Mourning  Ugo Fabietti, co-founder of EASA


On May 7th 2017 prof. Ugo Fabietti, professor of  anthropology at the University Of Milano-Bicocca and co-founder of EASA, has left us, at age 66. Ugo has been an outstanding anthropologist and researcher and, for us, an invaluable teacher, friend and colleague.

His works range from his ethnographies of nomad tribes in Saudi arabia and agricultural settings in Beluchistan to founding texts in Italian about anthropology as a critical approach and a historical discipline to more recent analysis of urgent themes and issues of the contemporary world. These books have contributed to training and inspiring most younger Italian anthropologists and still prove precious sources of knowledge and enthusiasm for students of the discipline and beyond. Beside his Italian writings, Fabietti also published in English and French.

Ugo Fabietti loved anthropology and worked towards its institutionalization in a country with no strong tradition in the discipline. He designed and strategically implemented the masters and PhD programmes of Anthropology at the newly-opened (2001) University of Milano-Bicocca, which hosted the EASA conference in 2016.

Ugo has always paid a hightened attention to spreading anthropological knowledge. Beside fostering and directing collections of anthropology for major Italian publishers, he started and directed the journal Antropologia, now a peer reviewed publication in open access online. His talks on the radio and TV were like him: clear, deep and witty.

Ugo was a passionate teacher and an even more passionate reader. He paid the same careful attention to dissertations and learned scholars’ texts alike. He read and took notes not to judge but to learn. Such humbleness and ceasless amazement before culture are the rare gift he has bestowed upon us, younger colleagues.
We are still in shock for his sudden death. Beyond grieving for the loss of his scientific, moral and institutional presence, we mourn the loving man that Ugo was. He always had an affectionate touch in his professional relationships and whoever crossed him in work remembers him dearly.
Farewell Ugo.

The anthropologists in Milano-Bicocca


1984 Il popolo del deserto. I beduini Shammar del Gran Nefud, Arabia Saudita. Milano, Mondadori.
1991 (ultima ed. 2011). Storia dell'antropologia. Bologna, Zanichelli.
1993. Il sapere dell’antropologia. Pensare, comprendere, descrivere l’altro. Milano, Mursia.
1995 (ultima ed. 2013). L'identità etnica. Storia e critica di un concetto equivoco. Roma, Carocci.
1997. Etnografia della frontiera. Antropologia e storia in Baluchistan. Roma, Meltemi.
1998 (con Matera, V.)   Etnografia. Scritture e rappresentazioni dell'antropologia (pp. 7-278). Carocci.
1999. Antropologia culturale. L’esperienza e l’interpretazione. Bari, Laterza.
2002 Culture in bilico: antropologia del Medio Oriente. Milano, Mondadori.
2002. (Malighetti, R., & Matera, V.) Dal tribale al globale: introduzione all'antropologia. Milano, Bruno Mondadori.
2004 (ultima ed. 2014). Elementi di antropologia culturale. Milano, Mondadori.2014. Materia sacra. Corpi, oggetti, immagini, feticci nella pratica religiosa . Milano, Raffaello Cortina.
2016 Medio Oriente. Uno sguardo antropologico.

Alla radio:
13 marzo 2016, Uomini e Profeti, Radio 3- “Medio Oriente: tra religione e storia, fondamentalismo e globalizzazione” http://www.radio3.rai.it/dl/portaleRadio/media/ContentItem-96ad80df-b698-4bc2-81de-90d12b7e7be6.html
12 gennaio 2015, Fahrenheit, Radio 3, “Materia Sacra”, http://www.radio3.rai.it/dl/portaleRadio/media/ContentItem-2d7c401e-1d91-45e1-96bb-64902cf23773.html
dal 20 aprile al 16 maggio 2009, “Alle otto della sera”, Rai tre 3,  4 puntate “Senza Confine”
http://www.rai.it/dl/RaiTV/programmi/media/ContentItem-3794e69b-6c1a-4f5d-a857-f5c36f8a2871.html