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Reacting to the Powers that Be: Investigations of a Calabrian, Post-Medieval Community
Paula Kay Lazrus
The town of Bova (Calabria, Italy) is a post-medieval montane community that remained inaccessible well into the twentieth century. Archival research, field survey, and spatial analyses provide a foundation for investigating the effects of social and political restructuring on the economic and social development of the community. Attitudes of laxness, disinterest, or ignorance have been attributed to inhabitants of this region. They can be interpreted as projected upon the citizens of Bova and others in southern Calabria by those in more urban centers to the north. Potentially, they reflect preferred survival strategies in the face of shifting imperial control.
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The southern Calabrian municipality of Bova, in the foothills of the Aspromonte, is the
location for an ongoing investigation into life in a small post-medieval montane
community. This paper presents an initial attempt to achieve a deeper understanding
of the socioeconomic lives of Bovans utilizing the territory in the more recent past, by
integrating information from the Napoleonic cadasterthe Catasto Murattiano
drawn up in 180708 with other archival documents and data from archaeological
field survey. Historical material from this area of Italy is often rejected as not being old
or unique enough for in depth study. Disentangling the lives of people in Bovas
territory and their use of the land is further complicated by the lack of a stratigraphic
chronology. This is the first study in this region of Italy to try integrating archaeological
and archival data for this time period and it provides a window into the lives of people
in post-medieval Calabria that has been of scant interest to researchers
(Athanassopoulos 2004; Galt 1991; Robb 1997). This work focuses primarily on data
from the period in which southern Calabria was briefly under Napoleonic (French) rule
between episodes of Bourbon (Spanish) control (180615). Survival strategies
developed during its prolonged colonial period (starting with the Normans in 1000 CE)
extend into the period of unification (1861 when Italy formally became a single
political entity) and further to the present.
Bovas territory prior to the twentieth century was significantly larger than it is
today. It covered 300 km2 versus the 76.40 km2 for the combined municipalities of
Bova and Bova Marina today. It controlled a territory inhabited since the Neolithic
(Foxhall 2006; Robb 1999). During the post-medieval period most inhabitants lived in
the town of Bova itself (C. ASRC 1807). There were also citizens who lived in small
administratively dependent communities and in more isolated farmsteads or seasonal
habitations located throughout the landscape (Figs. 1 and 2).
Bovas relatively isolated location may have played a role in the development of its
independent identity as may its historical position as a bishopric. The town was also
tied to the larger social and political systems as part of the Kingdom of Naples.
Nonetheless, shifting political regimes (i.e., alternating Bourbon and Napoleonic rule
until Unification), were disruptive. In addition, the inhabitants of southern Calabria
suffered natural calamities on a regular basis. These contributed to periodic famines and
epidemics which led to economic upheavals and social and political restructuring
(Postpichi 1985; Rao 1992). Natural events and the political responses to them
influenced the way Bovan citizens chose to respond to shifting requests from the
imperial capital, Naples. A desire to maintain some control over their livelihoods
contributed to a strategy of passive aggressive responses to taxation, improving
transportation infrastructure or engaging in forms of commerce that would otherwise
have created stronger external relationships. It is the interplay of data, lack of
postmedieval infrastructure in the form of paved roads, easily accessible mills or processing
structures and tax data that lead to this understanding.
While Bovas territory may initially appear abandoned or underutilized, it is better
understood as reflective of the inhabitants fluctuating patterns of usage given the
shifting demands of distant political administrations and individual risk assessments.
As a discipline, our understanding of such landscapes has grown deeper and more
nuanced over the years as survey techniques and spatial analysis have allowed for new
interpretations of archaeological and historical data. The work of Forbes, Davies and
Davis, and others provide excellent examples of work that derives understanding about
past communities in this manner (Athanassopoulos 2010; Barker 1995; Davies and
Davis 2007; Doorn 1985; Dyson and Rowland 2007; Forbes 2007a; Given 2004).
Recent studies of Nemea, Ottoman Greece, Northern Ireland, and Apulian Italy have
illustrated that modern archaeologys integration of archival and field research can
contribute to a greater understanding of how people have engaged with the landscape
(Athanassopoulos 2010; Barker 1995; (...truncated)