Americans in Tuscany: Charity, Compassion, and Belonging

Catherine Trundle

jul 2014 · New Directions in Anthropology Libro 36 · Berghahn Books

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Since the time of the Grand Tour, the Italian region of Tuscany has sustained a highly visible American and Anglo migrant community. Today American women continue to migrate there, many in order to marry Italian men. Confronted with experiences of social exclusion, unfamiliar family relations, and new cultural terrain, many women struggle to build local lives. In the first ethnographic monograph of Americans in Italy, Catherine Trundle argues that charity and philanthropy are the central means by which many American women negotiate a sense of migrant belonging in Italy. This book traces women’s daily acts of charity as they gave food to the poor, fundraised among the wealthy, monitored untrustworthy recipients, assessed the needy, and reflected on the emotional work that charity required. In exploring the often-ignored role of charitable action in migrant community formation, Trundle contributes to anthropological theories of gift giving, compassion, and reflexivity.

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Catherine Trundle gained her PhD from Cambridge University in social anthropology, and is a Lecturer in cultural anthropology at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She is the co-editor, with Brigitte Bönisch-Brednich, of the book Local Lives: Migration and the Politics of Place (Ashgate 2010). Her research focuses on migration, charity and exchange, medical anthropology, and aging.