Time-Tested: Aphrodisiacs and Love Culture in Southern Italy

Abstract

In this article, in the context of the folk culture of Southern Italy, the set of traditional aphrodisiacs, which are still in demand today, is investigated. Given the low degree of study of this topic in scientific discourse, the author makes extensive use of field materials and in the paradigm of anthropology analyzes not only aphrodisiacs, rational and magical, as a phenomenon (their nature, typology, functions, gender assignment), revealing their rare forms (for example, traditional olfactory, sonorous, verbal, visual, “actor” psychostimulants), but also the nature of the community using them. In the context of the analysis of aphrodisiacs, special attention is paid to the mechanism of their action, due to the type of mentality of the population of Southern Italy, as well as to the peculiarities (historical, cultural, social, gender, ideological) of the region under study.