Le tradizioni al tempo di facebook: rifacimenti realisti e problemi di copyright

Since the late 1900s, new forms of visual entertainment have been invented to simulate the details of the past time. In the Abruzzi, hundreds of historical reenactments have been consolidated in few years as “popular traditions”, inspired to the aristocracy of the Middle Age and also to the peasant life of the XIX century. The passion in the stake-holders demonstrate that the realism turned into a political and affective dimension. Through a post-colonial approach, the essay explores the new traditions inspired to the peasant life as a ritual way to heal the need of identity in a way that is not passive at all, moving the semiotic pawns into the local culture, mixing the visual expressions with the local powers. In fact, these activities bring into play the old regional inequalities between large cities and small towns, because in the global competition to revitalize traditional rituals, peripheral villages are stripped of their copyright on old festivals. This seems to violate the 2003 Unesco Convention that guarantees the local diversity according to a universalistic conception of the cultural heritage. Through the advice of cultural anthropologists and the ethical use of the region’s ethnological archives, it is possible to resolve disputes over cultural rights that are flourishing today in the examined area.