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GAURO COPPOLA, "THEMES AND PROBLEMS OF THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF ALPINE REGIONS"


Unsatisfactory about the state of research on the Italian alps is less the number of studies than certain methodical approaches, an exaggerated fragmentation and sectoral gaps in research. A geo-anthropological approach often overstresses the self-sufficiency and conservatism of the alpine regions. Of interest, however, are the most recent studies of communal statutes and feudal interrelations among towns, communities, estates and regional states. Agrarian history has thus far devoted itself more to the valley regions than to the mountain zones and their cattle-raising. The - unequally explored - trading, craftsmen and commercial sector is to be seen in close connection with agriculture. Historical demography is still in its earliest stage. On the whole the supposed peculiarity of the mountain region is to be approached with caution: The “alpine civilization” can only be understood when the conditions of relations and exchanges it was involved in are taken into account.


LUIGI ZANZI, "TOWARDS AN ECOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE ALPS"


In order to understand the situation of alpine historical research it is useful taking a look at the history of historical treatises. The, at various times, fashionable avant-garde subjects have brought about consequent new interests in alpine research. This holds true for economic history, taking in anthropological and political institutional studies and ending up with ecological history. Despite this dependence on the changing interests of the science some progress can also be observed: the Alps are more and more being considered as a region with an identity of its own, the investigation of which calls for particular approaches and concepts. From this point of view the history of the environment is of special importance. It should not be tackled in the traditional manner, but should take into account natural events, and look upon nature as a leading figure in alpine history.

88 HISTOIRE DES ALPES - STORIA DELLE ALPI - GESCHICHTE DER ALPEN 1996/1