AE Wk 10 Italy II: Slides & Readings & Discussion (repeated message)

 This week we celebrate Italy

--its beauty and ugliness . . . with

Readings

Slides

Discussion

1. First read Chapter 19: "The Italian Opera" from Gannon and Pillai, Understanding Global Cultures

  Chapter 19: "The Italian Opera"

[click ↑ here]

2. Then have a look at the class Italy slide sets #1 through #5 (use the .pptx links below).

Pay special attention to the slides that deal with Gannon and Pilla's contention that pageantry and spectacle "is one of the reasons that Italians have always excelled in activities in which impressions are important. . . ."

3. Then read the BBC article and watch the video (4:39 min) that accompanies the article about the people of Piobbico and their celebration of ugliness. 

As the BBCtravel article "The Italian village that celebrates ugliness" points out, the people of the small medieval village of 2,000 people of Piobbico, in central Italy, have been celebrating ugliness” for the past 140 years. 

Piobbico has, in fact, become renowned for being the world capital of ugly people. "Since 1879, this 2,000-person town has been home to the Club dei Brutti Links to an external site. ('The Ugly Club'), an association whose members believe that 'a person is what he is and not what he looks like.'” 

Adam Barr, the author of the BBC article, suggests their utopian idea has blossomed into a worldwide movement. (I suppose something like an aesthetic version of Carlo Petrini's Italian Slow Food Movement Links to an external site..)

They have become the center of the “World Association of Ugly People.”  

Finally, 4. THE DISCUSSION
(enter your response on the Friday listing):

Using your anthropological skills that you have developed this semester in Anthropology of Europe, explain to your partner or friend  how Italians can be both world renowned for their beauty of pageantry, spectacle, art, cinema, poetry, language, fashion, architecture, and industrial design, and at the same time the center of world ugliness. 

And they have been both for much longer than Italy has been a country.

After you post your response you will be able to see what the others in the class have said.