Crisi delle tecniche/ritorno delle tecniche: studi di cultura materiale in Italia

In this essay I examine the studies of the anthropology of technique in Italy, with particular reference to the school founded by Alberto Mario Cirese, illustrating the main ideas and research up to the crisis of the 1990s, which led to a sharp reduction of these studies and the emergence of new scientific paradigms. In recent years, however, the renewed interest in the anthropology of technique – also stimulated by the translation of Tim Ingold’s works – seems to offer the possibility of rethinking Italian studies within the new international material culture studies.