Ragione aut magia. Ernesto de Martino e l’Europa

Starting from an analysis of the theory of history based on “points of selection and crisis”, already prominent in De Martino’s youthful writings of the 1940s and compatible with his later thought, the paper reconstructs some aspects of the Neapolitan ethnologist’s reflection on the history of Europe. The paper focuses particularly on the anthology Magia e civiltà (1962), in which the definition of Europe as a «civilisation of reason» emerges clearly.