Un incontro (im)possibile. Ernesto De Martino e Bruce Kapferer

De Martino and Kapferer are evidently two anthropologists who stand far apart from each other in terms of provenance, generation, and philosophical background. Yet, carefully reading their works on ritual, one can discern profound thematic, interpretive, and theoretical convergences. The article discusses their respective outstanding elaborations on ritual, their ethnographic observations, and the conceptual inspirations they might have in common and highlights the correspondence between several aspects of their thought. The anti-rationalist approach, the argument against radical phenomenology, the reflection on the concepts of experience and performance are all examples of possible points of overlap between their views. Still, the most patent and fascinating convergence the author pinpoints is between Kapferer’s idea of “virtuality” and De Martino’s “dehistorification”, both conceived of, mutatis mutandis, as cultural devices to act on time’s flow and effect a relativization of reality.