Miti, riti, cibi della montagna occitana

[Machine translation] The volume presents the results of extensive research on the Occitan mountains of Piedmont and, in particular, on the Cuneo valleys. The land under investigation is located in the Alpes-Maritimes and Cotzie, a portion of the Alps that, due to its morphological-territorial, economic and social requirements, is largely included in the so-called inland areas: territories in which a significant percentage of the population has difficulty accessing essential citizenship services. These are valleys that are part of “empty Italy”, territories characterized by a long demographic winter that, in Alpine contexts, is often acute and critical., The topics covered by the volume are essentially three: myths, rites and foods, three classic areas of ethnoanthropological analysis that seemed to need a new cultural reinterpretation in the specific context of the territory under investigation. Among the many mythologies that populate the imagination of these high lands, that of the bear, a mythical European animal par excellence, is explored. As far as the rites are concerned, we analyze in particular the Bay of Sampeyre, one of the largest and most complex ceremonies in the entire Alps, followed continuously since the early nineties. The attention to the gastronomic practices implemented in the ceremonial contexts of the Occitan valleys has focused on the feast of Saint Anne, organized by the homonymous abbey, which takes place on the last Sunday of July in the Castellaro hamlet of Celle Macra. This is the festival that most helps to understand the relationship between the institute of the abbey and the material and symbolic dimension of food in the Occitan mountains.