Anthropology of the Mediterranean

The genesis and epistemology of the anthropological studies of the Mediterranean. Anthropological conceptions of the Mediterranean unity-in-diversity. Ecology and political economy of the Mediterranean. Political practices and social structures (the gap between the local society and the state, intermediaries between the two, clientelism, networks, social stratification and classes, political violence). Kinship systems (lineage, 'house' and kindred; transmission of first names and surnames; marriage transactions; postmarital residential patterns; Mediterranean endogamy, 'Arab' marriage, close marriages; sexual segregation and claustration). Mediterranean religious practices (co-existence of four religions of the book, hybridization/syncretism of religious practices, shared sanctuaries, syncretism of ritual practices, religious and ethnic identities, pilgrimage). Social uses and perceptions of space. Imagining culture boundaries in the Mediterranean space and current processes of the reinvention of Mediterranean identities (civilizational discourses, mythologies of the Mediterranean unity, national and regional strategies of affirming the Mediterranean identity).