Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi

Gabriella Eichinger Ferro–Luzzi is an Italian anthropologist[2] and dravidologist who has done field researches in India.[3]

Gabriella Eichinger Ferro–Luzzi
Born1931[1]
Germany[1]
CitizenshipItaly
OccupationAnthropologist
Dravidologist
Academic background
EducationDoctor of Philosophy
Alma materUniversity of Mainz (Diploma)
University of Rome (Ph.D.)
Academic work
DisciplineAnthropology
Dravidology
Institutionsex–associate professor, University of Naples "L'Orientale"
Main interestsTamil studies

Education

Ferro–Luzzi did a Diploma in Modern Languages from the University of Mainz in 1954, and in 1968, she completed her Ph.D. in geography from the University of Rome with a doctoral thesis in anthropology.[4]

Career and research

Ferro–Luzzi had worked as a teacher at the University of Venice, University of Bologna, and University of Rome between 1985 and 1991. In 1992–93, she joined the University of Naples "L'Orientale" as an associate professor of the Tamil language, and retired from the job in 2000–01.[1] She has also taught Tamil at the University of Rome.[4]

She has worked as an "unofficial research worker" at the University of Rome's Institute of Anthropology. Her research studies have been focused on the study of the culture of Hindus as viewed through the lens of Tamil literature, and Hindu rituals and mythology.[4] Heinz Scheifinger notes that she advocates that Hinduism shows "unity within diversity".[5] She has been also interested in the "culture–specific and culture–free attitudes towards food, purity and pollution".[4]

Since 1971, she has traveled several times to India, mostly to Tamil Nadu, for the execution of field studies.[3]

She served as the editor of "Rites and Beliefs in Modern India" which was a synopsis from the Tenth European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies' panel on current beliefs and rites in South Asia. The conference was organized in 1988 at Venice, Italy.[6]

Reception

Ferro–Luzzi's The Maze of Fantasy in Tamil Folktales (2002) was positively reviewed by Ülo Valk[7] and Sascha Ebeling.[8] Assessing the book, Valk wrote,

The main value of the book to an international audience lies in providing a broad survey of scattered publications of Tamil tales. It is a vast treasury of carefully arranged plots and topics, a landmark in introducing Tamil folklore to the rest of the world.[7]

Herman Tieken gave a balanced review of book, and suggested that "the usefulness of this book for folktale studies is limited."[9]

Tamil University's Aru Ramanathan and N. Palani favorably reviewed Ferro–Luzzi's The Taste of Laughter: Aspects of Tamil Humour (1992),[10] while the book was given a balanced assessment by Sadhana Naithani of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.[11] Ramanathan and Palani stated that the book's anthropological glances inside the life in a village would increase readers' "knowledge of Indian culture and literary works". According to them, the book also "opens fresh avenues to Indian anthropological studies".[10] Naithani, on the other hand, while noting that Ferro–Luzzi has "fulfilled her first aim by documenting numerous jokes, tales, and other materials and by categorizing each one", suggested that the book is "largely descriptive, with few insights into the aspects of Tamil humor."[11]

Works

Books

Some of the books authored by Ferro–Luzzi are as follows:

  • Ferro–Luzzi, G. E. (2002). The Maze of Fantasy in Tamil Folktales. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. OCLC 491172336.
  • Ferro–Luzzi, G. E. (1996). The Smell of the Earth: Rajanarayanan's Literary Description of Tamil Village Life. Naples, Italy: Istituto Universitario Orientale. OCLC 470147668.
  • Ferro–Luzzi, G. E. (1995). The "Incomprehensible" Writer: Tamil Culture in Ramamirtham's Work and Worldview. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. OCLC 468158527.
  • Ferro–Luzzi, G. E. (1987). The Self–milking Cow and the Bleeding Liṅgam: Criss-cross of Motifs in Indian Temple Legends. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. doi:10.1017/S0041977X0003487X. OCLC 952960768.

Select papers

Some of the research papers authored and co–authored by Ferro–Luzzi are as follows:

  • Ferro–Luzzi, G. E. (2003). "Hindu Rites in Modern Tamil Literature". Anthropos. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. 98 (2): 361–377. JSTOR 40467328.
  • Ferro–Luzzi, G. E. (2003). "Prototypical Aspects of Emotions in Tamil Literature". Ming Qing Yanjiu. Brill. 12 (1): 131–142. doi:10.1163/24684791-90000428. eISSN 2468-4791.
  • Ferro–Luzzi, G. E. (June 1982). "On Evolutionary Epistemology". Current Anthropology. University of Chicago Press. 23 (3): 345. JSTOR 2742337.
  • Ferro-Luzzi, G. E.; Mark, A. K. (February 1981). "On Paradox and Myth". Current Anthropology. University of Chicago Press. 22 (1): 85–86. JSTOR 2742427.
  • Ferro-Luzzi, G. E.; Appadurai, Arjun; Bharati, Agehananda; Campbell, Ronald L.; et al. (February 1980). "The Female Lingam: Interchangeable Symbols and Paradoxical Associations of Hindu Gods and Goddesses [and Comments and Reply]". Current Anthropology. University of Chicago Press. 21 (1): 45–68. JSTOR 2741742.
  • Ferro–Luzzi, G. E.; Simoons, Frederick J.; Batra, S. M.; Chakravarti, A. K.; et al. (September 1979). "Questions in the Sacred–Cow Controversy [and Comments and Reply]". Current Anthropology. University of Chicago Press. 20 (3): 467–493. JSTOR 2742106.
  • Ferro-Luzzi, G. E. (September 1977). "Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings". Current Anthropology. University of Chicago Press. 18 (3): 507–514. JSTOR 2741405.

References
  1. "List of participants" (PDF). Department of Linguistics, University of Paris. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  2. McNeely, Jeffrey A.; Sochaczewski, Paul Spencer (1995). Soul of the Tiger: Searching for Nature's Answers in Southeast Asia (illustrated, reprint, revised ed.). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0824816698. OCLC 299810414. Italian anthropologist Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi points out that the snake in India has ambivalent male/female associations.
  3. Lā. Ca Rāmāmirutam (2005). "Bio Notes". The Stone Laughs: Atonement : Two Novellas. Translated by Padma Narayanan. New Delhi: Katha. ISBN 978-8187649724. OCLC 608125436. Dr Gabriella Eichinger Ferro–Luzzi is a renowned Dravidologist. She was born in Germany and studied European languages at the University of Mainz. Her doctorate in the field of Anthropology is from the University of Rome. She has had repeated periods of fieldwork in India since 1971, especially in Tamil Nadu.
  4. Ferro-Luzzi, Gabriella Eichinger (1981). "Abhiṣeka, the Indian Rite That Defies Definition". Anthropos. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. 76 (5./6.): 707. JSTOR 40460388.
  5. Scheifinger, Heinz (September 2006). Hinduism and the Internet: a Sociological Study (PhD). Warwickshire, England: Department of Sociology, University of Warwick. p. 15. Retrieved August 3, 2020. Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, on the other hand, argues that Hinduism displays unity within diversity.
  6. "Rites and Beliefs in Modern India". CiNii. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  7. Valk, Ülo (2003). Knecht, Peter; Dorman, Benjamin; Hiroyuki, Hashimoto; Schnell, Scott (eds.). "Reviewed Work: The Maze of Fantasy in Tamil Folktales by Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi Gabriella". Asian Folklore Studies. Japan: Anthropological Institute, Nanzan University. 62 (2, Topics in Japanese Folklore Studies): 352–354. JSTOR 30030304.
  8. Ebeling, Sascha (2005). "Reviewed Work: The Maze of Fantasy in Tamil Folktales by Gabriella Eichinger Ferro–Luzzi". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. Harrassowitz Verlag. 155 (2): 673–674. ISSN 0341-0137. JSTOR 43382150.
  9. Tieken, Herman (2004). von Hinüber, Oskar; Bakker, H. T.; Jamison, Stephanie W.; Witzel, Michael; et al. (eds.). "Reviewed Work: The Maze of Fantasy in Tamil Folk Tales by Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi". Indo–Iranian Journal. Brill. 47 (1): 68–69. ISSN 0019-7246. JSTOR 24663586.
  10. Ramanathan, Aru; Palani, N. "Review of: Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, Glimpses of the Indian village in anthropology and literature" (PDF). National Diet Library. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  11. Naithani, Sadhana. "Review of: Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, The Taste of Laughter: Aspects of Tamil Humour" (PDF). Asian Folklore Studies. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
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