Haunting Ruins

Chiara Calzana is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Turin. She is currently a member of the research team of the ERC Project ‘The World Behind a Word: An Anthropological Exploration of Fascist Practices and Meanings among European Youth (F-WORD)’.

List of Figures



Introduction: For an Ethnographic Microhistory through Ruins

Chiara Calzana and Valentina Gamberi



Part I: Ethnographic Lenses for Ruination



Chapter 1. A Landscape of Failures: The Historical Ecology of Ruins in the Po River Delta

Francesco Danesi Della Sala



Chapter 2. From Desire to Avoidance: Contrasting Interactions with the Rubble of Familiar Spaces Affected by an Earthquake and a Planned Flood (China)

Katiana Le Mentec



Part II: Hauntings



Chapter 3. A Scattered Self: Composing Subjectivities through Ruined Houses (Taiwan)

Valentina Gamberi



Chapter 4. Contested Memoryscapes: Post-Disaster Ruins and Memorial Practices in the Vajont Valley (Italy)

Chiara Calzana



Chapter 5. Ruins of Remains: Unpacking Narratives about a Cemetery of ‘Political Victims’

Fang-I Chu



Part III: Curating Ruins



Chapter 6. Ruins in the Forest: Conserving, Abandoning and Feeling Heritage in the Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia)

Giacomo Nerici



Chapter 7. Soba Past versus Soba Present: Ethnography of Soba Archeological Site (Sudan)

Marciej Kurcz



Afterword: The Only Real Nation Is Ruination

Francisco Martinez



Index