Ippolito Desideri: Anthropologist of Modernity

Claude Lévi-Strauss wrote that "from the scientific point of view, missionaries gathered everything that was worth preserving" of the Otherness—and about the Otherness—that they encountered. This is a valid reason to reassess the missionaries' legacy as the first anthropologists of modernity, from the objective and historical point of view no less than from a subjective and existential perspective. In this regard, Desideri's scientific and human experience is almost paradigmatic. Anthropologists seek to comprehend Otherness objectively bringing into conversation the cultural assumptions of one's own culture, which are often viewed as universal, and those of other civilizations, bringing back to the West—often unwittingly—values and behavioral models that are unknown and would otherwise be virtually unthinkable. As far as this is possible, they strive to find shared principles and common assumptions, despite the resulting challenges for theological and philosophical reflection; often, however, they cannot go beyond a mere practical co-existence in the sphere of everyday life. Subjectively, anthropologists embody a "crisis of presence," both physically dangerous and spiritually devastating, through a journey into the unexplored world of life and thought encompassing the adventurous and fascinating movement toward the new culture, as well as the paradoxically much harsher and disturbing return journey. In Desideri's mission, this anthropological experience is also permeated by a Christian hope for salvation that is left behind amidst the "sad tropics" of life and thought.