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Mediterranean Perceptions,
A Long-Lasting Laboratory
Maria-Àngels Roque. Anthropologist, European Institute of the Mediterranean
Is there a shared imaginary of the Mediterranean? Or rather are ambiguity and rejection the
discursive elements that make up this area? The truth is that many of the traditions that each
group considers “their own” also belong to “the others” as they are the result of migrations, trade
or mutual, often violent, civilising processes. These phenomena have developed over centuries, as
Fernand Braudel pointed out in his study on the era of King Felipe II, which was characterised
by the clash between the different cultures of the Mediterranean.
For the historian Fernand Braudel (1966), raphers and finally European Romantic writers
civilisations are layers of endless historical and travellers left their fantastic, realistic or
continuities. But this historian of the Mediter- moral observations on the lands surrounding
ranean also believes that geographical genetics the Mediterranean Sea long before the weight
exist on both shores: the civilisation of the of “Mediterraneaneity” fell almost exclusively
rocky promontories, ancient Mediterranean on the shoulders of academic anthropology.
civilisations prior to the Roman settlement From the outset of the discipline, in the
that have conferred on it a particular character late 19th century, the myths and descriptions
in time. Both in the north and south of the of the Mediterranean have been – and still
Mediterranean, the features of the West have are – a source of reflection and comparison,
always been different from the East. From a to the extent of becoming a classical space in
sociological point of view, the phenomenon of anthropology studies. Although it is true that
the countryside-city opposition was a key issue part of anthropology was developed by colo-
that the Maghrebian historian Ibn Khaldun nialism, the colonial atrocities cannot simply
had already developed in the 14th century. be attributed to this discipline: the political
Braudel argues that, from a historical point of doctrine or the economy, for instance, had
view, the difference between Europe and Islam more significance than anthropology itself,
is that in Europe the cities imply “the peasant which at least provided a major corpus that
cultures” while in Islam there is a greater dif- today helps us to know about elements from
ference between these two elements. other cultures that no other discipline would
The approach to the Other has a long tradi- have provided. In any case, anthropology has
tion in the Mediterranean. First Greco-Latin also helped to put forward demands for equal-
mythographers and historians, then Arab geog- ity by the subjected or peripheral cultures. We
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are not only referring to colonialism: we can The problem of current sociological analysis
apply the same idea to the homogenising and lies in the fact that cultures are increasingly
“civilising” nation-state. more complex and that, like it or not, societies
Are they the local cultures? Are they an are less homogenous in terms of lifestyles.
adaptation to the territory, to ecology? Yes and Thus, it is a mistake to speak of contemporary
no. The ownership and manifestation of a societies as if we were speaking of societies
specific culture are based on a specific territory enclosed in themselves with predetermined
but we can never ignore the transformations codes. We find the same aspirations to welfare
of values or the aspirations of the people in and security in the north and the south, each
these territories. Conflicts consume a great one seeking faults in the system. In the south,
deal of energy; however, they frequently serve with the emergence of a civil society fighting
to drive the changes that adapt society and re- to achieve citizen rights and, in the north, with
sources to a new reality. The contemporaneity critical currents faced with a system of exac-
of cultures consists of witnessing their own erbated economic liberalism that has brought
transformations. about a deep crisis in which the rights acquired
are at risk.
Cultures are increasingly more complex Nietzsche was a great champion of the ob-
and, like it or not, societies are less servation of cultures from their ethos. In The
homogenous in terms of lifestyles. Thus, Birth of Tragedy he looks at classical Greek
it is a mistake to speak of contemporary culture and establishes an approach in which
societies as if we were speaking of he discerns the values that become apparent
societies enclosed in themselves with through their artistic expression. In this work
predetermined codes he describes how, during tragedy, the state of
civilisation remains on hold: man identifies
It is difficult to describe a culture without with the satyr chorus, the primitive founda-
taking into account otherness, given that the tion of tragedy, and returns to a state prior to
different human groups possess their own cul- civilised life, where he coincides, in ecstasy,
tural specificities. When valuing a culture we with the desire for universal life.
tend to develop an ethnocentric character, in The Nietzschean analysis reveals how
keeping with the classical concept of centre- Greeks symbolised the conception of art, not
periphery in relation to the prevailing system through concepts but through embodiments of
or position, as we can see in some Greek myths. their deities Apollo and Dionysus. The Diony-
Within a civilisation there will always be some sian spirit may seem barbaric to the Apollonian
guidelines that provide a “civilising” cohesion. spirit, but they cannot live without each other.
These can consist of religious, legal, political In the necessary interaction, Nietzsche seeks to
or economic parities. explain how the disappearance of the Diony-
The ethos or behaviour of peoples is linked sian spirit is related to the surprising degenera-
to collective values and representations, and tion of Greek society. Although focused on art,
these are linked to the specific history. In the the Nietzschean distinction – and conjunction
social dynamic, values vary with time. There- – between Apollonian and Dyonisian is not just
fore, within everyday collective identities an artistic categorisation: it is the expression of
several lifestyles become apparent that entail forms of culture that, in the end, are lifestyles.
new complexities and involve a friction-fusion The influence of these two expressive poles of
between tradition and change. representation has been very suggestive for
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intellectuals who have introduced them into nent Anglo-Saxon philologists were absorbed
their reflections on society in different fields. by Nordic culture and only thanks to artistic
heritage would it maintain the honour of be-
ing “the cradle” of civilisation. In the late 19th
Trends Creating Mediterranean century, in certain Italian, French and Spanish
Imaginaries intellectual circles, the idea of the incapacity
of the Latin people faced with the power and
After the Second World War, a large number of strength of Anglo-Saxons took shape, embod-
anthropologists who studied at the University ied by the Prussian victory over France and
of Oxford used fieldwork methodology to look rounded off by the loss of the Spanish colonies.
for their study subjects in mountain areas, in
the small Iberian, Italian or Greek peasant The end of colonialism and the need to
settlements or within the Maghreb or Middle create an identity different to that of the
East tribes. They were mainly Mediterranean colonisers did not contribute too much to
communities in which we find some exoticism creating a “Mediterraneaneity” common
in relatively similar societies. The early com- to the two shores, as Albert Camus would
parative works include the essays collected by have wished
Julian Pitt-Rivers (1963) and J.G. Peristiani
(1968), who tried to give substance to this no- The fact that the Latin identity served as a
tion of Mediterranean society by emphasising, basis for Mussolini to dress the fascist spirit and
beyond the real diversity of societies and cul- that, after the Second World War, the French
tures, the existence of related forms of social thinker Alexandre Kojève resumed the idea of
organisation and shares values. In contrast, we the Latin Empire, did not enhance its prestige
could cite the work by the anthropologist Ernest too much. In 1945, Kojève tried to persuade
Gellner (1969), in which the term “Mediter- Charles De Gaulle that, under the leadership
ranean” is used less to qualify shared features of France, Spain and Italy, as well as south-
than to designate the “mirrored” oppositions ern Mediterranean countries under French
between southern European Christianity and control, should join the Latin Empire. The
North African Islam. However, the realities are end of colonialism and the need to create an
multiple and even in scientific studies we know identity different to that of the colonisers did
that the results depend on the place of focus. not contribute too much to creating a “Medi-
If we deal with Mediterranean cultures, and terraneaneity” common to the two shores, as
we focus on orthodoxy, Gellner is right but if Albert Camus would have wished.
we look at popular practices we recognise the Several decades went by before the vision
“family resemblance” of which Julian Pitt- of the Mediterranean, at least the European
Rivers talked. Mediterranean, re-awoke positive images
We should recall that in Europe the com- related to progress. We should recall that in
pliant stereotype of the Mediterranean was the first Clash of Civilizations, published by
consolidated thanks to Romanticism. But this Samuel Huntington in 1987, the author sub-
harmonious and solar culture to which Goethe divided contemporary civilisations into Protes-
referred on his journey to Italy quickly trans- tant Nordic, Catholic Latin, Arab, Slav, Hindu,
formed into a synonym of backwardness and Chinese, Malaysian, Japanese and African. Six
mere remembrance of the past. The essences of years later, in the 1993 version, Huntington’s
Greek and Roman classicism recovered by emi- division had reduced the number of civiliza-
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tions: Nordic and Latin formed a single group, la Mediterrània, contributing debates on issues
which were now Western societies. of interest with the participation of specialists
After the Fordist industrial crisis, the de- from both shores. All of them were committed
centralisation of more customised products to dialogue in a moment when it was necessary
and greater demand for services, small and to emphasise what unites us, always bearing in
medium-sized family enterprises that seemed mind the specificities.
close to extinction reappeared in Italy and
Spain, as values on the rise. In Italy, the Veneto, Until the attack on the Twin Towers in
Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany emerged in 2001, the 1990s were a time of creation
what I would call “the third Italy”, whose re- of dialogue and search for Mediterranean
gions are considered the wealthiest and most cultural bridges. The 1st Euro-
dynamic and are not related to the model of in- Mediterranean Ministerial Conference
dustrial Italy, the North or the Mezzogiorno. In held in 1995 was a historical milestone,
the case of Spain, Catalonia, Valencia and the when the idea of creating a free trade area
Balearic Islands embodied the emerging Latin by 2010 was discussed
arc, where the human capital of which the
sociologist Robert Putman speaks was valued. The French editors of “Les représentations
Until the attack on the Twin Towers in 2001, de la Méditerranée” pointed out on the book
the 1990s were a time of creation of dialogue flaps: “Speaking of the Mediterranean has a
and search for Mediterranean cultural bridges. different meaning depending on the country,
The 1st Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Con- be it Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, France and
ference held in 1995 was a historical milestone, even Germany or Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon or
when the idea of creating a free trade area by Morocco.” To this end, they sought the tandem
2010 was discussed. Politicians mentioned for of a writer and a specialist from each of the ten
the first time the need to have civil society as countries that formed the collection. Some of
the driver of development and democracy of the writers, particularly those from southern
the peoples. countries such as Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt,
It was then when many political and acknowledged in their texts that they were
economic fora were held on this issue, in rather confused about having accepted such a
which the thinking of both shores focused on challenge but excited to participate in the pro-
“searching” or, rather, “recovering” a shared ject. It is not surprising that both the Moroccan
imaginary, with greater knowledge of the socie- Mohamed Berrada and the Egyptian historian
ties and their culture through the recognition Mohamed Afifi mentioned, in relation to the
of mutual contributions. In the late 1990s, Arab world, Taha Hussein (1889-1973). Hus-
a series of collections on the Mediterranean sein was a renowned Egyptian intellectual who
appeared. In France, under the direction of in his work The Future of Culture in Egypt
Thierry Fabre and Robert Ilbert, the collec- put forward the vision of the Mediterranean
tion “Les représentations de la Méditerranée” as the main element, along with education
was launched. The Italian publisher Jaca Book reform, for the desired changes to take place.
joined efforts with other international publish- He divided his work into three sections: The
ers to release in Spanish, French, English and Mediterranean-memory, the Mediterranean-
Arabic the Enciclopedia del Mediterraneo. civilisation and the Mediterranean- prospect
Several journals appeared such as Rive, which for the future, of that bright future, reflected
only lasted eighteen months, and Quaderns de Berrada, to which Moroccans passionately
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aspired at that time. The Moroccan writer ad- ties and enables the existence of xenophobic
mitted: “In the 1950s, when I was a student, I countries in Europe.
was impressed by Hussein’s work, a convincing In the early decades of the 21st century
apology for the ‘model’ that also seduced the many elements contributed to the creation of
Arab intellectual elites of the time: the Western a fragmented language, such as the financial
rationalist and democratic social model that crisis, the transformation of economic organisa-
hoisted the standard of humanistic humanity.” tion according to the global network logic and
Berrada also explained that Taha Hussein the incapacity of the contemporary state to em-
had written this book in the 1930s before the body a project that goes beyond corporatisation.
outbreak of the Second World War but that it The outburst of identity demands that go in
was not published until the end of the armed parallel with the failure of the great ideologies
conflict. “However, the writer did not make any can be seen in a powerful return to the local
change, as if fascism or Nazism had nothing space as a tool of construction or vindication of
to do with Mediterranean culture.” Berrada cultural identity and social solidarity.
admitted the rejection he felt of the policies
of the European colonialist states that tried to In the late 1990s, rather than a shared
perpetuate the regime of control at the heart vision, the culturalist thesis took root. This
of the Mediterranean but he identified with appeared at the time of the Gulf War
the literary and artistic work that had emerged and the political and cultural crisis of the
in the European countries. This same value of Muslim countries
shared emotions appears in the representation
of the Mediterranean by the different writers Today the Mediterranean is a border again.
in the collection. Most of them mention the One of the most eloquent and macabre rep-
cultural heritage felt and shared with writers resentations is that of a big watery tomb in
such as Homer, Cervantes, Federico García which thousands of migrants from the south
Lorca, Juan Goytisolo, Pierre Loti, Albert Ca- fleeing their countries in search of a better life
mus, Pirandello, Alberto Moravia, Yasar Kemal, disappear and meet their death. The recent
Nazim Hikmet and Ivo Andric and artists such history of the Mediterranean again shows an
as Picasso, Miró, Delacroix, Matisse and Mo- extremely complicated relation with European
hamed Kacimi. policies that, far from the humanistic vision,
Moreover, in the late 1990s, rather than a turn their back on suffering and dignity.
shared vision, the culturalist thesis took root. We could argue that, throughout the 21st
This appeared at the time of the Gulf War and century, the challenges of dialogue have not
the political and cultural crisis of the Muslim stopped growing, according to conflicts such as
countries. Huntington’s culturalist thesis that, 9/11, the wars of Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel
in this case, concerns the Mediterranean on the and Palestine, the terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda,
conflict of civilisations and the incompatibility the cartoons conflict, the lecture of the Pope at
of their value systems found, from that mo- Regensburg University, Islamic State staging
ment, feverish advocates both in the West and terror, the destruction of the war in Syria and
the Arab world. In both parts the exceptional Iraq, the hundreds of thousands of displaced
aspects that confuse religion with politics were people or the suicide attacks in Europe, every-
discussed. It was considered that the system thing followed by a media outburst that only
of Western democracy serves to stimulate the increases the fragmentation of cultures and the
entry into the governments of Islamist par- difficulty of dialogue.
IEmed 26.indd 19 25/05/2018 11:15:4720 Mediterranean Perceptions, A Long-Lasting Laboratory Maria-Àngels Roque
The British anthropologist Edmund Leach through the Web, of a world of hedonistic and
(1978) noted the communicative importance of competitive values.
culture: “If we are to understand the ethical For these reasons, Arjun Appadurai warns
rules of a society, it is aesthetics that we must us that “no one can enter into dialogue without
study.” And he added: “In origin the details of taking serious risks.” This statement is opposed
custom may be an historical accident; but for to the common vision of dialogue as something
the individuals living in a society such details informal, quotidian and even secondary with
can never be irrelevant, they are part of the respect to the true operation of power and
total system of interpersonal communication wealth. According to this anthropologist, if we
within the group.” At present we are witnessing accept that dialogue is always a risky matter, we
the reformulation of imaginaries through the can ask ourselves about the implicit risks and
icons conveyed by the media, creating myths why it is worth, and even becomes obligatory, to
of great scope. The social networks also con- accept such risks today. Unfortunately, it seems
tribute urban stories or legends, most of them easier to kill than to dialogue because some do
adaptations and/or recreations that reflect the not want to be convinced with reasons. The
classical myths mass broadcast via Internet. human being is a symbolic animal and conflicts
appear as a result of lack of knowledge of the
At present we are witnessing the meaning of things or, even worse, the differ-
reformulation of imaginaries through ent interpretations we make of the meanings
the icons conveyed by the media, creating and the complexity of coming to terms with
myths of great scope. The social networks the diverse affiliations. The Lebanese writer
also contribute urban stories or legends, Amin Maalouf argues: “The identity of each
most of them adaptations and/or one of us is formed by many affiliations but,
recreations that reflect the classical myths instead of coming to terms with all of them,
mass broadcast via Internet we usually choose only one – religion, nation,
ethnicity or others – as a supreme affiliation,
The anthropologist Luís Díaz Viana, in which we confuse with total identity, which
his recent publication Miedos de hoy (2017), we proclaim in front of others and in whose
reminds us that living in a panorama of name sometimes we become murderers.” And
non-places has not necessarily made us more he adds: “Would it not be more lucid and in
cosmopolitan or safer or confident. The fact of keeping with today’s realities for each one of
moving in the fleetingness of no-time, the in- us to come to terms with all the affiliations?”
stant, the acceleration, has also not made some Art, literature and poetry contribute
of us more contemporary than others. The fact beauty, horror and complexity: fragmented
that we are overwhelmed by global informa- images that today depict a dark imaginary of
tion day after day has not made us wiser, and the Mediterranean. Dionysian elements that,
the apparent obsession to “memorialise” any as in the Nietzschean analysis, are imbued with
event – from tourist trips to the big catastro- dramatic expression with the aim of acting as
phes – has not make us experts on the past or a socio-cultural spur. Because art, be it literary,
saved us from forgetfulness. The information visual, audiovisual or cinematographic, creates
and communication technologies have become an empathy that brings us closer to the culture
a deus ex machina that, threateningly or play- of the Other, to tragedy and longings, and urges
fully, gives us back ancestral fears, as well as us to think about our own culture, which is less
the possibility of being able to be protagonists, Apollonian than we think.
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