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Genealogical culture in XVIIIth century (Liguria) - An introduction to kinship and family repertories. Il contributo riproduce, in forma ampliata, il testo della relazione tenuta il 21 gennaio 1994, durante il Seminario di Storia locale, presso il Dipartimento di Storia moderna e contem poranea dell'Universit�� di Genova., More on this topioc in Massimo Angelini: L'enigma Garibaldo. Savona: Pent��gora 2012.

Lots of theories about generation up to the XVIII century base themselves on the marvellous power of parents' imagination - the mother's above all - of conveying resemblance to the foetus or conditioning its shape till to the extreme monstruosity. For a long time, mother's fancies explain the appareance of naevus, cravings, skin spot, hairs colour, congenital deformities and so on. We can recognize one of the grounds of that idea, perhaps the most authoritative, in a biblical passage having Jacob the Patriarch as protagonist. This essay deals with history of the imaginationist theory from Jacob's episode and its following interpretation, with a particular attention for its influence on eugenic doctrines in fashion during the centuries XVI and XVII.

Offrire una compiuta visione della costellazione dell'associazionismo contadino è impresa complessa e per buona parte poco utile. Il dibattito è continuo, vasto, e non mancano gli spazi in cui resta vivo e fecondo. Non ne citiamo alcuno, mancheremmo senza dubbio in completezza. Non ce ne vorrà, così, nessuno. Scegliamo di utilizzare alcune immagini che possano comporre, nel loro insieme, il tratteggio di una ‘visione sferica’, come la definirebbe Michelangelo Caponetto: nella quale cioè siano presenti elementi in grado di orientare positivamente lo scenario e con esso, ci auguriamo, visioni e azioni. Lo facciamo con la penna di Massimo Angelini che nella sua montagna ligure ha amato impegnarsi - come dice presentandosi nel suo ultimo libro - “per dare respiro ed economia ai prodotti locali, fino a quando non sono diventati per tanta parte un bluff mediatico, nuove banalità di un mercato insincero” e “per sostenere un primato morale delle varietà agricole tradizionali, fino a quando non sono diventate oggetto di culto e ostentazione di una nuova ideologia urbana”., Scienze del Territorio, Vol 1 (2013) - Ritorno alla terra

Before the experimental embryology and, later, of genetics, how could one explain the similarity between parents and children or their too evident dissimilarity? It could be explained by the wonderful power attributed to women���s imagination to influence the foetus during pregnancy, up to change its shape and appearance. As a result of an intense fantasy or as a result of a sudden fright, the figure of the baby in the womb could be modified or radically altered. The power of imagination in the pregnant mother has been considered as an undisputed scientific knowledge until the eighteenth century. The plastic power of the imagination knew no bounds and also served to explain extraordinary or supernatural birth, but also to legitimize the tricks of the poor and the beggars in taking advantage of malformed newborns or in inventing fantastic births to move curiosity or commiseration. The essay ��� on the intersection between cultural history, history of medicine and social history ��� begins with one of these cases, which occurred in London in 1726, where it was said that a woman, troubled by an unfulfilled desire, gave birth to rabbits..., On this topic: Massimo Angelini: Strane voglie - Le voglie materne, tra segni sulla pelle, nascite straordinarie e imposture. Pent��gora, Savona 2020.

The article examines the concept of culture and his roots: kwel, còlere, colturus, coltus, cult (religious practice). Culture is generated and oriented by the cult, Montesquieu.it, Vol 4 (2012): Biblioteca elettronica su Montesquieu e dintorni

L'articolo contiene una riflessione su ciò che succede quando si parla di un argomento che riguarda tutti con parole e con frasi che possono capire solo pochi.

The essay immerses the reader in a landscape strongly marked by the Earth element. The agrarian and religious customs of the ligurian countryside are impressed on a rural space with its own alphabet of signs, sounds, gestures, images, instruments and tools of daily use, fences, seats on church benchs assigned to men and women, procession, trades. A world-in-miniature, in dialectics with the rythm of seasons that we can read as a text. In this rustic environment, the boundaries between cultivated and un-cultivated, domestic and wild, earth and sky are flexible, uncertain, permeable., About this topic, see Massimo Angelini: Participio futuro. Savona: Pent��gora, 2015.

(Family nicknames and segments of kinship in Liguria [16th-20th centuries]) Family nicknames provide a useful tool to understand the inner structure of kinship during the ancient r��gime. This paper charts the ways in which collective nicknames were shaped and reshaped within a Ligurian village between the 16th and the 20th centuries. Such development is linked with the process of cohesion and disruption that runs through a hegemonic kinship from a demographic, economic and political point of view. According to our findings, far from being an essencially monolithic and solidaristic structure, kinship betrayes a complex inner configuration, and one made up of ruptures, alliances, conflicts and mediations among segments of competing kins. Recurring first names as further signs of identification of subkinship segments are also examined and the paper casts light upon the meaning of such segments in their relationship with the commons and usage of material resources, prerogatives and symbolic value., On this topic: Massimo Angelini: L'enigma Garibaldo - Invenzione della tradizione, parentele e comunanze in un villaggio rurale di antico regime. Pent��gora, Savona 2012

The wonderful powers of mother's imagination on the foetus between XVIth and XVIIIth centuries. Success and decline of an idea.

Family books, handwrited and conserved in the families only for writing and reading strictjy reserved to relatives, represent a particular and precious source for local social history. The essay tells about the family books of a physician, a provincial erudite (Eastern Liguria), at the end of the Eighteenth century., On this topic, see Massimo Angelini: L'enigma Garibaldo. Savona: Pent��gora, 2012.

The essay describes the itineraries and the activity of the street musicians, born in Val Graveglia (Eastern Liguria) and directed mainly to London, Paris and Hamburg. Peddling professions were undergoing changes in mid-XIXth century and new directions were opened also to strolling musicians in Europe and overseas. Street musicians employed children, particularly of poor families, and sometimes exploited them through the 'padrone' system. Child engages was tolerated also by local authorities, at least until the 1873 Law against the employment of children in wandering professions. The activity of street musicians became more profitable and a variant of temporary migration. Close relations with with the villages of origin were mantained by sending home sistematically the earnings and keeping strong family and kin ties among the members.