Social Memory as Festive Therapy and Village Politics

Abstract

The capacity of memory to heal has recently been of particular interest in both anthropology and psychology. Creating a narrative from fragmentary memories makes sense of past pain by giving it shape and meaning. The villagers of Rocca Sinibalda in central Italy had such an opportunity in 1556, after suffering sack and destruction, harsh forced labour, oppressive fines and taxes, and severe punishments. During the festive atmosphere of Carnival villagers both told their stories to a commissario sent from Rome to investigate and listened to those of others. Like a modern patient, a sixteenth-century village could perhaps rebuild its past in a festival of memory that was both curative and political.