Andrea De Jorio (1769–1851) was an Italian

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

who is remembered today among

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

s as the first ethnographer of

body language Body language is a type of communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. Th ...

, in his work ''La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano'', 1832 ("The

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of the Ancients investigated through Neapolitan gesture"). The work has been mined, refined and criticized. Born on the island of

Procida Procida (; nap, Proceta ) is one of the Flegrean Islands off the coast of Naples in southern Italy. The island is between Cape Miseno and the island of Ischia. With its tiny satellite island of Vivara, it is a ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City ...

in the

Gulf of Naples The Gulf of Naples (), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9.3 mi) gulf located along the south-western coast of Italy (province of Naples, Campania region). It opens to the west into the Mediterranean Sea. It i ...

, De Jorio became a

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at the Cathedral of Naples, a respected

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

under the pre-modern conditions of his times, and a curator at the predecessor to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. He wrote extensively about the then-recent excavations of

classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

near Naples, such as

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...

Herculaneum Herculaneum (; Neapolitan and it, Ercolano) was an ancient town, located in the modern-day ''comune'' of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Like the nea ...

, and

Cumae Cumae ( grc, Κύμη, (Kumē) or or ; it, Cuma) was the first ancient Greek colony on the mainland of Italy, founded by settlers from Euboea in the 8th century BC and soon becoming one of the strongest colonies. It later became a rich Ro ...

. His recognition in the frescos of

and

provided him with his insight, that the gestures depicted were familiar to him in the streets of modern

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. The book stressed the continuity from Classical times to the present by showing the similarity between hand gestures depicted on ancient Greek vases found near Naples and the gestures of modern Neapolitans. "Its doubtful premise of a time-honored continuity" in culture has retreated to the confines of sentimental writings on

Neapolitan cuisine Neapolitan cuisine has ancient historical roots that date back to the Greco-Roman period, which was enriched over the centuries by the influence of the different cultures that controlled Naples and its kingdoms, such as that of Aragon and France ...

, but De Jorio was among the first ethnographers to venture into the field, producing the first scholarly investigation of Neapolitan hand gestures; it remains the source literature for more recent treatments of the topic, both scholarly and popular. The volume has been reprinted three times photostatically in Italian in recent years—1964, 1979, and 2002—and recently (2000) in a scholarly and annotated English translation by Adam Kendon as ''Andrea de Jorio: Gesture in Naples and Gesture in Classical Antiquity'' (Indiana University Press, 2000).The English translation was well received, both of which praise the original as well as the erudite translation, which includes an 80-page essay/introduction. a review is "The Neapolitan Finger" by Joan Acocella in ''The New York Review of Books'' (2000) and in ''Sign Language Studies'', a journal published by Gallaudet University in 2002. The other review is by Giovanna Ceserani of Princeton University; it appeared in the ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'' in 2003; it was also extensively reviewed by Herman Roodenburg for ''Semiotica'' no. 144 (2006) pp. 443–445.

Notes

1769 births 1851 deaths 18th-century Neapolitan people Italian archaeologists Italian ethnographers 19th-century Neapolitan people {{ethnographer-stub