Corso, Raffaele (1883-1965)

Raffaele Corso (1883–1965) is a major figure in the history of Italian anthropology – and its institutionalization. He gave up a career as a lawyer to see the world differently by combining the study of folk traditions in Europe with that of non-European populations, in the wake of figures such as Giuseppe Pitrè, Lamberto Loria, James G. Frazer and Arnold Van Gennep. In Italy and abroad, his writings on customary law, marriage rites, the art of shepherds, female physiology and licentious tales earned him recognition as an eminent “folklorist”. In 1922, the Oriental Institute of Naples opened its doors for him to teach “colonial ethnology” and, from 1933, “African ethnography”. The author of two textbooks on folklore (1923) and ethnography (1941) and founder of the journal Il Foklore italiano (1925), Corso aimed to consolidate Italian ethnographic knowledge and facilitate its international circulation. Partly because of his proximity to the fascist regime, he was gradually marginalized after WWII. Severely questioned by Antonio Gramsci and consigned to a bygone era by Paolo Toschi and Giuseppe Cocchiara, Corso’s work is critically reassessed by historians of anthropology who analyse his contributions to a “Mediterranean” racial ideology, as well as his activities as cultural propagandist interested in promoting “race consciousness” in the interwar period.

Keywords: Folklore | Legal Anthropology | Africanism | Ethnography | Colonialism | Museum curator | First half of the 20^th century | Italy | Fascism | Sexuality | Rites of passage | Journals and periodicals