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Lampedusa evokes the crossings made by migrants and refugees and its name is associated with the sad sequence of shipwrecks and deaths in the central Mediterranean. For several centuries, Lampedusa has been an uninhabited land at the frontier of two conflicting worlds: between Africa and Europe and between Christianity and Islam. It was a stopover for sailors and a zone of religious truce. This book follows an ethnographic account of the social life on this small island, exploring its history articulated with the present where thousands of migrants and tourists cohabit both well and poorly in a few square miles.
“The author traces back the island’s history from medieval times to our own, along an itinerary that turns out to be full of surprises, from soldiers and crusaders, hermits and corsairs … intense and absorbing.” • Alex Corlazzoli in Il Fatto Quotidiano
“Albera’s captivating historical anthropology guides us on a tour of Lampedusa and its centuries of history. By taking us to the shared sacred space of Cave-Sanctuary of Our Lady of Porto Salvo, and through the cast of dramatis personae who have passed through the island, Albera brilliantly demonstrates the intricate challenge, admonition, and hope that Lampedusa holds for the Mediterranean.” • Naor Ben-Yehoyada, Columbia University
“The first ever history of the island and its 20 square kilometers, which is also a learned exploration of Europe's relationship with its southern borders.” • Allan Kaval, Le Monde
Dionigi Albera is Senior Research Fellow at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). His research interests include migration, domestic organisation, pilgrimage and interfaith mixing. He has co-edited several volumes with a Mediterranean focus such as Sharing Sacred Spaces in the Mediterranean: Christians, Muslims, and Jews at Shrines and Sanctuaries (Indian University Press, 2012), and New Pathways in Pilgrimage Studies (Taylor and Francis, 2016).
List of Illustrations
Introduction: The World-Island
Chapter 1. A Desert Island
Chapter 2. In Ariosto’s Archipelago
Chapter 3. The Virgin and the Marabout
Chapter 4. The Enchantment of Lampedusa
Chapter 5. The Travels of the Virgin
Chapter 6. The Temple of Perfect Tolerance
Chapter 7. Hermits, Physiocrats and Adventurers
Chapter 8. The Myth Goes Dormant
Conclusion: The Theatre of the Frontier
References