ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the kinship trope as a mode of representation of Italian specificity. It seeks to de-naturalize ethnicity, for within British new racism, the naturalization of culture diffuses 'race' and racism in cultural-related discourses of differentiation wrapped in the terminology of 'ethnicity'. The chapter considers historical texts as equally performative by virtue of the fact that they produce the 'History' they claim to be retrieving and re-presenting. Feminist accounts of ethnicity, 'race' and nation have long since alerted us to the ways in which ethnicity is essentialized or rendered absolute through its intersection with gender systems of differentiation. A critique of family-based accounts of ethnic identity becomes highly pertinent in relation to Italian cultural formation. Ethnographers are inevitably caught up in a web of demands that come from different directions at once: academia, personal interests, and the interests of the subjects. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
