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The moral perils of Mediterraneanism: second-generation immigrants practicing personhood between Sicily and Tunisia

2011; Routledge; Volume: 16; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1354571x.2011.565641

1469-9583

Naor Ben‐Yehoyada,

Migration and Labor Dynamics

Abstract Abstract Second-generation immigrants are often imagined by social scientists, their receiving communities, their parents, and sometimes also by themselves, as those who should close the cycle of immigration that their parents have opened. Inasmuch as Italy is a contender in the international competition for the most 'Mediterranean' of countries, those youths are expected either to become Italian, fail to do so, or ascend to the globalized sphere of multiple participation, belonging and citizenship. Based on a reconstruction of several realms of action and meaning that constitute second-generation Tunisian immigrant youths' lives in Mazara del Vallo – from education, the annual voyage to Tunisia and self-identification, to kinship strategies, labor and municipal elections – I show how children of Tunisian immigrants practice a kind of personhood that receives its form and flexibility from their entrapped position in the current situation of the Mediterranean constellation in the Sicilian Channel. Keywords: Anthropology of the Mediterraneanimmigrants–second generationMaghrebmaritime mobilitytransnational networkspersonhood Acknowledgements I thank Julie Kleinman, Emrah Yildiz, Anand Vaidya, Daniel Hershenzon, Joseph Viscomi, Dan Monterescu, Marta Petrusewicz, Michael Herzfeld and the editors of this special issue for their comments. Notes The title refers to Michael Herzfeld's coining of the term 'practical Mediterraneanism' in his recent consideration of the state of the field (Herzfeld 2005 Herzfeld, Michael. 2005. "'Practical Mediterraneanisms'". In Rethinking the Mediterranean, Edited by: Harris, William V. 45–63. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]), and to Jonathan Parry's treatment of the 'dangerous supernatural forces and [the] moral peril for those who must engage in [exchange]' (Parry 1989 Parry, Jonathan P. 1989. "'On the moral perils of exchange'". In Money and the Morality of Exchange, Edited by: Parry, Jonathan and Bloch, Maurice. 64–93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 64). My argument is based on twenty months of ethnographic research in Mazara del Vallo and several cities along the eastern coast of Tunisia. I borrow the term 'constellation' from Norbert Elias (1991 Elias, Norbert. 1991. The Society of Individuals, Oxford: Blackwell. [Google Scholar]: 46) for the attention it draws to the historical and contingent nature of social processes. While Elias maintained the attempt to view society structurally, the latter's examination through time enabled him to show the changes it underwent, making it much less rigid than what the term would be usually taken for. Here I follow the critique made by the microstoria group against the Annales historiographic tradition (Ginzburg and Poni 1979 Ginzburg, Carlo and Poni, Carlo. 1979. 'Il nome e il come. Scambio ineguale e mercato storiografico'. Quaderni Storici, 40(1): 181–90. [Google Scholar]; Levi 1991 Levi, Giovanni. 1991. "'On microhistory'". In New Perspectives on Historical Writing, Edited by: Burke, Peter. 93–114. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. [Google Scholar]; Portelli 1990 Portelli, Alessandro. 1990. The Death of Luigi Trastulli, and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. [Google Scholar]). See Messina (1994 Messina, Giuseppe. 1994. La pesca nel diritto interno ed internazionale, Palermo: Istituto Siciliano di Studi Politici ed Economici (Territorio e Lavoro). [Google Scholar]) for a study of the international law that relates to fishing in the Channel. For a broader and more contextualized view, see Lorris Gallico's (1979 Gallico, Loris. 1979. 'I problemi della pesca nel Canale di Sicilia'. Politica ed Economia, 25(4): 99–100. [Google Scholar]) article. The Trapanese is generally underrepresented in historiography of the cosa nostra. For some reports that touch upon these connections, one still needs to search in parliamentary and judicial documentation (Borsellino 1991 Borsellino, Paolo Emanuele. 1991. "'Domanda di Autorizzazione a Procedere in Giudizio Contro il Deputato Gunnella Per il Reatto di cui all'Articolo 416-Bis del Codice Penale (Associazione di Tipo Mafioso, Trasmessa dal Ministro di Grazia e Giusetizia (Martelli)'". N.225Doc. IV. Atti Parlamentari, Camera dei Deputati, X Legislatura – Disegni di Legge e Relazioni – Documenti [Google Scholar]; Carraro et al. 1976; Chinnici and Mannino 1982 Chinnici, Rocco and Mannino, Salvatore. 1982. "'La mafia oggi e la sua collocazione nel pi[ugrave] vasto fenomeno della criminalità organizzata'". In Riflessioni ed esperienze sul fenomeno mafioso. Incontro tra il Cosiglio Superiore della Magistratura e i magistrati 4-5-6 giugno 1962, supplemento alla rassegna 'Il Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura' Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura [Google Scholar]; Niccolai 1972 Niccolai, Giuseppe. 1972. "'Relazione del Deputato Giuseppe Niccolai'". In Relazione Conclusiva. Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul fenomeno della mafia in Sicilia, VI legislatura. Relazione di Minoranza, 1061–19. Roma. [Google Scholar]; Teodori 1984 Teodori, Massimo. 1984. Relazione di minoranza Commissione Parlamentare d'Inchiesta sulla Loggia Massonica P2 (legge 23 settembre 1981, n. 527), Roma. [Google Scholar]; Tranfaglia 1990 Tranfaglia, Nicola. 1990. 'La Mafia come metodo. Il Mezzogiorno e la crisi del sistema politico italiano'. Studi Storici, 31(3): 613–54. [Google Scholar]). The current state of affairs in Mediterranean studies follows the publication of Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell's (2000) volume. The authors' definition of the Mediterranean based on the connectivity among its constituting micro-regions was consequently temporalized, and then socialized (Algazi 2005 Algazi, Gadi. 2005. 'Diversity rules: Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell's The Corrupting Sea'. Mediterranean Historical Review, 20(2): 227–45. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]; Morris 2003 Morris, Ian. 2003. 'Mediterraneanization'. Mediterranean Historical Review, 18(2): 30–55. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). Both James C. Scott (1985 Scott, James. 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. [Google Scholar], 1990 Scott, James. 1990. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and Deborah Reed-Danahay (2005 Reed-Danahay, Deborah. 2005. Locating Bourdieu, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. [Google Scholar]) explored this concept. While citing both, I would point out the plurality of socialization and regimentation projects as the specific characteristic of these youths' situation. The last grade in the scale seems to be nowadays shared by Roma from ex-Yugoslavia and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. An argument that Mediterranean anthropology promoted, mainly surrounding shared preoccupation with honor and shame. The debate initiated with a couple of conferences on 'Mediterranean values' (Péristiany 1966 Péristiany, Jean. 1966. Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]). Later, anthropologists dismantled the cultural assumptions behind much of the debate, and showed how it accentuated prevailing stereotypes instead of examining them (see Michael Herzfeld's debate with Anthony Galt: Herzfeld 1984 Herzfeld, Michael. 1984. 'The horns of the Mediterraneanist dilemma'. American Ethnologist, 11(3): 439–54. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1985 Herzfeld, Michael. 1985. 'Of horns and history: the Mediterraneanist dilemma again'. American Ethnologist, 12(4): 778–80. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Galt 1985 Galt, Anthony. 1985. 'Does the Mediterraneanist dilemma have straw horns?'. American Ethnologist, 12(2): 369–71. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; see also David Gilmore's earlier presentation of the 'cultural unities' argument: Gilmore 1982 Gilmore, David D. 1982. 'Anthropology of the Mediterranean Sea'. Annual Review of Anthropology, 11: 175–205. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). See also Jane Schneider's (1971 Schneider, Jane. 1971. 'Of vigilance and virgins: honor, shame and access to resources in Mediterranean societies'. Ethnology, 10(1): 1–24. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) compelling analysis. See Anton Blok's (2001 Blok, Anton. 2001. Honour and Violence, Cambridge: Polity. [Google Scholar]: 135) development and usage of the term 'narcissism of minor differences' for the analysis of ethnic violence. The graffiti read: 'Kasba Pulita' (Clean the Kasba)]' 'non passa lo straniero' (The foreigner shall not pass). The second phrase distills xenophobia out of national pride, as it had been expressed in a national song about the battle of the River Piave of June 1918. As in the 'liar paradox', a couple of steadfast friends, one 'Tunisian' and the other 'Mazarese', told me once: 'The only friendships between Tunisians and Sicilians in town are those between Sicilians and their Tunisian dealers.' For the latest example, see the inaugural issue of the California Italian Studies Journal, titled 'Italy in the Mediterranean', especially the articles by Chambers (2010 Chambers, M. Iain. 2010. 'Another map, another history, another modernity'. California Italian Studies Journal, 1(1) [Google Scholar]), Dal Lago (2010 Dal Lago, Alessandro. 2010. 'La porta stretta. L'Italia e "l'altra riva" tra colonialismo e politiche migratorie'. California Italian Studies Journal, 1(1) [Google Scholar]), and Fogu and Re (2010 Fogu, Claudio and Re, Lucia. 2010. 'Italy in the Mediterranean today: a new critical topography'. California Italian Studies Journal, 1(1) [Google Scholar]). It matters little if those youths do not use the term 'Mediterranean' when they speak of themselves, because the entire maritime constellation developed in the Channel of Sicily since the 1960s without reference to the name of the sea. Only in the 1990s did politicians in town prefer it in referring to the sea that lies to the south of them. Before that the term 'il Canale di Sicilia' was used to denote the sea between Sardinia, Algeria and Malta, including the Gulf of Sirta. The possessive language may be explained by the fact that most of the references came when Tunisian or Libyan patrol boats stopped, arrested and shot at Sicilian fishing boats that came too close to their shores. The term 'Mediterranean', therefore, might have seemed too ecumenical at the time.