The Innocence and Natural Liberty of Morlacchia: European Identity, Enlightened Anthropology and the Ambivalent Significance of Gender among Noble Savages

Abstract

This article considers the anthropological study, published in 1774 by Alberto Fortis, concerning the pastoral mountain people of Venetian Dalmatia, known as Morlacchi. Fortis analyzed their customs with reference to the Enlightenment's standard of civilization, and issues of gender were fundamental for his anthropological appreciation of their social relations. Fortis's account of the Morlacchi was important for the origins of the modern anthropological perspective in the age of Enlightenment, and also for the modern formulation of the difference between Western Europe and Eastern Europe.