L’efficacia simbolica del mondo magico. Comunità e magia fra De Martino e Lévi-Strauss

Abstract

This paper aims to establish an unprecedented theoretical dialogue between Ernesto De Martino and Claude Lévi-Strauss, around the symbolic operation of magic in the community context. Modernly considered the ineffectual opposite of the technoscientific logos, magic has been made the object of a philosophical rediscovery during the 20th century, thanks especially to the attention of anthropological thought. Two of the authors who most contributed to this reconsideration, albeit with different approaches, were De Martino and Lévi-Strauss. In this paper we propose an original theorical dialogue between the Italian ethnologist and the French one, particularly focusing on Il mondo magico by De Martino and Anthropologie structurale by Lévi-Strauss. By reasoning about the heroicity of the shamanic figure and its symbolic operations, we want to illuminate its social indispensability. In fact, beyond the specific differences, the authors pioneeringly show the functional centrality