THE GOOD COUSINS DOMAIN OF BELONGING - TROPES IN SOUTHERN ITALIAN SECRET SOCIETY SYMBOL AND RITUAL, 1810-1821

Taking seriously J.M. Robert's suggestion that early nineteenth-centur y secret society lore might profitably be analysed using anthropologic al insights, this article examines the poetics of southern Italian car bonaro discourse as expressed between about 1810 and 1821. It explores the aptness of various tropes (metaphor, irony, metonym) to carbonaro goals and to carbonaro identity during this turbulent period. It show s that apprentice-level ritual and symbolism reflected Turner's concep ts of structure and anti-structure (and communitas). Both carbonaro id eology and Turner's concepts are explored critically in light of ironi c contradictions arising from contrasts between ideology and practice. Finally, the article discusses master-level appropriation of a centra l Christian trope (Christ's Passion), which sharply challenged the sta tus quo while invoking town and neighbourhood symbolism. This is shown as having been apt to the more politically committed among carbonari.