The recording of the meeting with Barbara Crescimanno is now available.
What does the drum really say when it is in the hands of women?
It is a question that spans millennia of history and takes us far beyond music, towards ritual, the body, memory, and the forms of the sacred feminine.
It is now available on the website of Prehistory in Italy the recording of the meeting "Women Playing Drums. From Prehistory to the Present", held by Barbara Crescimanno, researcher, musician, teacher and founding member of our association.
The meeting, attended with great participation and interest, offers a journey that intertwines archaeology, ethnomusicology, and anthropology, demonstrating how the act of beating a drum has accompanied, in many cultures and at different times, ritual practices, collective celebrations, and forms of transmission of female memory.
Barbara Crescimanno teaches at the School of Traditional Music and Dance Arch Round Table, collaborates with the Chair of Ethnomusicology at the University of Palermo, coordinates the ethnochoreutic research group TrizziRiDonna and has been conducting an original research path for years dedicated to the relationship between music and the sacred feminine.
Alongside his research activity, he creates narrative theatre performances, training courses in dance, vocals and percussion and coordinates the two-year CHORÓS – Dances, Voices, and Rhythms of Southern ItalyIn 2019 he created the conference The sacred in the feminine. Figures and ritual forms in the Mediterranean area between memory and contemporaneity and is developing the WebMaps Goddesses and Nymphs of Sicily e The Tarantella Area, projects that bring cultural heritage, territory and research into dialogue.
During the meeting, we discovered how prehistoric depictions, archaeological evidence, and still-living popular traditions can be interpreted as parts of a long cultural history that spans the Mediterranean and reaches to the present day.
The breadth of topics covered and the numerous questions from the audience made it clear that the topic deserves further exploration.
That's why we are happy to announce that Barbara Crescimanno will return with a second meeting in autumn 2026, dedicated to continuing this fascinating research path, exploring new materials, new testimonies and new connections between the prehistoric world and contemporary traditions.
We therefore invite you to see (or review) this conference, which represents a valuable piece of the research and dissemination work that Prehistory in Italy It is working to build an interdisciplinary perspective on prehistory, capable of establishing a dialogue between archaeology, anthropology, the history of religions, and ethnomusicology.
