Honors Theses
Date of Award
2013
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
History
First Advisor
Chiarella Esposito
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
My thesis was built around my excavations in Sicily during the summer of 2012. I researched a church on a small islet, and some of its findings over the years. Not only did I use my excavation notes, but I also used the notes from the earlier excavation of the same site in the 1960s. I needed expert advice on the building and the lamp that was found, so I contacted a Byzantine architecture specialist, and an ancient lamp specialist to obtain their opinions on the site. In order to understand the findings from 2012,1 researched the basic history of the surrounding area of Syracuse, Sicily, and the Byzantine Empire's expansion west into Italy. I discovered an increase of Byzantine architecture when Syracuse was the made the capital of the empire, and ancient temples being converted into churches, and this is possibly what happened to the church at Ognina. My conclusion was that the structure's first phase as a church may date to the 7 century along with the other churches being constructed, and that the lamp, a lO^’’ century A.D. Byzantine lamp, was a part of a later phase of the church. Garibaldi's troops, as well as a range of secondary literatures. This thesis also offers a critique of the essentialist practices and scholarship of proponents of meridionalismo^ or the rough equivalent of Edward Said's ‘orientalism' as manifested in the southern half of the Italian peninsula. It also presents the theoretical concept of a ‘collective social defense mechanism' embedded in Sicilian society, which has been brought to life and cemented at the center of Sicilian culture by a number of actors and occupying powers throughout history. This mechanism accounts for the state of poverty endured by the Sicilian peasantry throughout much of the nineteenth century as well as the gross levels of crime, corruption and injustice that are still apparent on the island to this day.
Recommended Citation
Corban, Robert Liming, "Liberal Policy and the Peasant Condition in Garibaldi's Sicily, 1860" (2013). Honors Theses. 2308.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2308
Accessibility Status
Searchable text