Ritual, Rapture and Remorse: A Study of Tarantism and "Pizzica" in Salento

This book was awarded a Special Mention Citation in the 2010 competition for the ‘de la Torre Bueno Prize’ by The Society of Dance History Scholars.
In the region of Salento in Southern Italy, the music and dance of the pizzica has been used in the ritual of tarantism for many centuries as a means to cure someone bitten by the taranta spider. This book, a historical and ethnographic study of tarantism and pizzica, draws upon seven hundred years of writings about the ritual contributed by me...