretto e non eludibile contatto, quando queste dimensioni sono inevitabilmente
codificate, trascritte, immobilizzate in rappresentazioni testuali?” (Palumbo 2006b: 261).
39
Palumbo 2009: 48-59. In queste pagine Palumbo sostiene nuovamente le sue ipotesi
appellandosi a Boyer. In realtà, la posizione di Boyer, come già detto, è più sfumata. Egli scrive
obsoleto: esso va spiegato, non serve a spiegare, ma, come per il caso della nozione
di “cultura”, ciò che potrebbe renderlo ancora funzionale è l’uso critico e riflessivo
dello studioso40: quale altro termine utilizzare, in sua vece, per descrivere quelle
realtà che pure esistono, decostruite o meno, caratterizzate da termini
ermeneuticamente stratificati o meno? Visto che le terminologie scientifiche, tutte,
si basano su convenzioni e, più precisamente, su un più o meno tacito contratto
intellettuale tra studiosi, perché non trovare una soluzione teorica e concettuale non
meramente distruttiva e convenzionalmente utilizzare il termine “tradizione” per
descrivere e indicare determinate cose e non altre? Perché, in altre parole, non
continuarlo a utilizzare tenenendo conto e sciogliendo, e non arrendendosi, a quel
“fascio di presupposto concettuali e ideologici e di dicotomie” 41? La sensazione,
altrimenti, è che con l’acqua sporca si butti via anche il bambino.
In questo studio, quella di Palumbo rappresenta ed esemplifica una ben
precisa tendenza teorica che recentemente ha avuto una certa risonanza e un certo
seguito in Italia. La pratica decostruzionistica cui essa si consacra con zelo,
tuttavia, se da un lato ha prodotto un indubitabile avanzamento teorico all’interno
infatti: “la persistance de la tradition ne doit pas être confondue avec la rémanence des faits culturels
en générale. Tout ce qui persiste ou se transmet n’est pas traditionnel, et il ne viendrait pas à l’esprit
de qualifier de ‘traditionnelle’ la conservation du vocabulaire ou de la syntaxe d’une langue. Par
contre, un certain répertoire de proverbes ou de mythes pourra être qualifié de traditionnel. Les
‘traditions’ sont généralement caractérisées comme des ensembles d’idées sur le monde, visions du
monde, etc., transmises de générations en génération. Pourtant de telles choses ne peuvent s’étudier
directement. Ce que l’ethnologie décrit le plus souvent sous le terme de ‘tradition’ consiste en fait en
situations particulières, dans lesquelles des énoncés sont prononcés ou des actions accomplies, qui
aux acteurs concernés comme à l’anthropologue paraissent plus dignes d’attention que les paroles ou
actions quotidiennes”. (Boyer 1989a: 14). Come risulta evidente dal passo citato, la prospettiva di
Boyer si concentra sugli aspetti enunciativi e comunicativi della tradizione (cfr. anche 1989b e 1990),
ma, a differenza di quanto affermato da Palumbo (cfr. in particolare Palumbo 2006a: 21 e 2009: 66),
essa non perviene alla radicale decostruzione della nozione di tradizione, come le affermazioni dello
stesso Boyer qui e altrove citate mostrano chiaramente. Boyer, piuttosto, lamentando ai suoi tempi
una generale mancanza di teoresi sulla tradizione – più che ritenendo errate le conclusioni dei suoi
colleghi (Boyer 1990: 3 e 120) – ne delocalizza la sede privilegiata di azione dal piano
rappresentazionale e contenutistico a quello gnoseologico, cognitivo e interazionale.
40
In questa porzione del testo mi riallaccio e supporto le posizioni storiografiche e teoriche di
C. Brumann (Brumann 1999) e M. Sahlins (Sahlins 1999 e 2000).
41
Corredare il termine “tradizione” con delle virgolette caricate di valore riflessivo, quando si
intende usarlo in modo analitico e non puramente descrittivo, è una delle possibili soluzioni. Un’altra
opzione è quella di preferire il termine “tradizionalizzazione” per rimarcare la dimensione per
l’appunto processuale dei fenomeni tradizionali: lo propone apertamente D. Dei (Dei 2012: 21). Da
molto tempo ormai un simile espediente teorico-terminologico è stato proposto e parzialmente
implementato negli studi sui fenomeni rituali: si è a lungo discusso di utilizzare maggiormente, se
non, in alcuni casi, esclusivamente, il termine “ritualizzazione” anziché quello di “rito”, in
antropologia e storia delle eligioni (il dibattito è articolato e annoso; una panoramica, neanche
esaustiva per giunta, è in Bell 2009). Tuttavia, come ho dimostrato altrove, anche coloro che hanno
teorizzato e sostenuto – e talvolta veementemente insistito sulla necessità di – questo scarto
terminologico e semantico, hanno in verità continuato, e continuano, a utilizzare anche il termine
“rito” (Testa 2014a: 56-77, cfr. in particoalre le pp. 75-76). Non ci sono ragioni per pensare che la
stessa cosa non debba accadere con la diade “tradizione/tradizionalizzazione”.
della pratica dell’antropologia nell’accademia italiana, risultando salutare quindi

tanto in termini prettamente metodologici che da un punto di vista dei risultati della
ricerca sul campo da essa informata, dall’altro sembra esser foriera di un certo
“recentismo metodologico”. Con tale espressione mi riferisco alla tendenza a
sopravvalutare alcune proposte teoriche e metodologiche più recenti a discapito di
quelle più datate, e quindi a egemonizzare lo spazio di discussione su determinate
problematiche, fino a usare la decostruzione e l’accusa di essenzializzazione/
reificazione a mo’ di magli sui discorsi non allineati ai propri assunti teorici42.
Certamente, la decostruzione come metodologia della demistificazione produce dei
salutari anticorpi alle generalizzazioni culturaliste, alle rigidità strutturalistiche, alle
forme di primitivismo e romanticismo antropologici, etc.; come effetto collaterale,
tuttavia, essa distilla tossine che arrivano spesso a corrodere anche le corrette o
comunque ancora fruttuose teorie, interpretazioni e conclusioni presenti in testi non
più recenti, cioè non “aggiornati” metodologicamente (ovvero, si potrebbe
affermare in modo provocatorio, in testi che non rispondono ai canoni citazionistici
sanciti dalla dottrina foucaultiana)43.
Ritengo, inoltre, che il discorso foucaultiano (o post-foucaultiano), così
come altri discorsi post-moderni, soffrano anche di quello che ho già definito
“presentismo metodologico”, vale a dire la tendanza a proiettare categorie,
problematiche, caratteristiche socio-culturali della modernità piena o tarda e
dell’hic et nunc dell’indagine etnografica su contesti storicamente diversi, o
addirittura a criticare i risultati di chi, consapevole delle grandi differenze culturali
tra società storicamente diverse, non utilizzi i metodi e le categorie della vulgata
foucaultiana, appunto non ritenendole applicabili a contesti storici diversi da quelli
contemporanei – la tendenza di alcuni ambienti intellettuali a misconoscere o
sottovalutare i confini e le specificità culturali delle società pre-moderne è stata
oggetto di riserve da parte di autorità della storia culturale come P. Burke, J. Revel,
ed E. Hobsbawm44.
42
Utilizzo la nozione di “discorso” al modo in cui è stata elaborata e utilizzata da M. Foucault
(Foucault 1969). Per “decostruzione” intendo meno quella sorta di procedura ermeneutica non sistematica
teorizzata e praticata da Derrida, sulla scorta di Heidegger (Derrida 2002), che gli effetti conoscitivi della
ricezione – e le ricadute metodologiche – di altri paradigmi, come quello epistemologico di T. Kuhn (Kuhn
1996), quello archeo-genealogico di M. Foucault (cfr. Foucault 1966, 1975 e 1998) – e il cui capostipite
intellettuale è il Nietzsche di Genealogia della morale (Nietzsche 2009) – e quello della critica riflessiva
della scrittura etnografica inaugurato con la pubblicazione del già ricordato Scrivere le culture (Clifford,
Marcus 1997 [1986]); sulla pubblicazione di questo libro come vero e proprio turning point teorico e
metodologico antropologico, cfr. la prefazione all’edizione italiana di G. Marcus [Marcus 1997]). Sia ben
chiaro che nel testo la mia critica riguarda quelli che considero degli eccessi nella pratica della
decostruzione, non la decostruzione stessa, che è al contrario un’utile e sana procedura ermeneutica, quando
praticata correttamente.
43
È stato scritto che “there is a tendency these days to close out the history of the discipline –
to forget that those who came before us reflected carefully on a range of theoretical problems and
represented a variety of approaches” (Abu-Lughod 1999: S13).
44
“There is now a danger of underestimating the importance of cultural boundaries in the
past” (Burke 2009: 9). Considerazioni simili in Revel 2006b: 33 e in Hobsbawm 1997b. In una
La critica italiana più radicale, tuttavia, in cui gli effetti del recentismo e del
presentismo metodologici di matrice decostruzionistica risultano particolarmente
evidenti, è quella che, a partire dalla problematica della tradizione (e da altre
problematiche), Palumbo ha portato alle retoriche storiografiche da lui definite
“essenzializzanti”: nella sua opera più importante, L’Unesco e il campanile45,
l’antropologo italiano non esita a definire schematiche, ideali, chiuse ed
essenzializzanti le retoriche dell’“immaginazione storiografica”46, anche quando
tali retoriche provenongo dalla penna degli stessi storici. La storia avrebbe “pretese
di autonomia esplicativa”47 più che potere di indagare, e sarebbe caratterizzata
dalla costruzione di narrazioni connotate da un “effetto di realtà”48, più che
finalizzate all’indagine della realtà stessa 49. Per di più, la produzione storica
sarebbe non solo essenzializzante ma anche connaturale e solidale alle logiche
egemoniche e nazionalistiche50.
In conclusione, la storiografia, e anche la stessa storia sociale e culturale,
oltre a non essere che uno dei tanti “discorsi” moderni, si occuperebbe per di più di
cose trascurabili, come l’origine delle tradizioni, la loro continuità nel tempo o la
loro rifunzionalizzazione e risemantizzazione, e sarebbe per giunta anche colpevole
di essenzializzare le realtà sociali, e di veicolare rivendicazioni politiche a
malapena celate, che poi sarebbe compito dell’antropologia politica demistificare,
ovviamante sulla base dell’assunto della preminenza della dimensione del potere su
tutte le altre.
recente introduzione a una pubblicazione incentrata sul rapporto tra storia, memoria e antropologia,
M. N. Craith e M. Fenske riflettono sulle ragioni per le quali il passato (come storia) è letto e
interpretato diversamente da storici e antropologi. È certamente vero che, come scrivono,
“anthropologists and historians are ʻcoming at’ history from different timeframes […], the
anthropologist is ʻpresent-centred’, whereas the historian could be said to be ʻpast-centred’”
(Craith, Fenske 2013: 1), ma è altrettanto vero che una diversa postura metodologica non implica
necessariamente l’obliterazione di una delle due prospettive (come, d’altronde, dimostra
efficacemente l’esistenza dell’antropologia storica). Argomenti simili si trovano anche in un recente e
convincente studio di C. Giordano: Giordano 2012.
45
Palumbo 2006a.
46
Ivi: 41-42.
47
Ivi: 308. Qui Palumbo sostiene questa sua ipotesi citando P. Ricœur.
48
Ibid; “effetto di realtà” è un’espressione che Palumbo riprende da R. Barthes.
49
Anche C. Giordano definisce apertamente questo tipo di approccio post-moderno
“presentism” (Giordano 2012: 22; corsivo dell’autore). Egli scrive che “Interpretative anthropology
has often deliberately overlooked the role of the past, while postmodern anthropology, in the name of
a radical constructivism paired with an arbitrary methodological individualism, likes resorting to
history to an exercise in essentialism and primordialism” (ivi: 23; sulla questione cfr. anche
Macdonald 2013: 54).
50
Palumbo 2006a: 211-221 e passim. Leggendo L’Unesco e il campanile, la sensazione è che
per l’autore non alcuni tipi di storiografie siano giustamente passibili di un’analisi che metta in luce le
dinamiche di riappropriazione, manipolazione e immaginazione sociale che esse catalizzano o di cui
sono il prodotto, ma che sia l’intera storia in quanto disciplina a costituire nient’altro che una pedina
tra le altre nello scacchiere politico. In alcuni casi Palumbo è esplicito: la costruzione e
l’immaginazione del passato è orientata da pratiche e rappresentazioni “sempre politiche” (Ivi: 211).
Le precedenti posizioni sono sostenute da Palumbo a partire da una vasta

conoscenza della letteratura di riferimento, e sono esposte con coerenza teorica ed
efficacia retorica. Ciononostante, io credo che questa problematica possa esser
trattata in altri termini. Altro è interpretare le relazioni tra alcuni discorsi storici e
la costruzione, anche politica, delle identità, delle appartenenze e delle poetiche
sociali, altro delegittimare come essenzializzante la storiografia tout court in
quanto produttrice di categorie naturalizzate e presunti fantasmi politici51. In realtà,
la ricerca storica produce conoscenze che costituiscono approssimazioni di verità
su un dato oggetto di studio, non (o almeno non soltanto) “pretese di ʻverità’”52 o
leggende strumentali all’opera di agenti sociali mossi esclusivamente da ragioni
identitarie e, in ultima istanza, politiche, cioè legate al “potere”53.
Dovrebbe esser chiaro che la finalità della critica che qui si sta
argomentando non è di voler misconoscere l’importanza della dimensione del
potere nell’analisi dei fenomeni socio-culturali, bensì discutere la pretesa che tale
dimensione sia preminente, e che debba diventare egemone nell’analisi
antropologica sulla base di un suo presunto maggior grado di descrivibilità e
interpretabilità della realtà sociale. Ma forse il problema di fondo riguarda più gli
obiettivi dei due approcci che gli strumenti per raggiungerli: la storia mira alla
costruzione di un passato per sua natura sempre perduto, l’antropologia alla
decostruzione delle poetiche prodotte (per alcuni collateralmente, per altri
precipuamente) proprio nell’operazione di costruzione del passato.
RIFONDARE O “SOLTANTO” REINTERPRETARE LO STUDIO DELLA TRADIZIONE
Penso sia opportuno ribadire che quanto è stato sostenuto finora non intende
affatto escludere la decostruzione e le nuove tendenze dell’antropologia, come già
51
Per Palumbo la “storia”, così come il “presente” e il “passato”, è una categoria dell’“ordine
discorsivo moderno” (Palumbo 2009: 300). La “storia” nei suoi scritti compare sempre come oggetto
manipolato a fini identitari da agenti sociali, mai, o quasi mai, come “categoria” produttrice di conoscenza.
Importanti osservazioni critiche su questa concezione della storia e della storiografia diffusa in certa
antropologia dell’Europa più recente sono in Giordano 2012 e Macdonald 2013: 54. Valgano ancora le
autorevoli considerazioni di E. Hobsbawm sulle tendenze “delle mode intellettuali postmoderne nelle
università occidentali, soprattutto nei dipartimenti di letteratura ed antropologia, le quali insinuano che tutti i
ʻfatti’ che pretendono di avere un’esistenza obiettiva sono soltanto costruzioni intellettuali. In breve, che
non esiste una netta distinzione tra fatto e finzione. Ma essa c’è per gli storici, anche per quelli tra noi che
sono più avversi al positivismo: la capacità di distinguere tra fatto e finzione è assolutamente fondamentale”
(Hobsbawm 1997a: 18; cfr. anche Hobsbawm 1997b).
52
Palumbo 2009: 108.
53
Non è difficile intuire in questa preminenza, ai limiti dell’esclusività, per la dimensione
politica gli effetti di quella “post-modern obsession with power” (Bielskis 2009: 83) oggi denunciata
da poche voci fuori dal coro, in antropologia (tra le poche, ricordo quelle, autorevoli, di M. Sahlins
[Sahlins 2002] e M. Harris [Harris 2000, in particolare le pp. 99-101]; in Italia la critica più compiuta
a questa concezione è stata intrapresa principalmente da F. Dei, in particolare, ma non solo, in Dei
2002). Padre intellettuale di questa “ossessione” sarebbe, di nuovo, F. Nietzsche, e in particolare il
Nietzsche de La volontà di potenza (Nietzsche 1995).
ampiamente argomentato nelle precedenti pagine, abbiano portato salutari e anzi

necessari contributi all’intelligenza dei fenomeni tradizionali. In particolare, e per
tornare decisamente e conclusivamente all’argomento principale di queste pagine,
cioè la tradizione, non vorrei che si leggesse questa mia discussione sul termine e
sulla realtà cui esso rimanda come un’acritica presa di posizione “reazionaria”. Al
contrario, ritengo che i vizi e i pericoli speculari a quelli di cui si è discusso nelle
precedenti pagine dovrebbero essere altrettanto chiaramente evocati, ed evitati: mi
riferisco, soprattutto, a quelli legati alla credenza e all’uso, anche in sede
scientifica, di versioni reificate o reificanti del concetto di tradizione54, tanto più
che la tradizione reificata è stata la principale responsabile di veri e propri miti
storico-antropologici se non creati quantomeno sviluppati e disseminati
dall’accademia: mitologie contemporanee, primitivismi, immaginari collettivi
fondati su un passato idealizzato, “nostalgie strutturali”55, “nostalgie del presente”56
e altri tipi di romanticismi sono fenomeni che caratterizzano la vita sociale e
culturale tanto delle aule universitarie che dei cinema e delle piazze.
Penso inoltre che sia il compito dell’antropologo dei mondi contemporanei il
mettere in luce e interpretare correttamente tutti i processi e le dinamiche che
caratterizzano, specie in contesti europei, quelle realtà culturali per cui S. Macdonald
ha giustamente ed efficacemente proposto di utilizzare i concetti di “past
presencing” e “memory complex”57. Mi riferisco, più in particolare, a quelle
pratiche di di attualizzazione e riattualizzazione del passato come quelle della
costruzione e trasmissione della memoria sociale, della patrimonializzazione
culturale, della invenzione delle tradizioni, della costruzione delle identità
politiche, etniche e sociali sulla base delle tradizioni. Compito dell’antropologo è
pure lo svelamento delle logiche nazionalistiche, localistiche, particolaristiche e
campanilistiche inscritte in alcune forme narrative del passato come le pratiche
tradizionali e certi saperi storiografici58. Tuttavia, come ho suggerito nelle
precedenti pagine, è importante tenere a mente che non tutte le tradizioni sono
tipiche della – o posteriori alla – modernità, o sono prodotti dei discorsi degli stati-
nazione, né che tutte le tradizioni siano espedienti politici per il raggiungimento, la
conservazione o la destabilizzazione del potere. In breve, che le tradizioni, seppure
54
In Italia una concezione di tradizione relativamente atemporale, statica e “tradizionale”
(pre-Habsbawm, per così dire), si rinveniva, fino a pochissimi anni, fa anche in studiosi interessati
appunto alle tradizioni popolari, e in particolare ai fenomeni festivi (e carnascialeschi specialmente).
Non è forse un caso: le tradizioni festive, specie quelle di documentabile lunga permanenza nei
calendari europei, sono quelle più conservative (Buttitta 2010, Bravo 2005, Grimaldi 2002, Le Goff
1979, Valeri 1979).
55
Herzfeld 2003: 135-140.
56
Quella di “nostalgia del presente” è una definizione di F. Jameson (Jameson 1989) ma che
rimanda a una problematica presente già in M. Halbwachs (Halbwachs 1996 [1950]). Cfr. anche
Appadurai 2001a: 48 e 2001b: 107, Macdonald 2013: passim, e Berliner 2012: 282.
57
Macdonald 2013: 1-5.
58
Al riguardo indicativa e anzi particolarmente pertinente è la ricerca di S. Sagnes sugli
storici non-professionisti “locali” (Sagnes 2002).
sempre inventate, non sono sempre politiche, non soggiaciono necessariamente alle
logiche della “micro-fisica del potere” – per coloro che credono nella realtà, e non nella
mera sensazione, di un tale concetto –, e non sono sempre invenzioni della modernità,
ma rispondono piuttosto a logiche e necessità socio-culturali diverse e contingenti,
strutturadosi e prendendo forma simbolica come pratiche e rappresentazioni del passato
le quali, in espressioni e modalità culturalmente determinate e anche diversissime tra
loro, si reperiscono in tutte le società e in tutte le epoche.
Nella prima sezione di questo studio ho brevemente descritto, al fine di
sostenere i miei argomenti, diversi esempi storici. Ora invece vorrei evocare, prima di
avviarmi alla conclusione di questo scritto, alcuni esempi tratti dalle mie esperienze
etnografiche in Italia (2010-2011) e in Repubblica Ceca (2013-2014). In entrambi i
casi, mi sono occupato di tradizione, cultura festiva e patrimonializzazione culturale da
un punto di vista tanto etnografico che storiografico (di storia culturale nella
fattispecie). In entrambi i casi, ho condotti indagini etnografiche di medio e lungo
periodo basate sulla pratica dell’osservazione partecipante e su altri metodi di indagine
sanciti dalle metodologie della ricerca sociale59.
Nel caso italiano, mi sono interessato alle tensioni e interrelazioni esistenti
tra la “tradizione” che era l’oggetto precipuo della mia indagine (il carnevale di
Castelnuovo al Volturno) e la “tradizione” in quanto concetto/dimensione socio-
culturale al centro delle pratiche e poetiche sociali della comunità di riferimento.
Ho cercato di capire come, in che modo e per quale ragione alcuni elementi
indubitabilmente e documentabilmente dotati di profondità diacronica (cioè
“trasmessi”) siano stati recuperati, valorizzati, e rifunzionalizzati, in un contesto
caratterizzato, durante il ‘900 e fino a oggi, e a dispetto della sua “taglia”, da grandi
e radicali cambiamenti sociali, e per quali ragioni altri elementi siano stati invece
abbandonati, o siano stati oggetto di manipolazioni più radicali, e in alcuni casi
conflittuali. Ho tentato di capire, in altre parole, le interconnessioni esistenti tra
strutture sociali, pratiche rituali, memorie individuali e collettive, cultura festiva e
tradizionalità nelle loro dimensioni tanto etnograficamente osservabili che
storiche60. Ne è risultato un quadro dinamico ma allo stesso tempo alquanto
coerente con processi e fenomeni moderni e di modernizzazione di scala più ampia
(nazionale, europea, addirittura globale) indagabili comparativamente. Soprattutto,
ne è risultato un quadro in cui la tradizione non è concettualizzabile né come pura
invenzione, né come esatta trasmissione, né come pratica esclusivamente moderna
né come arcaico fossile culturale, ma come elemento di relazione al – e costruzione
del – passato implicito e significativo in numerosi fatti e dinamiche sociali. Una
dimensione semantica, retorica e strutturale per così dire inevitabile nei discorsi e
59
I principali risultati di queste due ricerche sono stati – e saranno – presentati in diverse
pubblicazioni: Testa 2014a, 2014b, 2016a, 2016b, 2016c, 2016d.
60
Con qualche successo, sembra, viste le recensioni positive che il libro ha ricevuto finora in
riviste nazionali e internazionali: Biasiori 2015, Bindi 2015, Dietz 2016, Gala Pellicer 2014, Mannia
2014.
nelle pratiche dei locali e dei non-locali coinvolti a vario titolo nell’esperienza
tradizionale, ormai translocale e transcomunitaria, della festa, esperienza
caratterizzata certo da discontinuità, rotture e sviluppi non-lineari, ma anche da
indubbie continuità: come tutti i fatti sociali storici, il carnevale di Castelnuovo
trascende l’hic et nunc dello sguardo etnografico, e si presta a esser pensato nei
termini della continuità, della memoria, della trasmissione. Queste cose possono e
devono essere contestualizzate e indagate storicamente. Esse mi hanno offerto la
possibilità di comprendere gli sviluppi di un processo in cui gli attori sociali non
sono soltanto mute espressioni di regimi di verità, relazioni di potere, o
posizionamenti razionalmente ed utilitaristicamente determinati, ma agenti sociali
che per l’appunto agiscono e interagiscono entro e con strutture, dinamiche e
immaginari stratificati, confrontandosi con un fatto sociale totale (la loro festa di
carnevale, il momento dell’anno più importante) che è lungi dall’essere una mera
invenzione disponibile a qualsiasi sorta di interpretazione, manipolazione e uso a
scopi esclusivamente identitari, o religiosi, o economici, o politici.
La constatazione e teorizzazione della poliedricità e complessità dei fatti
“tradizionali” nelle loro dimensioni tanto sincroniche che diacroniche è d’altronde,
e altresì, tra i risultati della seconda ricerca antropologica che ho menzionato.
Anche in questo caso, il contesto di riferimento, una cittadina della Boemia
orientale, è stato negli ultimi decenni caratterizzato da molti e radicali cambiamenti
sociali. Anche in questo caso, ho dovuto considerare l’intrinseca conflittualità della
nozione e della pratica della tradizione – non dimenticando il ruolo dell’etnografo,
e il suo posizionamento nell’arena del campo etnografico –, e adattare i miei
strumenti d’indagine e di interpretazione alla natura dell’oggetto della mia ricerca,
alla sua problematicità epistemologica, alle sue irregolarità diacroniche, alle
tensioni semantiche che caratterizzano la negoziazione dei significati come pure la
loro consequenziale o causale circolazione tra ambiti etici ed emici. La conclusione
è stata la medesima: è impossibile etichettare questi fenomeni e processi come il
prodotto di dinamiche solamente “moderne” (una modernità da intedersi non nella
mera accezione tipica della convenzionale periodizzazione storiografica, ma come
macro-processo – o meglio insieme di processi – da contestualizzare e ricondurre –
o individuare – all’interno di specifici contesti storici e culturali). Tali fenomeni e
processi, al contrario, restano inestricabilmente interrelati alle loro dimensioni
diacroniche, e alle caratterizzazioni di queste dimensioni che sono plasmate dagli
agenti sociali coinvolti, sulla base di necessità dettate dalle contingenze e
circostanze attuali e reali. La festa boema di cui mi sono occupato (il masopust),
oggetto tra le altre cose della recente e ufficiale “patrimonializzazione” da parte
dell’UNESCO, mi ha permesso di aprire un nuovo spiraglio sulla dimensione pan-
europea, seppur declinata localmente, della tradizionalità, cioè di uno dei fattori
reali, contestuali e conflittuali, che caratterizzano e determinano quel “identity-
memory-heritage complex” ormai riscontrabile presso tutte le società europee
contemporanee, secondo l’eminente opinione di S. Macdonald61. La “tradice”
61
Macdonald 2013.
(“tradizione” in Ceco) boema si è rivelata essere per molti aspetti simile, e

certamente fruttuosamente comparabile, alla “tradizione” (o “tradizionə”, in gergo
locale) molisana. Come questa, essa è oggetto di discussione e interpretazione e
manipolazione perpetua, ma allo stesso tempo è caratterizzata da continuità che
sono fortunatamente studiabili storicamente, e non necessariamente per ragioni
“sempre politiche”. Una di queste continuità, che ho potuto riscontrare in entrambi
i contesti, è quella della presenza di una idea di tradizione pienamente rispondente
a quella “moderna” anche a partire da fonti (orali principalmente, ma non solo) che
permettono di sondare le credenze dei locali in tempi precedenti alla
modernizzazione di questi contesti – contesti rurali, piccoli, culturalmente isolati
per secoli prima che le trasformazioni e accelerazioni avvenute grosso modo
attorno alla metà del secolo scorso li coinvolgessero nel turbine dei macro-processi
socio-culturali, economici, e politici che caratterizzano l’epoca tardo-moderna o
post-moderna.
Per concludere, ribadisco che quella che si è fin qui articolata ed
esemplificata è una posizione che si vuole ragionevole e critica, riflessiva ma non
distruttiva, insieme decostruttiva e costruttiva, e finalizzata a una riproposta, su
basi forse non nuove ma certamente più solide, del problema della tradizione e dei
problemi a essa correlati, non ultimo quello di un approccio antropologicamente
orientato ad altre forme di discorso sul passato e ad altri modelli di passato. In
breve, ho cercato di delineare i contorni di una posizione intermedia che cerchi
soluzioni teoriche e spazi dialettici interstiziali utili ad aggirare tanto le posizioni
acritiche ed essenzializzanti dei vari primitivismi che quelle, talvolta corrosive e
spesso appiattenti, del decostruzionismo radicale.
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RAPPORT DE RECHERCHE / RESEARCH REPORT
ANTHROPOMÉTRIE ET DIMORPHISME SEXUEL

CHEZ UNE SÉLECTION SPÉCIALE DES CERTAINS ADULTES
DE ROUMANIE
ELEONORA LUCA, CORNELIU VULPE,

MONICA PETRESCU, MIRCEA ŞT. CIUHUŢA, NICOLAE LEASEVICI1
Abstract. The study of metrical characteristics of the adults from the filiation
research from all the Romania’s historical counties has as objectives the assessment of
the phenotipical variability compared with data from the whole country coming from
the Anthropological Atlases (furthermore referring to the hand and the ear) and the
highlighting of sexual dimorphism. The sample is composed of 137 pairs (274
individuals, 137 males and 137 females). The originality of this group is the fact that
it represents a special selection of pairs coming from a special temporal relationship in
a special context, the anthropological research of filiation. The average values of
dimensions and anthropological parameters of both sexes are closed to those
calculated for the whole country. Nevertheless, a dimensional sexual dimorphism
emphasized enough favoring the males is observed, and also significant and positive
correlations showing a “matrimonial assortment” especially for the measurements and
conformation of hand, ear, nose, stature, sitting height, leg, and facial width.
Keywords: anthropometry, phenotypical variability, sexual dimorphism,
matrimonial assortment.
Une étude anthropométrique sur un groupe d’adultes qui proviennent de

toutes les provinces historiques de Roumanie, pratiquement de tous ses
départements, c’est d’abord une provocation de tester sa représentativité („qualité
d’un échantillon constitué à correspondre à la population dont il est extrait”,
Larousse, 2008), en comparant sa structure anthropologique, ses valeurs moyennes
avec les moyennes sur l’ensemble du pays publiées dans l’Atlas anthropologique
de la Roumanie, I-er volume (Radu, Glavce, Bulai-Ştirbu, 2011: 52-78). De plus,
nous ajoutons aussi des données concernant l’anthropométrie de l’oreille externe et
de la main, des données qui se retrouvent assez rarement dans les travaux
anthropologiques roumains (Papilian, Velluda, 1940: 19; Milcu, Dumitrescu,
1961:108-109; 1966: 60-80; Schmidt, 1971: 85-92; 1977: 31-37; Vulpe, 1971: 93-98
1
Institut d’Anthropologie « Francisc I. Rainer », Académie Roumaine (eleonluca@yahoo.com).

94 Eleonora Luca, Corneliu Vulpe, Monica Petrescu, Mircea Şt. Ciuhuţa, Nicolae Leasevici 2
etc.). On sait que la main et l’oreille externe (le pavillon), parmi d’autres, sont des
empreintes importantes du corps humain qui se caractérisent par une héritabilité
apréciable (Susanne, 1971: 15), ayant aussi une valeur sémiologique (Vulpe, 2003:
99; Petrescu, 2013: 356).
La recherche de la filiation ( plus fréquemment en paternité) est une
recherche complexe, biomédicale et juridique, une démarche avec une résonance
importante sur le plan social. Il faut souligner que nous avons respecté les normes
éthiques et déontologiques en utilisant les données après la solution définitive des
cas avec la protection de l’anonymat.
Nos travaux antérieurs sur les sujets d’expertises concernent des aspects
biomédicaux, sociaux et des caractérisations morphophysionomiques des adultes
et des enfants (Petrescu, 2014: 301; Luca, 2014: 250; Luca, 2014: 53).
Un aspect intéressant c’est la particularité du lot d’adultes, les paires
femmes-hommes d’expertise représentant pour notre recherche une sélection
spéciale d’une relation spéciale (excepté les 2-3 cas de mariage), relation fondée
temporairement dans des circonstances spéciales.
MATÉRIEL ET MÉTHODES
Le matériel d’étude est représenté par 137 paires hommes-femmes auxquels

nous avons ajouté, selon la sorte de l’expertise (ex. expertise élargie), aussi
d’autres sujets parentés – mères, pères, frères etc. Le volume est fluctuant selon le
caractère incriminé, l’âge de l’enfant, l’existence d’une moyenne-étalon, mais aussi
à cause d’autres faits diverses: accidents, opérations, déformations au niveau d’une
région, omission d’un mesurage etc. L’amplitude du volume est compris entre 85
(ex. pour la hauteur de la tête) et 143 sujets (ex. quelques mesurages céphalo-
faciaux), entre 20-60 ans (30,46 ans – la moyenne pour les femmes et 36,21 ans –
la moyenne pour les hommes). Des autres références concernant les sujets sont
spécifiées dans les travaux antérieurs (Luca, 2014: 55; Petrescu, 2014: 301-307).
Pour ce travail nous avons sélectionné les phénotypes des 28 caractères:
11 dimensions et 9 indices au niveau céphalo-facial, respectivement 5 dimensions
et 3 indices au niveau corporel selon la catégorie des caractères considérée
conforme à l’expertise. (Tableaux 1 et 2).
On a appliqué des méthodes statistiques classiques, la statistique univariée
pour calculer les valeurs moyennes, pour apprécier la variabilité phénotypiques, la
comparaison avec les autres résultats obténus sur l’ensemble du pays (Radu, 2011:
52-78; Vlădescu, 1999: 84-85; Luca, 1997: 109-110) et pour tester la certitude de
la différence (t, z, χ²). Nous avons aussi apprécié le dimorphisme sexuel et
l’assortiment matrimonial par la statistique bivariée en appliquant les corrélations
Brevais-Pearson et l’erreur de la corrélations. (Susanne, 1978: 73-79; Gittins, 1985:
13-67; Loftus, 1988: 435-526; Aron, 1997: 22-263).
3 Anthropométrie et dimorphisme sexuel 95
Pour apprécier la variabilité phénotypique nous avons utilisé les mêmes

échelles de variation (tableau 3) utilisées dans les Atlas ( Vlădescu, Vulpe, 2005:
33-36; Vulpe, 2012: 23-26), mais pour l’indice nasal nous avons utilisé deux
échelles, d’Eickstedt et celle „universelle” de Martin, la dernière, après notre avis,
en caractérisant de façon plus objective la conformation du nez europoïde,
inclusivement le nez des Roumains (tableau 3). La variabilité de la longueur de
l’oreille externe a été estimée sur l’échelle de Martin pour les hommes et sur une
échelle modifiée par H. et Marta Dumitrescu pour les femmes (Dumitrescu, 1961:
78-109). La variabilité de la conformation de la main a été appréciée sur deux
échelles, Vallois et Martin-Schlaginhaufen (Petrescu, 2013: 356-361).
Tableau 1
Valeurs moyennes des dimensions et indices. Hommes
Caractère N amplitude M DS CV z1 z2 z3
g-op 142 176-204 187,61 6,83 3,64 0,42 0,46 0,34
eu-eu 143 137-178 159,22 5,92 3,72 0,5 0,58 0,51
ft-ft 140 95-126 112,56 4,75 4,22 0,1 0,16 0
zy-zy 142 130-157 144,33 5,81 4,03 0,29 0,31 0,36
go-go 143 91-131 109,07 6,74 6,18 -0,16 -0,11 -0,24
n-gn 143 108-138 124,42 6,02 4,84 -0,08 -0,09 0,04
n-sn 141 41-70 56,35 4,18 7,42 0,23 0,19 0,52
al-al 141 30-42 35,55 2,86 8,05 0,28 0,19 0,34
t-v 85 115,5-140 126,48 4,91 3,88 0,15 0,14 0,34
pa-pra 134 29-46,5 37,28 2,78 7,46
sa-sba 134 55-80 66,2 4,67 7,05
IC 142 74-96,73 85 4,08 4,8 0,07 0,08 0,13
IVL 85 61,11-74,87 67,18 2,93 4,36 -0,26 -0,3 -0,34
IVT 85 72,65-89,14 79,54 3,58 4,5 -0,21 -0,28 0,15
IFP 140 58,28-80,77 70,76 3,24 4,58 -0,46 -0,25
IFZ 140 69,34-85,4 77,82 2,96 3,8 -0,19 -0,15 -0,03
IGZ 142 63,51-85,71 75,4 4,29 5,69 -0,44 -0,4 -0,58
IF 142 76,31-98,48 86,22 4,63 5,37 -0,28 -0,27 -0,22
IN 140 49,24-78,35 63,31 6,28 9,91 0,06 0 -0,22
IO 134 44,62-66,41 56,37 4,45 7,89 0,29
Taille 106 1577-1922 1733,08 72,49 4,18 0,81 0,82 0,63
T-assise 104 813-1095 912,35 55,86 6,12 0,71 0,87 0,74
Long.m.i. 104 716-939 818,94 43,88 5,36 0,5 0,52
mm-ml 112 77,25-98 86,9 4,4 5,06
sty-da 112 165-212 180,81 10,1 5,59
I.chorm. 104 49,46-58,09 53,46 4,89 9,15 0,49 0,46 0,6
I.skél. 104 72,13-102,19 89,55 5,29 5,91 0 -0,1
I.main 112 41,46-64,34 48,32 3,13 6,48
Tableau 2
Valeurs moyennes des dimensions et indices. Femmes
Caractère N amplitude M DS CV z1 z2 z3
g-op 143 151-195 177,74 6,64 3,74 0,19 0,21 0,1
eu-eu 143 134-174 150,22 5,83 3,88 0,02 0,04 0,02
ft-ft 140 85-120 106,6 5,14 4,82 -0,46 -0,29 -0,16
zy-zy 143 120-156 134,78 4,88 3,62 0,07 0,1 0,14
go-go 143 90-115 100,87 5,6 5,55 -0,31 -0,23 -0,41
n-gn 140 102-128 114,65 5,8 5,06 -0,01 -0,06 0,13
n-sn 142 42-64 53,18 4,03 7,58 0,34 0,24 0,57
al-al 143 25-39 32,04 2,82 8,8 0,17 0,09 0,22
t-v 85 106-134,5 120,55 5,68 4,71 -0,07 -0,1 -0,33
pa-pra 134 29,5-41,5 33,72 3,51 10,41
sa-sba 134 51-70 61,43 4,49 7,31
IC 143 76,22-95,56 84,58 3,87 4,58 -0,1 -0,1 -0,05
IVL 85 61,44-77,01 67,95 3,65 5,37 -0,17 -0,21 -0,23
IVT 85 70,35-91,16 80,24 4,48 5,58 -0,1 -0,14 -0,11
IFP 140 63,76-80,54 70,96 2,83 3,99 -0,65 -0,47
IFZ 139 67,95-91,45 79,24 3,27 4,13 -0,36 -0,31 -0,32
IGZ 142 66,42-88,46 74,83 4,12 5,51 -0,41 -0,35 -0,54
IF 139 70,15-98,43 84,98 5,1 6 -0,09 -0,08 -0,01
IN 142 46,87-78 60,48 6,24 10,32 -0,18 -0,2 -0,32
IO 134 45,8-76,14 55,67 4,36 7,83 -0,09
Taille 104 1492-1792 1602,4 64,1 4 0,69 0,66 0,38
1
T-assise 103 773-1020 862,99 38,17 4,42 0,72 0,75 0,53
Long.m.i. 103 651-871 737,85 43,06 5,84 0,29 0,26
mm-ml 111 66-86,5 76,26 3,94 5,17
sty-da 111 146-192 164,5 9,28 5,64
I.chorm. 103 50,39-59,97 54,35 3,54 6,51 0,47 0,46 0,48
I.skél. 103 69,61-98,45 85,64 5,69 6,64 -0,08 -0,18 -0,34
I.main 111 39,69-64,46 46,6 2,82 6,05
RÉSULTATS ET DISCUSSIONS
1. CARACTÉRISATION ANTHROPOMÉTRIQUE DES ADULTES

(tableaux 1-3, figures 1 et 2)
1.1. Valeurs moyennes (tableaux 1 et 2)
Chez les hommes, la calotte céphalique se caractérise, moyennement, par un
diamètre longitudinal (g-op) longue, un diamètre transversal (eu-eu) large, un diamètre
vertical (t-v) haut au début et un front (ft-ft) large à la limite supérieure de la catégorie
de variation. L’indice céphalique (IC) indique brachycéphalie vers la limite supérieure.
La hauteur de la tête rapportée au diamètre longitudinal (IVL) s’inscrit dans la
catégorie d’hypsicéphalie (subdivision d’hypsicéphalie modérée) et rapportée au
diamètre transversal (IVT) se situe au début de la catégorie métriocéphale. La largeur

du front rapportée à la tête (IFP) se place au début de la métriométopie.
Au niveau des dimensions faciaux, les hommes ont, moyennement, une largeur
faciale (zy-zy) au début de la catégorie large, une largeur mandibulaire (go-go)
moyenne, une face haute (n-gn) au début, un nez haut (n-sn) au début et moyen en
largeur (al-al) à la limite supérieure de la catégorie. Concernant les indices, la largeur
du front rapportée à la face (IFZ) est moyenne, la largeur mandibulaire (IGZ) est
moyenne au début. L’indice morphologique facial (IF) indique, moyennement,
mésoprosopie. Le nez IN) en échelle d’Eickstedt a une conformation moyenne
mésorhine tandis qu’en échelle universelle ceci est leptorhine.
Corporellement, les hommes ont une stature moyenne grande et une taille-
assise surmoyenne. Les proportions corporelles, illustrées par l’indice cormique et
l’indice skélique, se caractérisent par macrocormie au début, respectivement, par
mésatiskélie à la limite supérieure de la catégorie de variation.
Au niveau céphalique, les femmes ont, moyennement, les deux diamètres
horizontaux au début de la catégorie longue, respectivement, large. Le diamètre
vertical est haut au début de la catégorie et le front est large. Les conformations
réalisées par les dimensions mises en rapport caractérisent les femmes par
brachycéphalie, hypsicéphalie modérée, métriocéphalie et eurymétopie.
Concernant les dimensions faciaux absolues, les femmes se caractérisent,
moyennement, par une largeur faciale moyenne à la limite supérieure, une
mandibule large, une face haute au début, un nez haut et d’une largeur moyenne au
début de la catégorie de variation. Les valeurs moyennes des indices expriment un
front moyen par rapport à la face, une largeur mandibulaire moyenne, une face
mésoprosope à la limite supérieure et un nez leptorhin sur l’échelle universelle ou
mésorhin au début de la catégorie sur l’échelle trop exigeant d’Eickstedt.
Les femmes ont aussi, moyennement, une stature grande et une taille-assise
surmoyenne. La moyenne de l’indice cormique s’inscrit en macrocormie et ceci de
l’indice skélique en mésatiskélie au début de la catégorie.
1.2. Comparaisons avec les valeurs moyennes sur l’ensemble du pays
(tableaux 1 et 2)
Les valeurs moyennes des dimensions et indices des adultes de deux sexes
ont été comparées avec trois séries des valeurs moyennes concernant l’ensemble du
pays, valeurs publiées dans l’Atlas anthropologique de la Roumanie (z1), dans
l’Atlas anthropologique de la Munténie (z2) et dans une thèse de 1997 (z3). Les
trois séries ont à la base les données collectées dans les recherches
anthropologiques des communautés des habitants autochtones roumains.
La comparaison met en évidence les ressemblances frappantes entre notre
„sélection” d’adultes venus à l’expertise de tous les coins du pays et les trois séries
de valeurs moyennes. Les valeurs moyennes calculées par nous se situent pour
tous les caractères anthropométriques dans l’intervalle „M±σ” par rapport aux trois
séries de moyennes sur l’ensemble du pays. Ceci prouve la qualité de notre lot
d’adultes „d’être constitué de façon à correspondre à la population dont il est

extrait”, autrement dit, à la population roumaine.
1.3. Variabilité anthropométrique (tableaux 3)
Notre commentaire suivant analyse la variabilité phénotypiques des
conformations illustrées par les indices céphaliques, faciaux et corporels, des
caractères qui constituent la base de caractérisation d’une typologie
anthropologique. Mais dans le tableau 3 on peut voir aussi la variabilité des
dimensions absolues de tous niveaux.
Les valeurs individuelles de l’indice céphalique, proportion entre les deux
diamètres horizontaux, se répartissent chez les hommes prédominant dans les
catégories hyperbrachy- et brachycéphalie, la courbe de variation étant orientée
faiblement vers mésocéphalie. Comparativement, par leurs phénotypes, les femmes se
situent, prédominant, en brachycéphalie et, aproximativement également, en méso- et
hyperbrachycéphalie. Rapportée aux deux diamètres horizontaux céphaliques, la
hauteur de la tête varie assez similaire chez les deux sexes. Pour l’indice vertico-
longitudinal prédomine nettement la hypsicéphalie et pour l’indice vertico-transversal
la métriocéphalie et tapeinocéphalie, chez les femmes la courbe de variation étant
orientée significativement aussi vers accrocéphalie. Les phénotypes de la largeur du
front rapportée à la tête se trouvent nettement davantage dans la catégorie des front
larges, eurymétopiques, en variant faiblement vers metriométopie.
Au niveau du visage, chez les deux sexes, la largeur relative du front est
prédominant moyenne et la largeur mandibulaire est étroite et/ou moyenne. Les
phénotypes de l’indice facial varient entre euryprosopie et leptoprosopie chez les
hommes et, significativement, chez les femmes, se trouvent prédominant dans
leptoprosopie variant vers mésoprosopie. Les valeurs individuelles de l’indice nasal, en
échelle d’Eickstedt, se répartissent dans toutes les catégories, davantage dans
mésorhine, camaerhine, et leptorhine. En analysant la distribution des phénotypes de la
conformation nasale sur l’échelle „universelle”, de Martin, accordée aux conformations
qui caractérisent les européens ( les noirs ont un nez caractéristique camaerhin ou
même hypercamaerhin!), le nez des adultes de deux sexes est nettement leptorhin, chez
les femmes en variant faiblement vers hyperleptorhin.
Corporellement, en ce qui concerne la stature, avec une variabilité assez
large, chez les deux sexes prédominent les phénotypes grands (›40%) et pour la
taille-assise les phénotypes surmoyens (›50%) et moyens (28-32%). La proportion
du buste dans la stature, illustrée par l’indice cormique, varie davantage dans les
deux catégories – métriocormie et macrocormie – chez les femmes presque
également (≈ 45%) tandis que chez les hommes les phénotypes enregistrent un
poids plus grand dans métriocormie (50%). Les valeurs individuelles de l’indice
skélique de Manouvrier se cantonnent chez les hommes davantage en mésatiskélie
et submacroskélie tandis que chez les femmes, se distribuent, significativement,
presque également, davantage, en mésatiskélie et sous-brachyskélie.
Tableau 3
Variabilité phénotypique des certains caractères des sujets sur les échelles de variation
Caractère/ Catégories de variation phénotypique
sexe n % n % n % n % n % n %
g-op très court court moyen long très long
hommes 5 3,52 56 39,44 53 37,32 28 19,72
femmes 1 0,7 8 5,59 58 40,56 53 37,06 23 16,08
eu-eu très étroit étroit moyen large très large
hommes 3 2,1 34 23,78 76 53,15 30 20,98
femmes 9 6,29 57 39,86 67 46,85 10 6,99
t-v très bas bas moyen haut très haut
hommes 3 3,53 36 42,35 39 45.88 7 8,24
femmes 4 4,71 32 37,65 40 47,06 9 10,59
ft-ft très étroit étroit moyen large très large
hommes 1 0,71 8 5,71 80 57,14 51 36,43
femmes 1 0,71 1 0,71 26 18,57 74 52,86 38 27,14
zy-zy très étroit étroit moyen large très large
hommes 1 0,7 5 3,52 57 40,14 64 45,07 15 10,56

femmes 1 0,7 14 9,79 63 44,06 55 38,46 10 6,99
go-go très étroit étroit moyen large très large
hommes 8 5,59 23 16,08 59 41,26 32 22,38 21 14,69
femmes 7 4,9 47 32,87 54 37,76 35 24,48
n-gn très bas bas moyen haut très haut
hommes 3 2,1 16 11,19 43 30,07 47 32,87 34 23,78
femmes 2 1,43 13 9,29 47 33,57 48 34,29 30 21,43
n-sn très bas bas moyen haut très haut
hommes 6 4,26 20 14,18 33 23,4 41 29,08 41 29,08
femmes 4 2,82 11 7,75 35 24,65 42 29,58 50 35,21
al-al très étroit étroit moyen large très large
hommes 2 1,42 33 23,4 58 41,13 37 26,24 11 7,8
femmes 15 10,49 46 32,17 56 39,16 22 15,38 4 2,8

ultrabra
IC hyperdolicho- dolichocéph. mésocéphalie brachicéph. hyperbrachi- chi-
hommes 3 2,11 22 15,49 51 35,92 61 42,96 5 3,52
femmes 2 1,4 36 25,17 60 41,96 40 27,97 5 3,5

hyperhy
IVL camaecéphalie orthocéph. hypsicéphalie (subhypsi- hypsi- psi- )
hommes 7 8,24 78 91,76 63 74,12 15 17,65

femmes 7 8,24 78 91,76 55 64,71 23 27,05
hyperac
IVT tapéinocéph. métriocéph. acrocéphalie (subacro- acrocéph. ro- )
hommes 40 46,51 42 48,84 4 4,65 4 4,65
femmes 32 37,65 39 45,88 14 16,47 12 14,12 2 2,35
IFP hypersténo- sténométope métriométope eurymétope hypereury-
hommes 1 0,71 5 3,57 31 22,14 91 65 12 8,57
femmes 5 3,57 25 17,86 99 70,71 11 7,86
IFZ très étroit étroit moyen large très large
hommes 2 1,43 18 12,86 92 65,71 26 18,57 2 1,43
femmes 6 4,32 22 15,83 92 66,19 16 11,51 3 2,16
IGZ très étroit étroit moyen large très large
hommes 12 8,45 54 38,03 50 35,21 23 16,2 3 2,11
femmes 6 4,23 44 30,99 59 41,55 27 19,01 6 4,23

ultralep
IF hypereurypr. euryprosopie mésoprosopie leptoprosopie hyperlepto- topr.
hommes 7 4,93 43 30,28 41 28,87 41 28,87 10 7,04
femmes 13 9,35 13 9,35 32 23,02 63 45,32 18 12,95
IN hyperleptorh. leptorhinie mésorhinie camaerhinie hypercamae-
hommes 14 10 109 77,86 17 12,14

femmes 30 21,13 98 69,01 14 9,86
très
Taille petite sous-moyenne moyenne sur-moyenne grande grande
hommes 3 2,83 4 3,77 16 15,09 16 15,09 50 47,17 17 16,04
femmes 10 9,62 14 13,46 25 24,04 44 42,31 11 10,58

très
T-assise petite sous-moyenne moyenne sur-moyenne haute haute
hommes 7 6,73 29 27,88 52 50 13 12,5 3 2,88
femmes 4 3,88 33 32,04 55 53,4 8 7,77 3 2,91
Icormique brachicorme métriocorme macrocorme
hommes 10 9,62 52 50 42 40,38
femmes 10 9,71 47 45,63 46 44,66

macros
I.skélique hyperbrachi- brachiskèle sous-brachi- mésatiskèle sous-macro- kèle
hommes 4 3,85 1 0,96 9 8,65 39 37,5 36 34,62 13 12,5
femmes 6 5,83 7 6,8 35 33,98 33 32,04 16 15,53 6 5,83

hypermacroskèle
hommes 2 1,92
femmes
1.4. Variabilité de l’oreille externe et de la main (Figures 1 et 2)

Chez les hommes, l’oreille externe, plus grande significativement en largeur
(pa-pra) et en longueur (sa-sba) par rapport aux femmes, a une longueur
moyennement grande, de type macrot, avec une variabilité phénotypique où
prédominent nettement les valeurs individuelles grandes (≈65%) et puis les
moyennes (de type mésot). Dans la même échelle, les femmes répartissent leurs
phénotypes dans les catégories de longueur plus petite, davantage en mésot et
microt. Sur l’échelle modifiée par Horia et Marta Dumitrescu (Dumitrescu, 1961:
78-79), les phénotypes de la longueur de l’oreille se placent prédominant aussi
dans la catégorie des oreilles grandes, macrotes (≈56%), le poids des oreilles
mésotes étant significativement plus grand par rapport aux hommes. La valueur
moyenne de la longueur auriculaire s’inscrit chez les femmes dans le début de la
catégorie macrot.
La conformation de la main (mm-ml/sty-da = l’indice de la main, ou
largeur/longueur) est apprécié sur deux échelles, Vallois, concernant la largeur
relative, respectivement Martin- Schlaginhaufen qui caractérise la longueur
relative. Ainsi, les hommes ont une moyenne de l’indice large (eurycheir) au début
de la catégorie en échelle Vallois avec les phénotypes prédominants dans cette
catégorie (58%), la courbe de variation étant dirigée vers les mains de largeur
moyenne (›39%). Les femmes groupent significativement les plus phénotypes
(›70%) dans la catégorie de largeur moyenne en dirigeant la variation vers les
mains larges. Dans l’échelle de Martin, où aussi les deux sexes se différencient
significativement par la variation, les hommes ont une main moyennement courte
(brachycheir) et les phénotypes prédominants dans la catégorie respective mais
ayant des poids importants de mains de longueur moyenne ou très courtes (22-
24%). Les femmes, en même échelle, ont moyennement une main de longueur
moyenne à la limite supérieure de la catégorie et, par rapport aux hommes, les plus
phénotypes (≈48%) se trouvent dans la catégorie moyenne, la variation se dirigeant
vers les mains courtes (33%).
2. DIMORPHISME SEXUEL ET ASSORTIMENT MATRIMONIAL

(Figures 3 et 4)
2.1. Dimorphisme sexuel (Fig. 3)
La variabilité des phénotypes anthropométriques des adultes étudiés a
prouvé une série de différences significatives (χ²) entre les deux sexes concernant
la distribution en catégories de variation (voir chap. 1.3 et 1.4). Concernant les
différences significatives entre les valeurs moyennes (t), on remarque un
dimorphisme assez accentué au niveau de toutes les dimensions absolues céphalo-
faciaux et corporelles en faveur des hommes, les plus grandes différences étant
pour la largeur de la main, la largeur faciale, la hauteur faciale, la stature, la
longueur du membre inférieur, la largeur céphalique etc.
2.2. Assortiment matrimonial (Fig. 4)

Les corrélations concernent seulement les paires d’adultes qui ont été
soumises à expertise de paternité et les dimensions absolues (excepté la main et
l’oreille externe), en considérant que les indices sont des caractères déduits
(Susanne, 1971: 73-79; 1978: 15). Excepté la longueur et la hauteur de la tête et la
hauteur morphologique faciale, les paires réalisent des corrélations positives et
significatives pour toutes les autres caractères. Les plus fortes corrélations on
constate au niveau corporel: conformation de la main, taille-assise, stature,
longueur de la main.
55,97
m acrot
64,93
37,31
m ésot
26,12
6,72
m icrot Femmes
8,96
Hommes
hyperm icrot
Figure 1. Variabilité de la longueur de l'oreille externe (sa-sba) (éch. Martin, pour femmes H., M.,
Dumitrescu) (%).
hyperbrachychéir 8,11
22,32 Femmes
brachychéir 33,33 Hommes

46,43
m ésochéir 47,75
24,11
dolichochéir 9,01
7,14
hyperdolichochéir 1,8
eurychéir 24,32
58,04
m étriochéir 71,17
39,29
sténochéir 4,5
2,68
%
Figure 2. Variabilité de l'indice de la main (éch. Vallois et Martin) (%).

I.main 4,3
I.skélique 5,14
-1,51
I.cormique
sty-da 12,64
mm-ml 18,67
L.m.inf. 13,43
T-assise 7,42
Taille 13,86
IO 1,32
IN 3,82
IF 2,14
IGZ 1,14
-3,84 IFZ
-0,56
IFP
-1,13IVT
-1,51 IVL
IC 0,89
sa-sba 8,52
pa-pra 9,13
t-v 7,32
al-al 10,03
n-sn 6,47
n-gn 13,96
go-go 11,23
zy-zy 14,92
ft-ft 10,1
eu-eu 13,04
g-op 12,34
Figure 3. Dimorphisme sexuel (t).
0,6
0,5
0,4
0,3
0,2
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Figure 4. Assortiment matrimonial. Corrélations.

CONCLUSIONS
Les conclusions s’ensuivent en partant de quelques aspects concernant la

particularité du lot de notre recherche: les circonstances spéciaux dont on a
déterminé la sélection des paires, la provenance des sujets de toutes les provinces
historique de la Roumanie, l’examen de la recherche en paternité qui représente le
facteur commun des sujets et, en même temps, le caractère aléatoire de la
constitution du lot.
1. Nos résultats concernant les caractéristiques anthropométriques moyennes
du lot étudié par rapport aux valeurs moyennes de l’ensemble du pays se
ressemblent avec ceci, toutes les moyennes de deux sexes en variant dans
l’intervalle „M±DS” et les plus ? se situent dans la même catégorie de l’échelle de
variation correspondante, excepté la stature (grande), taille-assise (surmoyenne) et
l’indice cormique (macrocormie).
2. Les différences et aussi les corrélations entre les deux sexes concernant les
phénotypes anthropométriques mettent en évidence un dimorphisme sexuel
accentué et un „assortiment matrimonial” très fort.
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COMPTES RENDUS / REVIEWS
Marieke M. A. Hendriksen, Elegant Anatomy. The Eightheenth-Century Leiden Anatomical

Collections (History of Science and Medicine Library, 47), Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2015,
xi + 249 pp.
Review by Alexandra Ion∗
« Two infant hands in jars, lifelike in lace sleeves, hands rising upwards in their phials, one of
them holding a flimsy red piece of tissue on a string, the other lifts a vulva tied to a lacy ribbon »
(p. 75). Historical anatomical collections often comprise surprising, wonderful or shocking specimens
for the modern eye, and it is the task of the historian of science to attempt to understand their creation,
use and reception. With this volume, Marieke Hendriksen, a historian of medicine from the Utrecht
University, follows in the line of studies concerned with the history and composition of anatomical
collections (e.g. Alberti 2011; Hallam 2016; Knoeff and Zwijnenberg 2015)1, but takes an original
line of inquiry by focusing on the very materiality of the specimens. Placed at the intersection of
material culture studies, history of science, art and philosophy, Hendriksen’s approach aims at
shifting the focus of the analysis from the creators of such collections, to the materiality of the
specimens in order to answer questions such as why they look the way they do, why they were
created in the first place, or how they were viewed.
The analysis centres on the 18th century Leiden anatomical collections, currently housed in
several institutions – Leiden University Medical Centre’s Anatomical Museum, Leiden Museum
Boerhaave, and Leiden based Dutch Museum of History of Science and Medicine, some being on
display, while others are kept behind closed doors. In the eight chapters of the book, the author
reflects on the various forms taken by these specimens, dividing the analysis between mercury
injected specimens, embellished specimens, « monsters », « colonial bodies », and bone specimens. It
is Hendriksen’s contention that these artefacts are the result of a different kind of anatomical culture,
a certain epistemic culture characterised by the concept of « aesthesis ».
The originality of her perspective lies in the use of this concept, seen as an analytical tool that
can unfold the many layers of significance embedded in these wet and dry artefacts. In essence, the
author’s argument is that the concept of aesthesis helps us understand these objects as the results of a
certain epistemic (anatomical) culture focused on tacit and sensory knowledge, a manipulation of
elegance and beauty, and on processes of commodification of bodies and body parts (p. 12).
Following the introduction (Chapter 1), which traces the context of the analysis, the entire
second chapter is devoted to defining and exploring the use of this concept of aesthesis. Even though,
as Hendriksen acknowledges, the term was used only sparingly during the 18th century – which
places the analysis in line with Nick Jardine’s proposed « anachronistic conceptualism » (p. 109) –
she finds it a useful concept that can explain the creation of these artefacts which stir both wonder and
disgust and pose a challenge for the contemporary viewer. In the use of the concept of « aesthesis »
lies both the strength and the limits of her perspective. On the one hand, the use of this concept can
prove a fruitful endeavour, as it tries to explain the morphology of the specimens in close relation to
∗
Francisc Rainer Institute of Anthropology, Romanian Academy
(alexandraion.archae@gmail.com).
1
Samuel J. M. M. Alberti, Morbid Curiosities: Medical Museums in Nineteenth-Century
Britain. Oxford: OUP Oxford, 2011; Elizabeth Hallam, Anatomy Museum. Death and the Body
Displayed. London: Reaktion Books, 2016; Rina Knoeff and R. Zwijnenberg (Eds.), The Fate of
Anatomical Collections. Farnham: Ashgate, 2015.

110 Comptes rendus 2
the processes and questions which shaped them – and for the 18th century, as the author stresses,
philosophy, medicine, alchemy and aesthetics were intertwined and overlapping categories.
Therefore, she brings together objects, scientific knowledge, techniques and reception in order to
understand specimens as the result of a certain epistemic culture. This gives the analysis an organic
character, similar to the brilliant approach proposed by Elizabeth Hallam and Timothy Ingold (2014)2
who talk about artefacts as being made and grown, similar to organic life, seeing them as the result of
processes in which creativity, perception and knowledge are intertwined; in their words, the analysis
should trace how « form is emergent within the field of human relations » (Hallam and Ingold 2014:
5). Similarly, Hendriksen demonstrates convincingly how several anatomical specimens grew out of a
complex network of concepts, from the desire to create lasting visual anatomical archives, fit for
bringing into view the latest medical knowledge, to a sensory engagement of the anatomist with the
materiality of the human body, from a quest for beauty to philosophical underpinnings of the value of
human anatomy and of the substances used to intervene in the process of its preservation. From a
different angle, in part due to objective limitations – the information available – Hendriksen employs
examples which are not always contemporary, moving back and forth between anatomists and their
wider intellectual context, which raises the question of how appropriate they are for supporting the
thesis of « aesthesis ». While the use of a concept which might have been foreign to the 18th century
anatomists is not an impediment in itself, on the contrary (see Nick Jardine’s discussion on the need
of anachronistic terms in the history of science)3, at times I would have preferred to see a more
convincing argumentation that there is an inextricable difference between these practices and later
ones: for example, even in the 19th or 20th century the creation of anatomical specimens involved a
mixture of tacit knowledge, sensory perception, a quest for beauty (regardless of how this was
defined) and an overlapping of « material and metaphor » (Hallam 2014: 66; see for example
Hallam’s analysis of anatomopoeia in mid-20th century London4). It is certain that there are
differences, but maybe the analysis would have benefited from a more extensive description of how
these specimens were used and viewed, in order to bring forth what contributed to them being
different. However, this takes nothing away from the extensively researched analysis, which patiently
pieces together the practices of body preservation in 18th century Leiden in all their fine details,
following in turn several paths of inquiry.
Chapter 3 is devoted to ‘Quicksilver Anatomy’, dealing with a series of mercury injected
specimens attributed to the anatomist Eduard Sandifort (1742-1814). As the chapter unfolds, the
material values of mercury are explored, from its chemical, medicinal, injecting mass for the
lymphatic system and aesthetic qualities. The chapter places these specimens in the history of the use
of mercury for anatomy, charting the changes and values ascribed to this element. From here, the
analysis moves to the preparations of two famous anatomists (Chapter 4), Frederik Ruysch (1638-
1731) and Bernard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770), specimens in which body parts are adorned with
several materials, from lace to plants and twigs, giving birth to real compositions. The author
deciphers these creations as demonstrations of anatomical skill – anatomy as art, regulations of
disgust in the face of severed limbs and as embedding metaphors regarding the practice of anatomy.
In the next chapter (5), “monstrous” bodies take centre-stage, which can, according to the
author, demonstrate the link between a negotiation of deformity within a wider teleological
perspective in which perfection of the human body was seen as God’s creation, and did not
necessarily equate with beauty. Chapter 6 is devoted to several specimens labelled as «colonial
bodies» – the so-called «beaded babies», African or Asian babies decorated with beads. The chapter
2
Elizabeth Hallam and Tim Ingold (eds.), Making and Growing. Anthropological Studies of
Organisms and Artefacts. London: Routledge, 2014.
3
Nick Jardine, Uses and Abuses of Anachronism in the History of the Sciences. History of
Science, vol. 38, 2000: 251-270.
4
Elizabeth Hallam, “Anatomopoeia” in Elizabeth Hallam and Tim Ingold (eds.), Making and
Growing. Anthropological Studies of Organisms and Artefacts. London: Routledge, 2014, p. 65-88.
is a complex investigation into the origin of the specimens and their creators, all placed within the
larger context of Dutch colonial trade and the commodification of bodies. The last Chapter (7) moves
the analysis towards the end of the « aesthesis epoch », traced by looking at the materiality of bone
specimens, and the use of simultaneous preservation methods (see pp.191). This is the only chapter
dealing with dry specimens.
The book concludes with re-stating the value of Hendriksen’s concept, and raises the
important issues of the preservation of such collections and their accessibility. This last point is
extremely relevant for any curator and institution holding anatomical/historical human remains
collections, as the question « what should we do with these collections? » is a pressing one. In the
particular case of Romania, this is also a relevant question in the light of the legacy of the
anthropologist and anatomist Francisc I. Rainer, from his dry specimens to tissue samples and wet
specimens. Hendriksen’s analysis is a very good example of how we can always find a fresh
perspective that can help us better understand these specimens as part of the cultural history of the
body, stressing in the process the importance of their materiality. Therefore, this book is a welcome
addition to the studies dealing with such collections, especially because it moves from traditional
historical accounts and proposes an investigation into the very material layers of these specimens, a
« back to the object » approach. This can be illuminating and inspiring for any researcher or museum
curator dealing with preserved human remains, and hopefully it will provoke a wider discussion
between the fields of material culture studies and history of science.
Séverine Langneaux, Éternel Provisoire. Ethnographie de la paysannerie roumaine à l’heure

européenne, l’Harmattan, Paris, 2016, 316 pp.
Review by Gabriel Stoiciu∗
Séverine Lagneaux has a PhD in anthropology and works as a researcher at Fund for
Scientific Research – FNRS and also at Université Chrétienne de Louvain. Presently, she is leading
researches on human-animal relationships in various technical milieus, especially on cattle farming in
Belgium, France and Romania.
The book is based on the doctoral thesis prepared by the author at Université Chrétienne de
Louvain. It presents a fieldwork carried out between 2002 and 2007 in Romania, particularly in
Mijloace village of Banat region. The core concept and also a unit of analysis of this research is
gospodărie (Romanian term for household) approached from a well-documented historical
perspective, but most of all it is meticulously tackled as the main agent of post-communist rural
development. Gospodărie means the residence of a gospodar or hospodar, ancient Slavonic term for
nobleman or landlord or even for the ruler of a Romanian principate. In modern times gospodar is
represented by any owner of a rural household, but sometimes it characterizes only the most diligent
villagers. Most rural inhabitants of Banat region deserve to be called gospodari in the most
prestigious understand of the term – it the fact that the author succeeds to illustrate throughout this
industrious study. A Romanian proverb says “Omul sfințește locul” [It the man who sanctifies the
place (where he lives and /or works)]; the ethnographic material of S. Lagneaux presents a
community as whole and individual cases of several members remarkable by their determination to
overcome any difficulties brought by acts of nature or society.
The book opens with a factual description of people and places studied by the author. The
Mijloace community composed mostly by Romanian ethnic population has been beneficiating since
∗
“Francisc Rainer” Institute of Anthropology, Romanian Academy, Bucharest
(gabriel.stoiciu@gmail.com).
2000 from the presence of three foreign farmers: two Belgian and one Italian – who came here to
invest in local agricultural resources.
The first chapter describes in detail the status-quo of post-communist Mijoace’s social and
economic life with a particular tone given to recent transformations caused by Romania’s becoming a
member of European Union.
The second chapter bring the historical perspective over a period between 1718 (the
annexation of Banat by the Hapsburg empire) and 1989 (the fall of Ceausescu’s communist regime).
It is an overview of identitarian mutations imposed by different ruling systems on small communities.
With the third chapter till the last one, the author progresses into a detailed and enriching
anthropological research material on Mijloace’s community life, illustrated by elaborate interviews
and insightful case-studies.
The series of interviews and the case-studies described in the book capture a wide variety of
opinions, perceptions and aspirations concerning the everyday life and work conditions of Romania’s
rural inhabitants. There are presented different perspectives on topics like community and family life,
historical events and the shaping of local identity, rapt, torments, deportations and coping strategies
during communist regime, the particularities of occupational transformations in the rural space caused
by post-communist transition, Romanian authorities present actions and EU integration challenges,
relationships of Mijloace villagers with newly-arrived Belgian and Italian farmer-employers.
A particular issue which arises in each of the ten chapters (including introductory and
epilogue) of the book is the conflict between “old ways” and “new techniques” which leads to a slow
process of transformation both at infrastructure (tools, techniques, environment) and superstructure
(beliefs, mentalities, customs) level. Irrespective of different historical periods and indigenous or
foreign regimes, rural life is defined by preservation of deeply-rooted ordre des choses and savoir-
faire. A Romanian lexical embodiment of this interesting aspect is the word rânduiala to which the
author dedicates the final pages of the book. It is the essence of the cultural life of the community, of
its habitus, the pattern which shapes its identity, and it is forged through expressions of inter- and
intra-generational cohesion and conflict.
The elevated and thorough investigation and analysis which Séverine Lagneaux carried out in
Éternel Provisoire offer an excellent opportunity to the reader in understanding the particularities of
rural life in a post-communist Romania.
Participatory Mapping in Latin America / Special issue of the journal Human Organization,
vol. 62, no. 4, 2003, pp. 303-392
Review by Marin Constantin∗
Human Organization, the journal of the Society for Applied Anthropology (Oklahoma City,
U.S.A.), dedicated its 2003 fourth issue to the theme of participatory mapping (PM) across some
countries from Latin America (Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru). As two of the contributors of this
dossier (Peter H. Herlihy and Gregory Knapp) put it, PM is an anthropological approach that, in order
to “transform [local people’s] cognitive spatial knowledge into maps”, practically “[…] combines
cartography and ethnography, focusing as much on the technical aspects of the mapmaking process as
on the cultural context in which it occurs” (p. 307).
In their introductory text – “Maps of, by, and for the Peoples of Latin America” (pp. 303-314)
– Peter H. Herlihy and Gregory Knapp see PM as a “tool of empowerment” in the context of “the
state’ interest to ignore indigenous population in the remote ‘empty quarters’ to maintain these areas
∗
“Francisc Rainer” Institute of Anthropology, Romanian Academy
(marconstant2015@gmai.com).
under the designation of ‘national lands’ for resource exploitation”. Through an “array of community-
based research and development approaches”, PM accounts for both social action and a research
strategy generally “holding community meetings, administering questionnaires, recording place
names, drawing sketch maps, building diagrams, collecting field data, and plotting cognitive
information about place directly onto standard cartographic sheets” (p. 307). It is the PM bottom-up
methodology that, by aiming at “the empowerment of communities in their negotiations with the state
over the administration and management of their lands”, is theoretically meant “to reinforce the
cultural politics of place, ethnicity, and identity” (p. 308). As such, PM projects prove their relevance
in “helping disadvantaged communities reclaim their heritage and defend their lands” while
“promoting resource conservation land tenure security, and local-state relations” (p. 308). The authors
point to the PM potential of “questioning the very core of state power and authority – territorial
control (p. 310).
With his case-study contribution – “Participatory Research Mapping of Indigenous Lands in
Darién, Panama” (pp. 315-331) – Peter H. Herlihy refers to the mapmaking process among native
Kuna, Emberá, and Wounaan. Given the problems of recognition by the state authorities of
indigenous land rights within the biosphere reserve of the Darién National Park, local community
representatives pursued training “to complete land-use assessments using questionnaires and sketch
maps […] while enhancing their ability to manage their own lands” (p. 315-318). As a result, PM
(promoted by the project research staff) revealed its role in “developing geographic knowledge”,
relying on the indigenous “keen sense of the power of maps” (p. 320). The study area was divided
into 20 survey zones with local representatives for each zone given their environment knowledge, in
collaboration with village leaders. Fieldwork essentially consisted of a series of three workshops
meant for (1) training surveyors, (2) transforming field data into cartographic information, and (3)
revising and standardizing zonal maps (enlarged to a 1:50,000 scale) taking into account a large
public participation (pp. 321-324). The mapping process eventually authenticated indigenous
toponymy in Darién (previously replaced with European place names), now on recognized by
officials. While the project focus was on research, as “it was not aimed at resolving land issues”, the
indigenous Kuna, Emberá, and Wounaan were thus allowed “to put themselves on the map in both a
cartographic and political sense” (p. 328).
Another article, written by Derek A. Smith – “Participatory Mapping of Community Lands
and Hunting Yields among the Buglé of Western Panama” (pp. 332-343) –, describes the involvement
of local investigators in “drawing sketch maps to show the locations where game animals were
captured”. The research context similarly evokes “[…] outsiders [who] continue to impose
conservation regulations [claimed to produce a ‘rational’ use of natural resources] on indigenous
lands with little regard for their resident populations” (p. 332). One of Smith’s crucial arguments is
that, while the indigenous Buglé “are knowledgeable resource managers” thanks to their “strong
cartographic heritage” (p. 333). In conditions of a “dominant mapping process led by non-natives for
administrative purposes, promoting assimilation” (with replacement of indigenous toponyms or
portraying religious sites as tourist attractions), Smith enacted participatory mapping of hunting
activity among the Buglé in order “to document spatial patterns of hunting yields in relation to the
distribution of anthropogenic and forest habitats and indigenous settlement patterns”. With the
support of seven local investigators, research approached 700 people belonging to 99 households and
five neighboring communities. Fieldwork also included a census on local ethnicity, community
mapping sessions, and workshops to transfer toponyms from sketch maps to cartographic sheets,
review the completed questionnaires, and evaluate sketch maps and their internal consistency
(pp. 336-338). The project documentation resulted into 1,500 questionnaires administrated and over
1,275 game kill sites recorded on topographic sheets and transferred onto 1:50,000 base maps; this
information was thus entered into a geographic information system to produce a variety of maps
showing the harvest of individual species and the spatial distribution of hunting yields (p. 340).
Anthony Stocks’ case study deals with “Mapping Dreams in Nicaragua’s Bosawas Reserve”,
among indigenous Mayangna and Miskitu (pp. 344-356), to discuss how the lack of recognition for
the very identity of these natives in the Nicaraguan Constitution puts at risk their “dreams for land
rights”. In the context of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Economy’s plan to assign commercial logging
and mining concessions in the local forested lands, the Mayangna and Miskitu presence within the
reserve was “only recognized indirectly”, which led to “arbitrary restrictions on their subsistence
activities” (p. 348). On this ground, a participatory methodology was developed, with members of
local communities trained by anthropologists in such areas as the application of socioeconomic
survey, historical cartography, GPS navigation, and data analysis; in such research design, mapping
was viewed as “merely one element” in the process for “an institutionalized better management of the
reserve” (p. 350). The indigenous communities came to identify six territories based on their common
history, ethnicity, geography, and land use; local land contiguity was thus revealed in the centre of
reserve; the mapping work consisted of “getting people from neighboring territories to agree on
specific points of reference that have in the past been traditionally agreed-upon boundary markers”
(p. 352) Indigenous researchers were named by the communities in claim to conduct further mapping,
collect local cognitive maps, travel with local hunters and farmers taking GPS readings, etc. As the
author makes it clear (pp. 353-354), maps might be regarded “as cultural reservoirs” since they reflect
“the people’s knowledge of an entire region, to be their productions, to validate their identities, and their
land claims”; consequently, the Nicaraguan government recognized the territorial maps as “official”,
with the indigenous use zones put on the map of the Bosawas International Biosphere Reserve.
Establishing a map-based Native Communities Information System (SICNA), as the
foundation for future land-use planning in Peru’s Rio Galvez Basin area, is the subject matter of the
article “Mapping the Past and the Future: Geomatics and Indigenous Territories in the Peruvian
Amazon” (co-authored by Richard Chase Smith, Margarita Benavides, Mario Pariona, and Ermeto
Tuesta, pp. 357-368). While in late 1960s, local government recognized and entitled more than 10
million hectares to 50 different indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon, traditional resources-use
practices (rotation of garden sites, hunting, and gathering) remained limited in small and dense
populated areas (p. 358). With confusion in the geo-referencing of the rough land title maps drawn by
government surveyors (given their few geographic reference points) and impossibility of registering
the 1,145 – 1,495 native communities, SICNA was developed as a network of people and institutions
to accumulate, update, and analyze information, thus experimenting with ways to use that information
to the natives’ benefit (p. 360). With the support of more than 30 indigenous federations in mapping
boundaries and gathering information about 750 native and 716 mixed – communities, four types of
data were collected as follows: (1) base map (hydrographic features on Peruvian Amazon), (2)
community boundary lines (locating boundary map for each community), (3) tabular database for
each community (ethnicity, demography, location, local administrative status, housing, education,
health, religion, economy…), and (4) complementary information (geographic features, biophysical
characteristics, usufruct claims, etc.) (p. 361) SICNA maps proved to be technically superior and
based on better data than the official maps, while overlapping of indigenous boundaries demonstrates
that local different communities use large areas without conflict (p. 364).
Another teamwork – pursued by Edmund T. Gordon, Galio C. Guardián, and Charles R. Hale
– takes into account the communal land claims of Garifuna and Afro-Nicaraguan communities on the
Atlantic [Caribbean] Coast of Nicaragua (“Rights, Resources, and the Social Memory of Struggle:
Reflections on a Study on Indigenous and Black Community Land Rights on Nicaragua’s Atlantic
Coast”, pp. 369-381). As the Nicaraguan government’s policy of “modernizing agriculture” was
locally felt in conflict with indigenous and Creole’s struggle for land and resources, the research
participatory approach (diagnostico) relied on community members’ involvement as a collective
process of identifying and justifying community land claims, alongside assessing the research results
(p. 370). In the field, the researchers worked as “technical experts” referring to land claims and
justification, by working with community representatives (in finding GPS-based landmarks and
registering them as “ethnomaps” next computer-generated as 1:50,000 scale base [p. 377], as well as
in publicly discussing community boundaries, desisting overlapping claims, ethnographic description
of local land use, narrative and graphic recording). During the research process, a number of 128 local
communities formulated 29 land claims of which 17 were multicommunity or bloques, while 12 were
claimed by individual communities. The native communities understood the diagnostico as a
preliminary step in the struggle for legal recognition by the Nicaraguan state; a particular emphasis
was given to the “reasoning that the each block was contiguous with the next, leaving no space in
between for ‘national lands’” (p. 377). According to the authors of the study, “[…] the participants
full understanding that the mapping of their land claims was a unique opportunity that required not a
passive rendition of existing boundaries, but rather an audacious and creative process that might allow
them, finally, to achieve their due” (p. 378).
The volume is completed by Karl H. Offen’s contribution, “Narrating Place and Identity, or
Mapping Miskitu Land Claims in Nordeastern Nicaragua” (pp. 382-392), with the notion of group
identity coupled with that of place in local Miskitu ethnicity – Miskitu geography interrelationship.
Within a mapping process supported by the Central American and Caribbean Research Council, with
a World Bank funding, the author counts on “the power of the Miskitu language” as a “tongue
stepped in cultural-environmental metaphors, nature allegories, and morality parables that are literally
and figuratively part of the landscape and constitutive of a Miskitu sense of place” (p. 384). As a
matter of fact, spatial representations are recognized to have been “long used” among locals in the
efforts “to understand and communicate their place in the world to themselves and others (p. 384). In
the context of a “tendency to privilege Nicaraguan sovereignty over its national territory” and a
“denigration of indigenous and black peoples and denies them genuine rights to territory as ethnic
groups” (p. 386), most of the 128 participating communities chose to distinguish their claims
collectively in bloques or larger land units, with overlapping community land claims as the
“prominent feature” of the resultant draft maps (approved by communities). Miskitu history was
referred to establish a basis for historical rights to land, while local toponyms became “mnemonic
devices” in order “to demonstrate a historical and legal basis for land possession, ownership, or
former habitation (p. 388). Native ancestors’ “footprints” (as invoked with regard to petro-glyphs,
humanized plant distributions, hunting trails, and spirit-permeated place) particularly authorized the
mapping process “as a vehicle to achieve a genuine recognition of Miskitu land rights”, eventually
contributing to an indigenous historical geography that counters conventional wisdom” (p. 390).
I argue that – to an important extent – the Human Organization participatory mapping dossier
is highly inspiring for research in further geographic areas, including Romania. Indeed, as I tried to
depict it elsewhere1, the Romanian government’s initiative to establish the Danube Delta Biosphere
Reserve Authority (1990), theoretically devoted to the official conservation policy of protecting local
ecosystems, with the Danube Delta assignment within the UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere program
(1991) – was to become afterwards seriously provocative for the native Romanian, Lipovan (Russian-
speaking), and Ukrainian fishing communities. Recent anthropological reports point out the existence
of traditional ownership over fishing areas claimed to belong to particular families in the Danube
Delta2. Indigenous ownership in the region is defined in terms of rights of “inheritance” and
“usufruct” in the demarcation of private fishing “corridors” by local villagers3. As an indirect
recognition of such customary norms, the current Romanian legislation in the region admits the right
of “preemption” for the native deltaic inhabitants in the cases of concessioning or renting out the
1
Marin Constantin, “On the Ethnographic Categorization of Biodiversity in the Danube Delta
Biosphere Reserve”, Eastern European Countryside, Vol. 18, 2012, pp. 49-60; Marin Constantin,
“A Fishermen’s Village: On the Lipovan Belongingness to the Danube Delta in Jurilovca (Northern
Dobroudja)”, Sociologie Românească, Vol. XIII (4), 2015 (in print).
2
Sandra Bell, Kate Hampshire, Joy Palmer, Elizabeth Oughton, Andrew Russell, Integrated
Management of European Wetlands: A Project of the European Commission’s Fifth Framework
Programme, Contract # EVK2-CT 2000-22001, the Final Report. Department of Anthropology,
University of Durham, United Kingdom, 2004.
3
Daniela Alexandrescu, Ioana Daia, Gabriela Leonida, “Reprezentările şi practicile spaţiului
[Fishermen and Fishing in Sfântu Gheorghe Village: Practices and Institutions]”. In B. Iancu (ed.),
Dobrogea. Identităţi şi crize, Colecţia Societatea Reală (5), Bucharest: Paideia Publisher, 2009,
pp. 25-37.
fishing areas by the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority4. I hypothesize that, in either
narrative, toponymic, or genealogical form, the vernacular accounts in the area could contribute to the
reconstruction of the original cartography (and implicitly the indigenous fishing rights) in the
Romanian deltaic wetland.
Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei [Annuaire du Musée Ethnographique de Moldavie],

Iaşi, Maison d’Édition du Palais de Culture, vol. XV, 2015, 484 pp.
Compte rendu par Marin Constantin∗
Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei est une publication (en langue roumaine) déjà
prestigieuse du Complexe Muséal National « Moldova » de Iaşi, bien que sa date de naissance ne soit
plus ancienne que l’année 2000. Initié et coordonné pour un temps malheureusement trop court par un
ethnographe que nous l’avons si subitement perdu – Vasile Munteanu (1966-2012) –, L’Annuaire
moldave est toujours continué grâce au travail remarquable d’une rédaction comptant, en premier lieu
le réputé Professeur Ion H. Ciubotaru, et des spécialistes aussi dévoués à leur profession, parmi
lesquelles Marcel Lutic, Angelica Olaru et Victor Munteanu.
Dans les passages suivants, nous allons présenter brièvement le contenu du numéro le plus
récent de cette revue, à l’attente convaincue des prochaines éditions dont la thématique nous
désirerions également fructueuse.
Le volume commence par une seconde partie de la « restitution » que le Professeur Ion H.
Ciubotaru fait à des contributions ethnographiques de l’éminent folkloriste roumain Petru Caraman
(1898-1990), c’est-à-dire L’Ethnographe Cantemir et le folklore de l’Orient asiatique (pp. 11-50; sur
la première partie à ce sujet, voir Ion H. Ciubotaru, L’Ethnographe Cantemir et le folklore de l’Orient
asiatique, en Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei, vol. XIV, 2014, pp. 15-58). Le texte se réfère
à l’ancien rituel du cortège diffamatoire (présenté par le chroniquer humaniste moldave Démétrius
Cantemir [1673-1723] sur la vie du sultan Mustafa [1617-1618 ; 1622-1623], et suivi de manière
comparative par Petru Caraman chez plusieurs peuples de l’Europe Orientale du Moyen Âge, comme
les Byzantins, les Néo-grecques, les Turques et les Roumains).
La première section de L’Annuaire de Iaşi contiens une série de six Etudes ethnologiques sur
autant d’aspects des traditions populaires roumaines récentes ou contemporaines. C’est ainsi que le
texte de Varvara Buzilă (enrichie par ses illustrations du terrain) présente Le groupe des jeunes
hommes et la danse ronde du village. Institutions traditionnelles d’affirmation de la culture socio-
normative (pp. 51-84), en ce qui concerne quelques villages du Sud de Bessarabie et de la Région
d’Odessa (en Ukraine). Dans son article Le contexte de la performativité des conteurs (pp. 85-116),
Oana Valeria Chelaru discute au niveau théorique les coordonnées spatiales et temporelles – de mémé
que les diverses fonctions (apotropaïque, purificatoire, psychologique, éducative, artistique…) – dans
la narration de contes populaires, tout en se concentrant sur « la personnalité du conteur » en sa
relation avec le publique.
Une autre étude portant sur les réalités ethnographiques de la République de Moldavie
appartient à Vasile Chiseliţă (pp. 117-134): Le Répertoire vocal traditionnel rural de Bessarabie
pendant l’entre deux guerres : dialogue culturel, innovation, modernisation ; en examinant les
∗
Institut d’Anthropologie « Francisc I. Rainer », Académie Roumaine
4
Ionuţ Balaban, Ana Birta, Georgeta Stoica, Pescari şi pescuit în Sfântu Gheorghe: practici şi
instituţii [Fishermen and Fishing in the Village of Sfântu Gheorghe: Practices and Institutions]. In B.
Iancu (ed.) Dobrogea. Identităţi şi crize, Colecţia Societatea Reală (5), Bucharest: Paideia Publisher,
2009, pp. 11-24.
prémisses historiques, les acteurs et les facteurs de la vie sociale chez les paysans durant la période
mentionnée, l’auteur identifie six genres musicaux dans les chansons pour les soldats, les chansons
pour les recrues, les nouveaux chansons populaires lyriques, les chansons théâtrales, les romances
populaires et les chansons populaires à des arrangements vocaux occidentaux. Alors que Silvia
Ciubotaru expose Les Mythes pluviaux roumains dans le contexte universel (pp. 135-168), en
invoquant des êtres mythologiques comme les dragons, les dieux de la tourmente, des héros liés aux
dragons chtoniens et la nymphe des nuages, un autre contributeur – Andrei Prohin - se réfère à des
Motifs bibliques et apocryphes dans les croyances eschatologiques roumains (pp. 169-186), dans une
approche du folklore roumain de la fin du monde avec ses images allégoriques ou prophéties
apocalyptiques relevant la responsabilité des humaines et leurs valeurs morales. C’est Ioana Repciuc
qui fait compléter ce fascicule d’études avec L’Identification de la source folklorique du conte
Cupidon et Psyché par Petru Caraman – dans le contexte des recherches internationales (pp. 187-
205), grâce à une analyse (généreusement ancrée dans la littérature ethnologique) de la contribution
de Petru Caraman d’avoir découvert les sources folkloriques que le nouvelliste latin Apuleius utilisa
pour écrire le conte susmentionné.
« L’Annuaire » de Iaşi propose ensuite un second dossier – celui des Matériaux - contenant
plusieurs articles de terrain ou de synthèse bibliographique sur des aspects ethnographiques de
Dobroudja, de Moldavie et Bucovine et de Transylvanie. Arcadie M. Bodale réfléchit ainsi sur Les
Paragraffiti d’Europe et leurs significations magico-religieuses (pp. 207-228), en poursuivant les
signes, traces, cavités, marques… incisés ou entaillés à des symboles et intentions variées
(commémoration, médication, sourcellerie, etc.) sur les murs des églises et des monastères de
Bucovina, en comparaison avec des marques similaires de l’espace chrétien occidental, premièrement
français. Dans son texte sur les Installations techniques traditionnelles de Dobroudja, Ion Cherciu se
concentre sur des anciennes installations paysannes (comme les moulins et les fontaines) de l’espace
multiculturel dobroudjan (pp. 229-246).
Quant à Maria Ciocanu, elle dépeint les Contributions ethnographiques à la connaissance de
la viticulture paysanne de Bessarabie, y compris (parmi d’autres) le patrimoine et l’inventaire viticole
local, en bénéficiant d’une ample illustration ethnographique (pp. 247-286), tandis que Marin
Constantin engage – à travers le « Hanklich » une discussion sur la Cuisine traditionnelle et [l’]
identité culturelle chez la Saxons de Cisnădioara – Michelsberg (département de Sibiu) (pp. 287-
296). C’est à Gheorghe Iutiş qu’on doit une présentation De l’activité de l’ethnographe Tudor
Pamfile [1883-1921]. Etape de Iaşi, notamment les articles que Tudor Pamfile publia entre 1910-
1921 dans les pages de la revue „Viaţa Românească”, en Iaşi (pp. 297-310). Une autre contributrice
de L’Annuaire – Dorina Onica – vise les Formes ethnoculturelles dans le paysage anthropogéographique
rural de Bessarabie, en tant qu’un excursus autour des villages, des maisonnées, du travail, des voies
traditionnelles de transport, des vêtements et de l’alimentation – dans la région (pp. 311-340). Enfin,
Sorin Sabău fait reproduire ses Quelques considérations concernant la foire de la Montagne Găina en
relation avec l’origine de la foire et son nome, le contexte de son organisation et le positionnement
des participants durant l’événement (pp. 341-354).
Le volume inclue aussi une rubrique de Correspondance, documents (que Ion H. Ciubotaru
soutient par un Dialogue épistolaire: Mihai Pop [1907-2000] – Petru Caraman, pratiquement une
mise en lumière d’un exchange inédit de lettres entre les deux ethno-folkloristes roumains, entre
1956-1961 [pp. 355-378]). Deux obituaires signés par Sorin Sabău, Petruţa Pop et (respectivement)
Ion H. Ciubotaru (pp. 379-393) sont écrits In memoriam des regrettés ethnologues roumains Ioan
Godea (1943-2014) et Anca Giurchescu (1930-2015). La personnalité de l’ethnographe roumain Ion
Chelcea (1902-1991), fondateur du Musée Ethnographique de Moldavie, est également remémorée
(par Ana-Maria Raţă) dans une chronique de Récupérations. Restitutions (pp. 395-422).
De plus, Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei fait allouer un large espace à une série de
Comptes rendus, présentations, note bibliographiques démontrant encore une fois l’ouverture de
la publication vers l’actualité de la littérature roumaine de notre discipline (pp. 423-468). En effet, le
lecteur ne pourra qu’enregistrer des très utiles annotations sur les ouvrages suivants: Grigore Arsene
(éditeur), Les Contes des Roumains, Bucarest, Maison d’édition Curtea Veche, 2010, compte rendue
par Andrei Prohin ; Ion Cherciu, Ornementation traditionnelle roumaine, vol. I. Pays de Vrancea,
Timişoara, Maison d’édition Brumar, 2011, compte rendue par Ovidiu Focşa ; Aurel Bodiu, Maria
Golban, Le costume traditionnel roumain de Bistriţa-Năsăud, Cluj-Napoca, Maison d’édition Eikon,
2012, compte rendue par Dimitrie-Ovidiu Boldur ; Ovidiu Bârlea, Brève encyclopédie des contes
roumains. Seconde édition par Ioana Repciuc, Craiova, Maison d’édition Aius, 2014, compte rendue
par Adina Hulubaş ; Ion H. Ciubotaru, Les coutumes funèbres de Moldavie en contexte national, Iaşi,
Maison d’édition de L’Université « Alexandru Ioan Cuza », 2014, compte rendue par Marin
Constantin ; Ioan Micu Moldovan, Folklore de Transylvanie (1863-1878). vol. I. Contes, chansons de
Noël et balades. Édition par Ion Cuceu et Maria Cuceu, Cluj-Napoca, Maison d’édition Mega, 2014,
compte rendue par Ion H. Ciubotaru ; Silvia Ciubotaru, Ion H. Ciubotaru, Vitrails. Pages
ethnoculturelles de la presse des années 1992-2012. Textes recueillis par Codrin Ciubotaru et Ionuţ
Ciubotaru, Iaşi, Maison d’édition « Presa Bună », 2015, deux comptes rendues par Sanda Golopenţia
et Adina Hulubaş ; Eliana Popeţi, Miliana Radmila Radan-Uscatu, Sous la grande voie. Places et
contes de Banat, Timişoara, Maison d’édition de L’Université d’Ouest, 2015, compte rendue par
Cosmina Timoce-Mocanu.
Egalement définitoire pour la variété des recherches ethnologiques dans les pages du journal
en discussion pendant la période des derniers cinq années, c’ést la Bibliographie de l’„Anuarul
Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei”, X-XIV (2010-2014), rédigée grâce à l’effort scrupuleux de
Angelica Olaru, en comptant non pas moins de 82 Etudes et matériaux, à côté des sections déjà
notoires des Restitutions, Correspondance, documents, Anniversaires, Commémorations, In
Memoriam, Remember et Comptes rendus, présentations, note bibliographiques (pp. 469-482).
Par son contenu et l’éventail des thèmes de recherche dont il fait rendre compte, „Anuarul
Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei” sur 2015 reconfirme heureusement son statut de publication
ethnologique référentielle en Roumanie (et particulièrement pour ce numéro, en Bessarabie). Son
apport est (comme l’on a vu ci-dessus) à la fois descriptif et théorique, tout en évoquant des effigies
et des repères bibliographiques pérennes de l’histoire roumaine de la discipline. Comme telle,
L’Annuaire moldave devient – à juste mesure de sa conséquence éditoriale – un témoignage fidèle de
l’ethnographie contemporaine de notre pays.
Anuarul Societăţii Prahovene de Antropologie Generală [Yearkook of Prahova County Society

for General Anthropology], Bogdan-Costin Georgescu and Sebastian Ştefănucă (eds.),
vol. I (1), Ploieşti: Mythos Publisher, 2015, 95 pp.
Review by Marin Constantin∗
As concisely introduced by Dragoş Grigorescu (Foreword, pp. 5-7), Anuarul Societăţii

Prahovene de Antropologie Generală is an initiative of Prahova County Society for General
Anthropology (with the support of Prahova County Cultural Centre), in order “to host all types of
anthropological discourse, from physical to social and cultural anthropology”, through an approach
combining the “scientific language strictness” with the “warmth of an open communication with [a
potential] readership”. The starting point of the journal (and its initial content resource) is represented
by the Summer School of Cultural and Christian Anthropology in Maliuc (Tulcea County), with its
working sessions taking place since 1998. The Maliuc “Camp” is briefly presented (by Bogdan-
Costin Georgescu and Sebastian Ştefănucă) in the journal’s first article (“Tabăra de vară de
antropologie cultural creştină de la Maliuc, în paginile unei reviste de antropologie generală [The
Maliuc Summer School of Cultural and Christian Anthropology in the pages of a general
anthropology publication]”, pp. 9-15).
∗
“Francisc Rainer” Institute of Anthropology, Romanian Academy
The further contribution deals with the participant field experience in cultural anthropology,
especially upholding the “co-authorship” of scientific articles by anthropologists and their informants
(Sebastian Ştefănucă, “Nativul şi cercetătorul. Câteva consideraţii asupra co-participării ştiinţifice
[The Native and the Researcher. Some Considerations on the Scientific Co-Participation]”, pp. 16-
24). Dwelling on linguistic, historical, and anthropological data, another text of the journal is
concerned with the issue of ethnic self-identification among Roma people in Romania and
Southeastern Europe, as particularly refers to the usage of the Ţigan (Gypsy) exonym in contrast to
the endonymic traditions of Rom / Dom (Marian Nuţu Cârpaci, “Între un exonim şi un autonim, sau o
suprapunere mediavală [Between an Exonym and an Autonym. On a Middle-Age Overlapping] pp.
25-42). Bogdan-Costin Georgescu is the author of a study about the therapeutic and sacred character
of the Căluş dance in Oltenia area, in comparison with the carnivalesque traits of the Morris Dance
from England and Wales, some of which possibly accounting for ancient “intersection” between
Celtic and Thracian civilizations (“Valoarea taumaturgică a ritualului din dansul căluşarilor. Ritm,
vibraţie şi rezonanţă prin integrare cosmic [On the Thaumaturgy Value of Ritual in the Căluş Dance.
Rhythm, Vibration, and Resonance through Cosmic Integration]”, pp. 43-56). Christian Crăciun’s
article is a plea for the rhythmical foundations of music (in cosmic and human existence), as well as
for the “spiritual state” of music insufflates to poetry (“Muzica şi creaţia ritmică a lumii [Music and
the Rhythmic Creation of the World]”, pp. 57-66). An historical excursus of the coins along of
ancient, medieval, and modern periods (signed by Petru Dincă) is a discussion on the various criteria
of world’s numismatic valuation (ancientness, raw material, rarity, beauty, state of preservation, etc.),
completed by a reproduction of the author’s collection (including Greek, Roman, and also Polish,
American, Austro-Hungarian, and Romanian samples) (“Evoluţia monedelor lumii din perspectivă
antropologică. Prezentare şi expoziţie de monede [The Evolution of World’s Coins from an
Anthropological Perspective. Presentation and Exhibition], pp. 67-78). “Din muzica ponţilor [On the
Music of Greek Pontians]” – the journal’s last article, written by Sebastian Ştefănucă, pp. 79-94) –
attempts “to get readers familiarized” with the music and dance of the abovementioned Greek-
speaking group, based on (Athenian) television recordings, in dialogue with contemporary Greek
music players.
Like probably most of similarly beginning periodicals, Anuarul Societăţii Prahovene de
Antropologie Generală is at the same time promising and perfectible. While the Maliuc School of
Cultural and Christian Anthropology, with its enthusiasm and germinative role for the general
anthropology program of the Prahova County Society, is greatly praiseworthy for popularizing
anthropology outside the main academic centres in Romania (but with full recognition of them), the
notion of “general anthropology” itself is to be made more explicit to the journal’s audience. Again,
just due to the attractive content of the currently printed materials, the readers need to hear more
about the professional background and areas of anthropological interest of the yearbook’s
contributors. (This, of course, together with the effort of publicizing bilingual texts, in Romanian and
West-European languages, could count for the journal’s future contacts and exchange of ideas, in
Romania and abroad). We wish Anuarul Societăţii Prahovene de Antropologie Generală constancy
and a rich productivity in its next issues.

Annuaire Roumain D'anthropologie 2016

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Tome 53 2016

ARTICLES ET ÉTUDES / ARTICLES AND STUDIES

LACRAMIOARA PETRE, MARIA CRISTINA NEDELCU, The Importance of Familial

RAPPORT DE RECHERCHE / RESEARCH REPORT

ELEONORA LUCA, CORNELIU VULPE, MONICA PETRESCU, MIRCEA ŞT. CIUHUŢA,

COMPTES RENDUS / REVIEWS

ANN. ROUM. ANTHROPOL., 53, P. 1–122, BUCAREST, 2016

Participatory Mapping in Latin America / Special issue of the journal Human

Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei [Annuaire du Musée Ethnographique de

Anuarul Societăţii Prahovene de Antropologie Generală [Yearkook of Prahova

ANNONCE DE PUBLICATION / BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT

Note: L’image dans la première couverture représente le bâtiment de l’Institut d’Anthropologie

THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILIAL FOOD BEHAVIOR

LACRAMIOARA PETRE1, MARIA CRISTINA NEDELCU

Keywords: autism, eating disorders, eating behaviors, family intervention.

Autism is a complex developmental disorder, in which several risk factors are

ANN. ROUM. ANTHROPOL., 53, P. 3–9, BUCAREST, 2016

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Based on the observations of the psychologist and the eating behavior

SETTING BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS

From a psychological standpoint Tudor has an atypical development

for invasive medical interventions (the insertion of a feeding tube), a psycho-social

CORNELIA RADA1, DAVID H. OLSON1

Keywords: family, adaptability, cohesiveness, Circumplex Model.

A Presentation of the Family Adaptability and Cohesiveness Evaluation

One modality of conceptualizing the family is using the cohesion, flexibility

ANN. ROUM. ANTHROPOL., 53, P. 11–29, BUCAREST, 2016

Figure 1. Representation of cohesion in the conjugal and family system.

Family members need autonomy, a certain space for harmonious personal

Figure 2. Representation of flexibility in the conjugal and family system.

Communication, being a parameter which facilitates the other two parameters, is

Some studies which have used FACES III

due to differences regarding religious convictions, conflicts arise, conflicts which

Designing the sample

Figure 3. The localities from which research subjects were selected

The sample, unrepresentative for the entire country, includes N=1,215

Furthermore, the obtainment of a balanced configuration according to the

FACES III is comprised of 30 items, 16 of which evaluate cohesion, and 14

Figure 4. The distribution of the family models according

Throughout the sample, most families function according to the Chaotically

Analysis of family type according to FACES III, based on residence

Represented on the histogram, the 16 family models are indicative of a

The family functioning model which prevails throughout the sample,

would be different in a statistically significant way, according to the age groups of

Model (FACES III), based on age group

Cohesion, Flexibility and Communication

Almost half of this sub-sample is part of the Mid-range family type.

Almost three quarters of the interview participants described their families as

DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

Secondly, it may be that this rigid family sub-model, resulting from a

ANN. ROUM. ANTHROPOL., 53, P. 31–41, BUCAREST, 2016

MATERIALS AND METHOD

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Among the 70 students in Bucharest, 34 were girls (all having already

No. of individuals Girls

Bucharest Height range (cm

Sample Mean t value p result

Sample Mean t value p result