What do you think?
Rate this book
Three Bells of Civilization: The Life of an Italian Hill Town
Excellent Book
- GenresAnthropologyItaly
263 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1975
8 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 16, 2017
Bells Ring Clearly
I've said many times before, all anthropology turns into social history if enough years go by. Italy today is very unlike what it was in the early 1960s, when this study was done. Indeed, even the author noted big changes when she returned to the small town in the Umbrian hills ten years later. So, if readers need to know about modern Italy and its society, they should look elsewhere. However, every modern society is built on the solid foundation of the past. For that reason, if you are interested in a serious, thorough, academic study of a central Italian town and the interface of urban and rural values and people, you probably need to read this book. Today's ethnographies usually deal with entirely different issues. It's been a long time since I saw a new book in this style, which owes much to its pre-1960s antecedents. Silverman used participant observation, historical records, local statistics, and a methodology derived from sources unmentioned. There are some well-done black and white photos, good maps, and a large number of charts and tables. An occasional Italian voice breaks in. The author's main concern is to show how a concept she terms "civiltà" is grounded in social realities. This "civiltà" is connected to a certain urban lifestyle, a set of values and behaviors, and a tradition that separates its holders from the peasantry, while not cutting the intimate ties with the country people either. Even though Montecastello, the town in question, is very small, many of its inhabitants believed themselves endowed with "civiltà". But (p.8) "civiltà is a fluid ideology that in the course of Montecastellese history has been manipulated and often recast by certain groups in pursuit of their interests." The bulk of the book sets out how exactly this was done, by whom, when, and with what result. We look at geography, the structure of the community, the landholding system over some centuries, and how over the 19th and 20th centuries the town was slowly incorporated into the wider regional and national ethos. Her discussion of such values as "rispetto" and "civiltà" itself are the most fascinating parts of the book, along with the description of festivals and the life cycle of the towns-person. The weakest point in THREE BELLS is that there is absolutely no reference to any other anthropology scholar's work and no international comparison at all. Given that everything has changed anyway, it would have been very useful to know what she thought about similar concepts and similar societies written about in other books before or around her time. That said, I think you'll find a very worthwhile study here, competent and clear. It's not bedtime reading, for sure, but very useful.
I've said many times before, all anthropology turns into social history if enough years go by. Italy today is very unlike what it was in the early 1960s, when this study was done. Indeed, even the author noted big changes when she returned to the small town in the Umbrian hills ten years later. So, if readers need to know about modern Italy and its society, they should look elsewhere. However, every modern society is built on the solid foundation of the past. For that reason, if you are interested in a serious, thorough, academic study of a central Italian town and the interface of urban and rural values and people, you probably need to read this book. Today's ethnographies usually deal with entirely different issues. It's been a long time since I saw a new book in this style, which owes much to its pre-1960s antecedents. Silverman used participant observation, historical records, local statistics, and a methodology derived from sources unmentioned. There are some well-done black and white photos, good maps, and a large number of charts and tables. An occasional Italian voice breaks in. The author's main concern is to show how a concept she terms "civiltà" is grounded in social realities. This "civiltà" is connected to a certain urban lifestyle, a set of values and behaviors, and a tradition that separates its holders from the peasantry, while not cutting the intimate ties with the country people either. Even though Montecastello, the town in question, is very small, many of its inhabitants believed themselves endowed with "civiltà". But (p.8) "civiltà is a fluid ideology that in the course of Montecastellese history has been manipulated and often recast by certain groups in pursuit of their interests." The bulk of the book sets out how exactly this was done, by whom, when, and with what result. We look at geography, the structure of the community, the landholding system over some centuries, and how over the 19th and 20th centuries the town was slowly incorporated into the wider regional and national ethos. Her discussion of such values as "rispetto" and "civiltà" itself are the most fascinating parts of the book, along with the description of festivals and the life cycle of the towns-person. The weakest point in THREE BELLS is that there is absolutely no reference to any other anthropology scholar's work and no international comparison at all. Given that everything has changed anyway, it would have been very useful to know what she thought about similar concepts and similar societies written about in other books before or around her time. That said, I think you'll find a very worthwhile study here, competent and clear. It's not bedtime reading, for sure, but very useful.
Displaying 1 of 1 review