A Remote Land in the Heart of Europe: Some Dilemmas in the Anthropological Study of Alpine Societies

This chapter traces the development of Alpine anthropology from the community studies conducted by American researchers in the early decades after the Second World War up to the present day. The first question it addresses is whether the theoretical approaches and ethnographic methods introduced by these studies proved beneficial or, rather, stifled pre-existent national traditions of research in the European countries which share the territory of the Alpine region. The chapter then reassesses the relations between “native” anthropologists and their colleagues coming from faraway countries, and the past and present status of Alpine anthropology and anthropologists within the wider realm of anthropological research and its practitioners. It is suggested that in at least some Alpine countries and across the Atlantic the perception of the Alps as being close and remote, strange and familiar, undermined their recognition as a fully legitimate field side for ethnographic research. The final part of the chapter argues that the status of Alpine anthropology in the future will largely depend on how successfully ethnographic investigations and anthropological reflections will be able to grapple with the many changes the Alpine region has been experiencing since the beginning of the new millennium, from the effects of global warming to the unexpected settlement of new dwellers after a long period of depopulation.