Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi Explained

Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi
Birth Place:Germany
Citizenship:Italy[1]
Education:Doctor of Philosophy
Alma Mater:University of Rome (Ph.D.)
Workplaces:Professor emerita of Asian Studies, Istituto Universitario Orientale
Main Interests:Tamil studies

Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi (born 1931) is an Italian anthropologist and dravidologist who has done field studies in India, mainly in the Tamil Nadu state.

Born in 1931 in Germany, she studied modern languages at the University of Mainz and did a Ph.D. at the University of Rome in 1968. Between 1985 and 1991, she worked briefly at the University of Venice, University of Bologna, and University of Rome. She taught Tamil language and literature at the University of Naples "L'Orientale" and also worked as a professor of Asian Studies at the university.

Education

Ferro-Luzzi did a Diploma in Modern Languages at the University of Mainz in Germany in 1954.[2] In 1968, she completed her Ph.D. in geography at the University of Rome in Italy with a doctoral thesis in anthropology.

Academic career and research

Ferro-Luzzi is a dravidologist. Since 1971, she has traveled several times to India, mostly to Tamil Nadu, to execute field studies.[3]

Her research studies have been focused on the study of the culture of Hindus as viewed through the lens of Tamil literature; the mythologies and rituals of Hindus; and the "culture-specific and culture-free attitudes towards food, purity and pollution".[2] According to Heinz Scheifinger, she is of the view that Hinduism shows "unity within diversity".[4]

She worked as a teacher in Italy at the University of Venice, University of Bologna, and University of Rome between 1985 and 1991. She had taught the Tamil language at the Institute of Linguistics of University of Rome.[2] She worked at the University of Naples "L'Orientale" in Italy as an associate professor of Tamil language and literature from 1992–93 to 2000–01.[5] She also served as a professor at the department of Asian Studies of the university.[6] She is retired.[5]

Naivedyam

According to Peter Berger, in Ferro-Luzzi's view, the Naivedyam to gods should be "understood as acts of communication and function like linguistic elements, that is, through opposition, combination, and redundancy".[7]

Written work

Ferro-Luzzi's The Maze of Fantasy in Tamil Folktales (2002) was reviewed by Ülo Valk,[8] Sascha Ebeling,[9] and Herman Tieken. Her work was a monographic research on the "Tamil folklore in the Pan-Indian context" and was built on around 50 published collections of Tamil folktales. Valk stated that she provided "several valuable observations" on "dyadic patterns in Tamil folktales, their didactic function and inter-generic connections with songs and proverbs, and conceptualization of the corpus of tales as a polythetic network". Valk suggested that though she was "careful about providing the exact references to the original publications", she did not focus much on "source criticism". She examined a few theories of folktale research and Valk was of the view that her criticism of the contemporary theories was "relatively thin" in comparison to the analytical studies by scholars like Bengt Holbek and Max Lüthi. According to Valk, in future, her research would "probably" be used as a tool for classifying the tales from India which was initiated by Heda Jason, Jonas Balys, Stith Thompson, and Warren E. Roberts.[8]

Ebeling stated that Ferro-Luzzi's research provided a description of "whether and how a particular theme is treated in a Tamil folktale" and also investigated "the interplay of Indian and Western motifs within folktales or motifs which recur in otherwise unconnected tales". According to Ebeling, she criticized the common "tale type approach" and laid stress on the "need to focus on motifs rather than tale types" in an analytical study of folktales. According to Ebeling, her suggested approach for the folktales studies is of assistance in "comparative and cross-cultural studies" of the folktales.[9] Tieken of Leiden's Kern Institute stated that she drew the book's whole material "from existing collections of folktales mainly in Tamil" and she did not "deal with these collections as a phenomenon in itself". He saw her work as translation of excerpts from Hitopadesha in Tamil language, and according to Tieken, the efficacy of her work "for folktale studies is limited".[10]

Ferro-Luzzi's coauthored The Taste of Laughter: Aspects of Tamil Humour (1992) was reviewed by Jawaharlal Nehru University's Sadhana Naithani and Tamil University's Aru Ramanathan and N. Palani.[11] Ramanathan and Palani stated that she explored "multifarious facets" of a village in Tamil Nadu from the aspects of anthropology and literature. She threw light on the village's "cross-cultural and culturally specific" aspects in relation to Ki. Rajanarayanan's works. According to Ramanathan and Palani, she provided insights on "the attitudes of the people toward land, tradition, animals and fellow beings, as well as the ignorance, skepticism, and pragmatism among the people" and was of the view that the people of India "seem to compartmentalize contradictory ideas".[11] Naithani stated that her work was "largely descriptive, with few insights into the aspects of Tamil humor".[12]

According to Laura E. Little, Ferro-Luzzi stressed that though incongruity appears very often in humor, it's not a requisite for humor. Little stated that her work presented the "most prominent challenge to incongruity's essential role in the humor process" and "humor scholars" take it "very seriously", however, they note that her research was "insufficiently theorized and insufficiently supported by examples". For example, Elliott Oring stated that her anatomization of jokes was "incomplete" and the examples provided by her were "questionable".[13]

Works

Books

Some of the books authored by Ferro-Luzzi are as follows:

Selected papers

Notes and References

  1. Book: Jeffrey A. . McNeely . Paul Spencer . Sochaczewski . Paul Spencer Sochaczewski . illustrated, reprint, revised . Soul of the Tiger: Searching for Nature's Answers in Southeast Asia . 1995 . 73 . . Honolulu, USA . 978-0824816698 . 94045557 . 299810414 . Italian anthropologist Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi points out that the snake in India has ambivalent male/female associations..
  2. Gabriella Eichinger . Ferro-Luzzi . Anthropos . 76 . 5./6 . 1981 . 707–742 . Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH . Abhiṣeka, the Indian Rite That Defies Definition . 40460388 . free.
  3. Book: Lā. Ca Rāmāmirutam . La Sa Ra . Padma Narayanan . The Stone Laughs: Atonement : Two Novellas . Bio Notes . 2005 . Katha . New Delhi . 978-8187649724 . 2006554585 . 608125436 . Dr Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi is a renowned Dravidologist. She was born in Germany and studied European languages at the University of Mainz. Her doctorate in the field of Anthropology is from the University of Rome. She has had repeated periods of fieldwork in India since 1971, especially in Tamil Nadu..
  4. PhD . Heinz . Scheifinger . September 2006 . 15 . . Warwickshire, England . Hinduism and the Internet: a Sociological Study . August 3, 2020 . Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, on the other hand, argues that Hinduism displays unity within diversity..
  5. Web site: List of participants . . August 3, 2020.
  6. Book: Annali . Annals . 56 . Pubblicazioni dell'Istituto universitario orientale di Napoli . 1996 . 225 . Dipartimento di studi asiatici, Istituto universitario orientale . Dipartimento di studi e ricerche su Africa e Paesi Arabi, Istituto universitario orientale . Seminario di studi africani, Istituto universitario orientale . Edizione universitarie . Naples, Italy . This and the following legends have been transcribed and translated for me by my colleague in the Istituto Universitario Orientale (Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici) Professor Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, whom I thank..
  7. Book: Berger, Peter . Feeding, Sharing, and Devouring Ritual and Society in Highland Odisha, India . Religion and Society, Volume 59 . Food and Society . 17 February 2015 . . Boston, USA . Jennifer R. . Ottman . 978-1614519751 . 2014031455 . 908079627.
  8. Ülo . Valk . Peter . Knecht . Benjamin . Dorman . Hashimoto . Hiroyuki . Scott . Schnell . . 62 . 2, Topics in Japanese Folklore Studies . 2003 . 352–354 . . Japan . Reviewed Work: The Maze of Fantasy in Tamil Folktales by Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi Gabriella . 30030304 . free.
  9. Sascha . Ebeling . . 155 . 2 . 2005 . 673–674 . Harrassowitz Verlag . Reviewed Work: The Maze of Fantasy in Tamil Folktales by Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi . 43382150 . free . 0341-0137.
  10. Herman . Tieken . Oskar . von Hinüber . H. T. . Bakker . Stephanie W. . Jamison . Michael . Witzel . A. . Yuyama . Oskar von Hinüber . Hans T. Bakker . Stephanie W. Jamison . Michael Witzel . 4 . Indo-Iranian Journal . 47 . 1 . 2004 . 68–69 . . Reviewed Work: The Maze of Fantasy in Tamil Folk Tales by Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi . 10.1023/B:INDO.0000024463.97905.35 . 24663586 . free . 162265044 . 0019-7246.
  11. Web site: Aru . Ramanathan . N. . Palani . Review of: Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, Glimpses of the Indian village in anthropology and literature . . Japan . August 15, 2020.
  12. . 57 . 1 . Sadhana . Naithani . Review of: Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, The Taste of Laughter: Aspects of Tamil Humour . August 15, 2020.
  13. Web site: . Just a Joke: Defamatory Humor and Incongruity's Promise . 106 . Laura E. . Little . Los Angeles, California.

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