UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

Dorothy Louise Zinn is Full Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Italy). She is the co-founder and co-coordinator of the Malinowski Forum for Ethnography and Anthropology (https://mfea.projects.unibz.it/). Prof. Zinn has conducted fieldwork in Southern Italy and South Tyrol, and she has published extensively on issues such as immigration and multiculturalism, youths with a migrant background, clientelism and corruption. Aside from her own anthropological research, Prof. Zinn has consolidated experience in translating anthropological works, including two acclaimed annotated translations of monographs by Italian anthropologist Ernesto de Martino (The Land of Remorse [2005] and Magic: A Theory from the South [2015]). Prof. Zinn is a member of an international network of de Martino scholars and has written several publications on de Martino.

• migration
• multiculturalism
• youths with migrant background
• patronage
• clientelism
• Ernesto de Martino

An English Translation of Ernesto de Martino's La fine del mondo  [The End of the World]

During my sabbatical year in 2021-22, I will dedicate my time to the translation of Ernesto de Martino's La fine del mondo [The End of the World], the first ever in English, with an introduction and annotations for English readers. This volume is a breathtaking history of humanity's apocalyptic thought, where "apocalypse" is not used merely in its negative sense as cataclysmic destruction, but also to refer to visions of better times to come. An anthropologist and historian of religion, Ernesto de Martino (1908-1965) was one of the most influential Italian intellectuals of the twentieth century. In this book, originally published posthumously (Einaudi, 1977), he moves between the crisis of Western civilization, individual psychopathology, apocalyptic myth and ritual in ancient and non-Western religions and in millenary cults, and the West's relationship to its Others. In order to forge his innovative and prescient perspective on culture and humanity, De Martino draws on existentialist and phenomenological thought, idealist historicism, religious history, psychiatry, ethnology, and modernist literature. Highly relevant to todays turbulent climate, this book presents a profound vivisection of our modern world, and it will stimulate thought among readers from a host of disciplines. 

2019   Raccomandazione:  Clientelism and Connections in Italy. [orig. ed. 2001, La raccomandazione. Clientelismo vecchio e nuovo],  London/New York:  Berghahn Books.

2015  Magic:  A Theory from the South.  Annotated translation of Sud e magia, by Ernesto de Martino [orig. ed. 1959]  Chicago:  HAU Books. 

2005  The Land of Remorse:  A Study of Southern Italian Tarantism.  Annotated translation of La Terra del rimorso, by Ernesto De Martino [orig. ed. 1961].  London:  Free Association Books. 

2020 Patrimonio culturale e inclusione sociale:  Alcune riflessioni demartiniane”, in E. Imbriani, ed. Ernesto De Martino e il folklore. Atti del convegno (Matera, Galatina 24-25 giugno 2019).  Bari:  Progedit.

2018  “Commento a G. Pizza, ‘Ernesto De Martino fuori di sé’”, Nostos 3:  259-265.  

2016  “Ernesto De Martino nel mondo anglofono” , Nostos n.1, dic 2016:  99-114. 

2015a  editor of special issue devoted to E. De Martino,  Journal of American Folklore, Volume 128, Number 507, Winter, pp. 3-17.

2015b   “An Introduction to Ernesto De Martino’s Relevance for the Study of Folklore”Journal of American Folklore, Volume 128, Number 507, Winter 2015, pp. 3-17. 

2015c  “Tradurre De Martino, dal travaglio al trascendimento », Aut Aut 366 pp. 103-111.  

2012  “L´Umanesimo etnografico di Ernesto De Martino.  Appunti per un progetto sociale  interculturale”, in F. Ciccodicola, ed. Ernesto De Martino:  Storicismo critico e ricerca sul  campo.  Domograf, Roma, pp.  127-144.