Unit FUNDAMENTALS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
- Course
- Foreign languages and cultures
- Study-unit Code
- A000908
- Curriculum
- In all curricula
- Teacher
- Massimiliano Minelli
- Teachers
-
- Massimiliano Minelli
- Hours
- 36 ore - Massimiliano Minelli
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2022
- Offered
- 2023/24
- Learning activities
- Base
- Area
- Discipline storiche, geografiche e socio-antropologiche
- Academic discipline
- M-DEA/01
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- italian
- Contents
- In the first part. the course offers an introduction to the basic concepts, objects of study and working methods of cultural anthropology.
After introducing and defining the conceptual tools (culture, society, otherness and difference, inculturation, acculturation, habitus, practices), and in parallel with their critical discussion, the course turns its attention to the objects of study and the dialogic contexts in which anthropological knowledge is built during the fieldwork. To this end, favoring an ethnographic, critical and reflective approach, some important issues are examined for working in the field of cultural production and the promotion of tangible and intangible heritage.
In the second part, the course draws a reference framework on some research areas in the demo-ethno-anthropological sciences in the contemporary world, with particular attention to economic systems, social structures and institutions, forms of exchange and reciprocity.
In the third part, the subject of a monographic study is the relationship between "patrimonial things" and "social action", paying particular attention to devotional scenes and festive rituals. With regards to the definition and uses of anthropological heritage, some concrete examples are examined in order to explore the relationship between patrimonial action, locality construction and cultural policies. Through case studies, some theoretical-methodological coordinates are provided, for analyzing and interpreting both contemporary patrimonial policies and the actors’ agency and exchanges within the ritual scene and during popular festival.
During the lessons, discussions between the participants are encouraged, also using audiovisual documentation materials. - Reference texts
- 1. Fabietti U. 2015. Elementi di antropologia culturale. Milano: Mondadori. Terza edizione.
2. Ingold T. 2020. Antropologia. Ripensare il mondo. Roma: Meltemi. - Educational objectives
- The course aims to provide students with the anthropological skills necessary to operate with an interdisciplinary approach in the ideation process and in participatory design and planning. ¿The main knowledge (Dublin Descriptor 1) acquired will be:
¿• knowledge of the theoretical foundations of the social and culturale anthropology;¿
• knowledge of the theoretical foundations, methodological tools and techniques for the interpretation of socio-cultural processes;
¿• knowledge of the theoretical foundations of the relationship between material and immaterial dimensions of cultural heritage;
¿• knowledge of the tools, techniques and methods for the ethnographic description and anthropological interpretation.¿
The main skills acquired (ability to apply the knowledge acquired, Dublin Descriptor 2, and to adopt the appropriate approach with autonomy of judgment, Dublin Descriptor 3) will be:
¿• ability to choose, use and combine methods, techniques and tools of socio-cultural analysis concerning the different phases of the design activity;¿
• ability to choose, use and combine methods, techniques and tools of socio-cultural analysis and communication concerning cultural heritage;¿
• ability to formulate the research problem and to adopt effective and innovative methodological choices to follow the participatory process of ideation and realization;¿
• ability to interpret and use the results of ethnographic research in order to encourage discussion and sustain social exchange in the creative process. - Prerequisites
- none
- Teaching methods
- The course is divided into theoretical, group discussion and practical lessons.
- Other information
- .
- Learning verification modality
- The exam will consist of a 60-minute written test covering the course topics and the two reference books. The test will have 27 multiple-choice questions and 2 open-ended questions.
- Extended program
- In the first part. the course offers an introduction to the basic concepts, objects of study and working methods of cultural anthropology.
After introducing and defining the conceptual tools (culture, society, otherness and difference, inculturation, acculturation, habitus, practices), and in parallel with their critical discussion, the course turns its attention to the objects of study and the dialogic contexts in which anthropological knowledge is built during the fieldwork. To this end, favoring an ethnographic, critical and reflective approach, some important issues are examined for working in the field of cultural production and the promotion of tangible and intangible heritage.
In the second part, the course draws a reference framework on some research areas in the demo-ethno-anthropological sciences in the contemporary world, with particular attention to economic systems, social structures and institutions, forms of exchange and reciprocity.
In the third part, the subject of a monographic study is the relationship between "patrimonial things" and "social action", paying particular attention to devotional scenes and festive rituals. With regards to the definition and uses of anthropological heritage, some concrete examples are examined in order to explore the relationship between patrimonial action, locality construction and cultural policies. Through case studies, some theoretical-methodological coordinates are provided, for analyzing and interpreting both contemporary patrimonial policies and the actors’ agency and exchanges within the ritual scene and during popular festival.
During the lessons, discussions between the participants are encouraged, also using audiovisual documentation materials.
Concepts, objects, methods
- Cultural anthropology in the panorama of the human sciences / historical features: foundation, development and consolidation of anthropology.
- Holistic and comparative approaches to the study of cultural differences / the relationship between biological and social in the human condition / deconstruction of the concept of "race" / institutional racism
- "Culture": social origins and genealogy of the scientific concept / universalist conception and particularist conception of culture / culture as a specific moment of the social totality / essentialist and processual approaches to culture: agents, practices and discourses.
- Ethnography as a "theoretical practice": the anthropological gaze and the decentralization of the point of view / "fieldwork" and participant observation / ethnographic interpretation and writing.
- Society and social systems / institution / status and role / social hierarchies and dynamics of cultural circulation / social organization and power.
- Outlines of an anthropology of practices: structures, habitus and social action.
- Forms of reciprocity / exchange / gift.
- Anthropology of the body / techniques of the body / processes of embodiment.
- Sex and gender / life cycle / rites of passage / birth and death / actors of healing.
- Identity, otherness and difference / ethnocentrism and cultural relativism / cultural transmission and change / inculturation / acculturation.
- The structural dimensions of migratory processes / migration as a historical phenomenon and as a "total social fact" / "right to health", social-health services and intercultural process.
- Cultural policies / patrimonial action / construction of the locality. - Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile
- 4,5,10,11,13