The Taranto: adorcismo local folklore or mass? Alchemy A patron of St. Paul Galatina (a town of Salento), is linked to a very special tradition and unique: the phenomenon of Taranto "disease" caused by the bite of the Tarantula or Taranta; which is a poisonous spider whose bite is taken from the word "pinch" that is our music par excellence. The legend of the cult of Paul Galatina, stage one of his long journeys for evangelization, it is linked to the miracle of water and the bite of venomous tarantulas. It is said that, now in Galatina, was hosted by a pious Galatina at home, then called the House of St. Paul. " The apostle, in gratitude for their hospitality, said the man and his descendants the power to heal those who were bitten by poisonous animals would have been sufficient to draw the sign of the cross on the wound and to drink water from the Well that was in the house. Also, be granted to the inhabitants of Galatina immunity from snake venom and the bite any other animal pest.
spiders that can produce toxic effects on man, here we are two: the Lycosa tarentula, fast and aggressive, the venom acts locally and provides reactions very unobtrusive, and Latrodectus tridecim guttatus; slower and static who lives hidden and waits for its prey gets entangled in the web: its bite can cause serious and painful effects general, to a stiffening of the body, lasting several days.
The "tarantate" (they were almost exclusively women who are affected by this phenomenon) shortly after being bitten by one of these spiders, fell into a state of depression and inertia, which torpor only awoke to the sound of music marked by the rhythm of the tambourine Lecce (which is played with a special technique, giving the rate of basis, with the percussion, and an ordered chaos, with bells), which forced her to perform a dance in the middle of frenetic and obsessive "Ronda" (a circle of musicians, which was given the magical power to heal any hurt those who danced to it). To get rid of the poison and heal the bite, it was necessary to mimic the dance of the tarantula in a cycle choral musical - well defined, identify with it and force her to dance up to tire and her death. He then performed what is considered a full-blown exorcism, there were just groups of musicians, known as "therapeutic orchestras, whose job was to play the" pinch tarantata "music by which the tarantate awoke from their slumber. Equipped with tambourines, violins and flutes, the musician turned to the farms to recover the victims from possession of a spider. These, under the influence of the poisonous bite of the tarantula, were nothing short of shocking things: it slips between the rungs of the stairs, passed from under the chair, climbed on the walls, writhing in incredible locations, even their voices changed. The musicians then began to practice exorcism: began to give voice to the instruments, and the rhythmic sound of the drum, the tarantata began to move and to dance wildly. It is generally accepted that the tarantata gets the character of the animal that has bitten: "There are so tarante Canterine dancers and are sensitive to music, singing and dancing, and there are also sad and mute tarante requiring funeral dirges and more melancholy songs, there are also stormy tarante that induce their victims to make extermination, or libertine that challenge us to mimic lewd behavior, and finally tarante dormant, resistant to any musical treatment. The symbol of the tarantula lends shape information, rhythm and melody to the ominous silence, color all'incolore, in a constant search for articulating passions and distinct, where there is no horizon alternating agitation and depression that island and close "(See E. De Martino, The Land of remorse, 1959). It was for the musicians understand what kind of treatment required the tarantata concerned. They often found themselves having to cope with almost demonic possessions, (whose victims were aggressive and hysterical) and had to struggle hard to complete the ritual exorcism could last several hours! Not surprisingly, one of the distinctive signals of a player therapeutic drum were the bloodstains on his French horn and frantically ringing for hours, they got great wounds on his hands, and these spots were considered the pride of the tambourine, it meant that they had managed, through their music and their art, to free a woman possessed by evil spiders. The pinched, then, was identified with the spider itself, and danced until it slumps to the ground, exhausted. Best of all, Taranto were also very sensitive to colors: sometimes attacked people who wore a head of the excited dye, which then is the same color of the spider that had bitten. Being able to identify the color of the hated tarantata was a way to help it heal, so they were used in the rite of colored strips of cloth, called nzacareddhre, rough around the tarantata by his parents; Once you know the color does not sustain the same tape was played and thrown away, and believed it to kill the spider. The other colored cloths tied to the tambourines were played during the ritual. In this way, the victim, exorcised by the music, was freed for a while 'disease, but symptoms such as madness, hysteria, and stiffening of the body is invariably remanifestation early spring. True healing could only take place during Mass - Exorcism of June 29 in Galatina, at the church of St. Paul, dozens of decorated tambourines nzacareddhre (strips of colored cloth) chanted the ritual, the sound of the tarantate they were dancing wildly, rolling and writhing on the ground. According to tradition, the sick you had to drink the miraculous water (the source was walled in 1959 for health reasons) until he vomited into the well, then appeared at the bottom of the snakes who tried to snatch the tarantato, if he could closing the lid of the well could be considered finally healed completely. The relatives in the meantime, the formulas of ritual prayers, such as: "Oremus fideliter ut sit here Galatinae sumpserit tuam aquam et viperae innoxius bites phalange" (Let us pray that those with faith in Galatina drink your water does not receive damage from the bite of the tarantula and Viper). The Church of St. Paul, built near the miraculous well, became so meta for pilgrims from all persons, especially women, who were bitten while working in the fields of poisonous snakes and spiders.
course, is not likely that the snakes appear on the bottom of a well to seize the ill, but there are many stories that describe visions tarantate nothing short of staggering. Some swear they saw St. Paul during their trance, and to be healed only by the merits of a pardon granted to them directly by the saint.
tarantsimo The ritual is an ancient rite, which for centuries has attracted the curiosity of physicians, anthropologists and psychologists. We find a hint in Sertum William Marra of Padua by 1362, which shows the popular tradition for which the tarantula to bite his victims produces a hand. And the undisputed tarantato TARE benefit from hearing a melody in agreement with that of the tarantula. Shortly thereafter, half of '400, Johannes Tinctoris, a leading music theorists, concerned with identifying possible functions of music, among others, to "heal the sick." Even the German philosopher and alchemist H. Cornelius Agrippa's De Occulta Philosophia (1533) in Chapter XXXIV where is "the harmony of music, his strength and his power" shows to know the phenomenon of Taranto: "It is written that those who have been bitten by tarantula fall in Puglia in drowsiness, from which trade in goods that are certain sounds that push them to dance in cadence. " "Hic Genuit nature arachenum nocentissimum animal ..." "Nature has created (in Salento) a very harmful animal, a spider, whose venom is ejected to the sound of flutes and drums," he wrote in 1513 a doctor in a humanist Antonio De Ferrariis his epistle.
Scientifically speaking, the poison flowed from the bite of this spider, which came into circulation, results were strong psycho-motor agitation followed by violent headaches and muscle stiffness that gives rise to seizures.
This rite is been much studied, the best and most detailed study remains to be done E. De Martino in 1959. With a psychologist, a musicologist, a sociologist and a psychiatrist, he analyzed the phenomenon of Taranto from a historical point of view, culture and religion. In this work (which I highly recommend reading) tarantismo De Martino called the "bad culture", taking in moments of therapy, the use of a pattern passed down in communities, excluding real phenomena of spiders, however, very rare. According to the scholar, the tarantismo is (perhaps) a kind of hysteria, a "social evil", linked to the precarious socio - economic conditions of peasant life in the past, the spider's bite is nothing if not a symbol all that is psychic trauma or frustration, economic, social or sexual. Not by chance to be "plucked" were mostly women, marginalized among the marginalized, which throughout the ecstasy the agony of the poison could afford everything, even to mimic embraces in public. For a woman, the tarantula was often the only way out of a neurotic state and social or individual forms of depression and the only way to be integrated into the community. According to De Martino, therefore, the "tarantata" was not bitten by any animal.
But in reality, neither science nor such studies have never been able to provide a concrete answer to the problem, failing to explain the causes or origins of Trantismo, and there are also many examples of "tarantate" leaving the listener speechless. There are other aspects to consider: while acknowledging some validity to the assumption made by De Martino, just remember that it takes more time to review the conduct of some incredible tarantate. How could they pass between the rungs of the stairs, under chairs, climbing walls, if their was just an evil mind? On the contrary, the Taranto presents some of the symptoms that have what are commonly called "possessed" or "possessed." Possible that this and a number of other things can be explained as consequences of mental illness? I think not ... but unfortunately, the phenomenon does not exist anymore today, so the "scientific" explanation is that universally accepted, although many of Salento (including myself) believe that the tarantismo's a bad thing that went well beyond the causes natural. For those not born here with us, it is difficult to hear and understand this mystery, because all are born with Salento feels within himself a number of things, feel they belong to his homeland with all the mystery and myth that surrounds it. Do you think if you try to play the tambourine next to a baby a few months, he was seen moving his hands and feet to the rhythm of the drums!
tarantismo This cult was linked to the icon of the spider because it is the symbol of Mother Earth that emerges with his instincts relentless, with the force of ancient pagan rituals that Christianity has sought to mitigate them back to reason, in the womb of Holy Mother Church (hence the connection with St. Paul). Originally there were then the earth and the tarantula, the tambourine and its primeval music and a repertoire of ancestral memories that each of us carries inside and reappear periodically.
is a fairly large and complicated topic that, for adequate treatment, require musical skills, ethnographic and medical well beyond my skills. However, even though they probably can never shed light on this mystery, it is useful to study it and develop it as far as possible, because part of the culture as a tradition. From a purely historical point of view - chronological tarantismo Pugliese was born in the Middle Ages and remained intensely popular participation and variety of forms mythical rituals until the end of the 700 began its decline in the next century. Today is a phenomenon that has completely disappeared (thankfully live on in our deepest memories), some recent cases date back around the late 50s of the twentieth century.
Probably one day it will be difficult to write the final word on this mystery, but the challenge is open.
