Diss. Univ. Bern, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [307]-328) and index.

Based on a comparative research idea on non institutionalized ecstatic forms of dance and its music in Europe, ‘Trantella and ecstatic dancing’ concentrates on the myth of the Tarantula, which inspires today to multiple and heterogeneous hybrid forms and genres. Beginning with the comparison of coeval definitions of folk music, folklore and the discourse of myths (J.-L. Nancy, A. Assmann) and specially the myth of Tarantula (A. Kircher, E. de Martino, D. Carpitella), the focus goes then on to contemporary forms of its embodiment in Salento (Italy) and to the question which melodic, rhythmic and functional fragments as well as instruments and discourses survive in the heads of today’s receipting and producing people in southern Italy. What is being reproduced though the time? This work is pointing out the therapeutic functionality of the dance and music. It is not concentrating on the diverse, confusing and changing forms the Tarantella can have.