Beyond the Crisis of Presence: Magic, Religion and the Question of Emancipation in Ernesto De Martino

This thesis explores how religion serves as a social bond in the works of Ernesto De Martino. It spacifically looks at whether ritual, magic and popular religious practices can be seen as ways for marginalized groups to gain freedom. The focus is on Southern Italy and the Southern Question. The study analyzes how religious and ritual practices function in marginalized settings and whether they primarily act as forms of protection and normalization or as opportunities for agency and change. A decolonial perspective serves as the framework for these discussions, allowing for a critical examination of the knowledge hierarchies that have historically dismissed the beliefs of marginalized communities. The first part outlines De Martino's intellectual and political path, tracing his early development in idealism, his complex role during fascism, his engagement with Crocean historicism, his participation in the Resistance and his involvment with the Italian Communist Party. His return to Southern Italy and his ethnographic studies represent a key moment, where his analysis of ritual and popular culture becomes closely linked to understanding marginality. The second chapter focuses on the problem of Western ethnocentrism and its influence on understanding religious and magical practices. The thesis investigates, starting with "Il mondo magico", how De Martino deals with the modern concept of "reality" and its mismatch with different worldviews. Religion, magic and spirituality are not seen as irrational residues, but as cultural practices that stabilize individuals facing the crisis of presence. This section also points out a tension in De Martino's work: while he acknowledges the protective role of rituals, he originally places them within the unilinear conception of history, potraying subaltern cosmologies and cultures as previous stages of history with respect to the European modern civilization. The third chapter re-evaluates this issue by adopting the decolonial lens and critical views on time. It argues that limiting religion to a purely protective role risks reinforcing a knowledge hierarchy that undermines the autonomy and political relevance of marginalized cosmologies. Using concepts like coloniality, epistemic dispossession and the colonization of the imagination, the thesis explores how physical and communal knowledge forms have faced historical dismissal. In this contexts, rituals, such as those De Martino studied in Southern Italy, are seen as practices that not only provide protection, but also create opportunities for collective action, different understanding and worldviews from the linear and universalizing modernity. The thesis examines the potential for religion to empower individuals in marginalized contexts. By placing De Martino alongside decolonial and critical theories, the Meridione reveals the shortcomings of Western modernity and its claims of universality. In this context, religion cannot simply be seen as ideology or straightforward resistance; instead, it appears as a complex social bond that can both uphold and contest systems of dominance. The thesis concludes by suggesting that a critical re-examination of De Martino's work offers valuable insights into how marginalized individuals navigate their agency under historically determined oppressive conditions.