Changing Campanilismo Localism and the Use of Nicknames in a Tuscan Mountain Village Herman Tak
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Changing Campanilismo Localism and the Use of Nicknames in a Tuscan Mountain Village Herman Tak Changing Campanilismo . Localism and the Use of Nicknames in a Tuscan Moun tain Village . - Ethnologia Europaea XVIII: 149-160. Campanilismo is a well-known phenomenon in Italy. An important aspect of this parochialism in a Tuscan mountain village is the idea of being more "civilized" compared with the other surrounding villages, as can be seen in the offensive role of collective nicknames . Campanilismo is a boundary mechanism that is con nected with the closeness and commitment between villages. It is not a simple mechanism that makes a distinction between insiders and outsiders but it differ entiates them both. Because this closeness and commitment have largely dis appeared today, it is logically that a part of its vocabulary, like the collective and personal nicknames, will fade away too. Herman Tak, Vondelstraat 39, 6512 BB Nijm egen, The Netherlands . In Italy the strong tie people often have with of a particular cultural tradition (De Pina-Ca their place of residence is called campanilismo. bral 1984: 149). A word that refers to the campanile, the civic In this article, I will examine the significance bell tower, which stands in many Central Ital of this campanilismo for a Tuscan mountain ian places and is a symbol of independence village. Because this society has undergone a (Bell 1979: 151; Douglass 1984: 1; Pitt-Rivers transformation like so many pastoral and 1971: 30; Silverman 1975: 16). This bond with agrarian societies, I will also show the changes their own community is, as Goethe wrote in his that have taken place in this notion during the Italienische Reise , a form of local patriotism last decades. Campanilismo is not a static con (1776/1979 : 73). Campanilismo can be seen as cept, it develops like the whole local commu a non-institutionalised and quasi-mystic no nity. My working hypothesis here is that cam tion that involves the expression of positive panilismo is a boundary mechanism that is sentiments towards one's own community (Co strongly connected with the closeness and com hen 1977: 107). Their own village is seen as the mitment between villages but also the rela centre of the world and is believed to be supe tionships within the village play an important rior to the surrounding villages. This paro role. After describing the overall changes, I chialism is characteristic of many Mediterra shall attempt to analyse the different aspects nean communities. As is the case with so many of the campanilismo in this mountain village, words which are now intrinsic to anthropologi such as : being more 'civilized'; collective nick cal language, as for example nickname, so names; cultural topography; personal nick prannome in Italian, the word campanilismo names and the egalitarianism of this mountain originated as a folk concept within the context community. 149 • land, France and Germany and stayed there . The village Migration is for these societies no new phe Stazzema is a nucleated mountain village of nomenon, it has always been an outlet for the 200 inhabitants which lies at 443 meters at the surplus labour, that existed for example after end of a steep road. The peaks of the Apuan demographic growth. The migration after the Alps rise above the village like dark perpetual Second World War was of a different order. In clouds. The area is called Versilia, an old en this period the strong economic development, clave of the grand ducy of Tuscany, which con particularly in North and Central Italy, pro sists of a ten kilometre long coastal strip and a vided for employment in the cities and indus part of the Apuan Alps . The coastal strip is trial centres, like the one in the coastal area of urbanized near the Riviera della Versilia . Be Versilia. This migration of a part of the moun tween that and the mountains there are many tain population should not be explained by olivegroves and vineyards. At the foot of these 'push-pull ' factors only . MacDonald writes that Alps there are countless marble working migration is one of the reactions of a rural places, with Pietrasanta as their centre . The population to poverty, in which the prospect of stones that are tooled here come from the mar some development plays an important role ble-quarries that lie near some mountain tops. (1963: 74). The prospects for agriculture were The municipality of Stazzema lies in this poor in the mountains ofVersilia after the war . mountain area which is called High Versilia. In Mechanization was nearly impossible, thanks contrast to the other three municipalities of to the terrace cultivation and the small frag Versilia, the marble industry has played a sub mented and dispersed plots. This resulted in ordinate part in Stazzema (Paolicchi 1982: local agriculture being placed in an extremely 572). Until the fifties there was an agrarian unfavourable position in relation to the ex pastoral society close to an industrial urban panding market. High Versilia bears a strong ized area . Most of the working population were resemblance to the Alpine area, about which peasants. There were no big landowners and MacDonald has written, where the equality of practically no tenants. The plots were small, poverty and the absence of big landowners lead fragmented and dispersed. Besides peasants to migration (1963 : 70- 71). Or, as an ex-shep there were some artisans and small business herd from Stazzema said: "there was enough men. food but what was lacking was money". This After the fifties the village society under was the reason for leaving the agrarian pastor went a considerable transformation. Today al sector in large numbers. there are hardly any people working in the In addition to the decline of agriculture and village. Except for some shopkeepers most of migration , the accessibility of the mountain the Stazzemesi are workers in the coastal area, villages played a part in the development of and like before there is no sharp social strat this area. Many of the modern roads were built ification. Stazzema has changed from an agrar in the fifties and sixties. There was already a ian pastoral community into a commuter vil road to Stazzema, the principal town but access lage. to other mountain villages such as Pomezzano An important aspect of this transformation and Farnocchia was by unpaved, so-called, mu is the migration of many inhabitants. In the leteer paths. Through the construction of these early sixties about 450 people lived in Staz roads such villages have become more acces zema, today there are less than 200 inhabit sible and it has made commuting easier . ants . Not only in Stazzema but in all the other All these developments have also led to vi villages of High Versilia, people left . The popu sual changes . Many of the former meadows are lation of this mountain municipality has been now covered with undergrowth. The chestnut halved since the Second World War. Many woods, once an important food supply, are no people migrated to the coastal area of Ver longer kept in order and the chestnuts are not silia, others went to the industrial areas of gathered anymore. Terraces have fallen into Milan, Genoa or, as foreign workers, to Switzer- disrepair, farming land has disappeared, and 150 the cottages where the peasant stayed during have with their village. Sydel Silverman writes the harvest are in ruins. Today the village ter that in Central Italy campanilismo takes on to ritory is largely reduced to the nucleated vil a large extent, the form of pride, with a little lage. Together with this shift, a large part of cynicism, in their own civilization, compared the vocabulary to denote the different parts with other places of compatible size. This as and areas of the immediate vicinity has dis pect should be lacking in the campanilismo of appeared. In this agrarian pastoral mountain Southern Italy, which has, generally, a defen society each plot, each stretch of woods and sive disdain of other communities. According to 1 pasture had a name . You cannot find these Silverman it was the landowners who estab names on any map, and today they are mean lished the community civilization, with their ingless to the village youth. Also inside the way ofliving and material contributions (1968: village the marks of decline are visible. Some of 17). the houses of migrants that for all sorts of In Stazzema there were no large landown reasons did not find new occupants, are ruins ers, there was a family that owned some mar now. ble quarries, but being more ahead was espe After the Second World War Stazzema did cially connected with the relationship between not only lose a number of her inhabitants but the village and the Italian state. The presence also her service function within the municipal of the public institutions and the probable ex ity. The town hall and the post office were istence of a small group of civil servants and a transferred to the lower but more centrally doctor, gave the village prestige as a centre of situated settlement of Pontestazzemese. The information about the outside world. Stazzema medical practice went first, the baker and was, like her inhabitants said: "a village that butcher followed. Obviously, all these devel everyone knew". This was true, because the opments had considerable consequences for the other inhabitants of the municipality were village community. forced to come to the village for some of their business. That the Stazzemesi felt superior was recognized in one of their collective nick More 'civilized' names, which is Gentilomini, gentlemen or no The elderly Stazzemesi look back with some blemen.