BOOKS - Americans in Tuscany: Charity, Compassion, and Belonging (New Directions in A...
US $7.76
399148
399148
Americans in Tuscany: Charity, Compassion, and Belonging (New Directions in Anthropology, 36)
Author: Catherine Trundle
Year: January 1, 2014
Format: PDF
File size: PDF 576 KB
Language: English
Year: January 1, 2014
Format: PDF
File size: PDF 576 KB
Language: English
Since the time of the Grand Tour, the Italian region of Tuscany has sustained a highly visible American and Anglo migrant community. Today American women continue to migrate there, many in order to marry Italian men. Confronted with experiences of social exclusion, unfamiliar family relations, and new cultural terrain, many women struggle to build local lives. In the first ethnographic monograph of Americans in Italy, Catherine Trundle argues that charity and philanthropy are the central means by which many American women negotiate a sense of migrant belonging in Italy. This book traces women's daily acts of charity as they gave food to the poor, fundraised among the wealthy, monitored untrustworthy recipients, assessed the needy, and reflected on the emotional work that charity required. In exploring the often-ignored role of charitable action in migrant community formation, Trundle contributes to anthropological theories of gift giving, compassion, and reflexivity.