À cheval sur les traditions… Tourisme et cérémoniels équestres en transformation : le cas de l’Italie

• Main Author: Letizia Bindi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Éditions Touristiques Européennes 2020-12-01
• Series: Mondes du Tourisme
• Subjects: equestrian ceremonials; animal rights; inter-species ethnography; tourism; media influence
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/tourisme/3106
• ISSN: 2109-5671; 2492-7503

There are many old traditional events in Italy focusing on equestrian (and animal, more generally) competitions. Some of them have been transformed into tourist attractions from the beginning of the 20th century. However, many controversies have recently arisen against these competitive ritual practices, generating in some cases major debates, which can go as far as the exclusion from the possibilities to submit these events, for example, to the 2003 UNESCO ICH List or even stopping outright from practice. This situation calls for scientific reflections on the effects of these new sensitivities on traditional equestrian ceremonies, by questioning their influence on the transformation of such as attractive festivals. The research is based on specific fieldworks, combining analysis of the conceptual literature relating to multispecies ethnography, scientific researches and different media productions relating to the Palio of Siena (Tuscany) and qualitative multi-site inquiry. The latter focus more particularly on the chariot races in Carresi (South-Molise in Southern Italy) in 2012 and the Palio de Legnano (Lombardy) in 2017. Methodology is focused on: interviews, focus groups, participant observation, shadowing and engagement techniques enabling to restore the complexity of the relationships between traditional equestrian practices, community building and tourism development in the regions concerned.