the evil eye as synthetic image and its meanings on the Island of Pantelleria, Italy

Abstract

Garrison and Arensberg's overgeneralized assertion that the evil eye is a reflection of patron‐client systems in circum‐Mediterranean societies, and Herzfeld's particularistic argument that the evil eye is not a useful unit for local cultural analysis, are found to be inadequate. Needham's synthetic image concept is offered as a fresh view of evil eye; it mediates the cross‐cultural and historical existence of the belief, on the one hand, and fills the need for careful analysis in given locales, on the other. The evil eye synthetic image as it is constituted on the Island of Pantelleria, Italy, is explored as an example of such a perspective of a persistent symbolic complex. [Italy, evil eye, symbolism, envy, synthetic image, magic]