Unit CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
- Course
- Philosophy and ethics of relationships
- Study-unit Code
- 35080606
- Curriculum
- Didattico
- Teacher
- Elisa Rondini
- Teachers
-
- Elisa Rondini
- Hours
- 36 ore - Elisa Rondini
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2022
- Offered
- 2023/24
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Discipline classiche, storiche, antropologiche e politico-sociali
- Academic discipline
- M-DEA/01
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- The first part of the course will be dedicated to the presentation of the discipline, with particular reference to the salient moments of its development, the main theoretical orientations, the basic concepts and working methods. An introduction to the fundamental notions of anthropology (culture, identity and cultural relativism, enculturation, acculturation, habitus, practices) will provide the key to understanding some key concepts of the scientific debate (social organisation, economic forms and power relations, kinship and forms of family life, gender and body, health and illness, religion and spirituality, tradition, heritage) and their social dimensions.
The second part of the course intends to propose an area of in-depth analysis and reflection relating to "field research", examined both in its practical-technical aspects and in its specific epistemological dimensions. In particular, the following aspects will be explored in depth: the relationship between observer and observed, the multiplicity of field experience, ethnographic documentation techniques and forms of textualization. Furthermore, some ethnographic research experiences on various themes will be presented and discussed, with particular reference to the scholastic and educational worlds; this in order to reflect on the role of anthropology and the potential of its methods of investigation to grasp the relevant connections between learning processes and the environmental, social, institutional and organizational contexts in which they are located. - Reference texts
- Kottak, C. P. (2012), Antropologia culturale, McGraw-Hill Education, New York (Edizione italiana a cura di L. Bonato) [parte prima e seconda, corrispondenti ai capitoli da 1 a 13]
Lettura di un testo a scelta tra:
Abu-Lughod, L. (2022 [1986]), Sentimenti velati. Onore e poesia in una società beduina, Rosenberg & Sellier, Torino.
De Martino, E. (2015 [1961]), La terra del rimorso. Contributo a una storia religiosa del Sud, Il Saggiatore, Milano
Griaule, M. (2002 [1948]), Dio d’acqua. Incontri con Ogotemmêli, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (2015 [1955]), Tristi tropici, Il Saggiatore, Milano.
Mead, M. (2007 [1928]), L’adolescenza in Samoa, Giunti Editore, Firenze.
Pritchard, E. E. (2016 [1940]), I Nuer: un’anarchia ordinata, Franco Angeli, Milano.
Sclavi, M. (2005), A una spanna da terra. Una giornata di scuola negli Stati Uniti e in Italia e i fondamenti di una metodologia umoristica, Mondadori, Milano.
Wacquant, L. (2022 [2007]), Anima e corpo. La fabbrica dei pugili nel ghetto nero Americano, DeriveApprodi, Bologna. - Educational objectives
- The course aims to convey to students knowledge relating to the history and theoretical foundations of the discipline, the conceptual tools and research methods used.
The student will have to know the main theoretical currents of cultural anthropology and its basic notions, as well as knowing how to communicate them in an appropriate anthropological language, showing skills of analysis, synthesis, argumentation and interdisciplinary connection. They will also be able to apply anthropological knowledge and the ethnographic approach in an autonomous and critical manner in their professional practice, centered on relationships, with particular regard to the interpretation of the cultural, and specifically intercultural, dimension of social, educational and institutional ties, and the corresponding social and historical processes. - Prerequisites
- No
- Teaching methods
- The lessons will be frontal, with a strong interactive component. They will take place with the aid of various types of documentary material (photographic, audiovideo) and IT media (Powerpoint slides). In-depth seminars are also planned starting from readings, photographs and films presented in the classroom.
- Other information
- No
- Learning verification modality
- The final exam includes a test with multiple choice questions and an oral test on the topics covered during the lessons and explored in depth through the recommended texts. The interview will take place immediately after the written test. The evaluation criteria of the test will consist in verifying the knowledge acquired, the ability to transfer and critically apply it to real contexts, and the acquisition of linguistic skills relating to the disciplinary field.
- Extended program
- Specifically, the following topics will be addressed during the course:
- cultural anthropology: historical features, schools and currents of thought (4 hours);
- holistic and comparative approaches in the study of cultural differences, relationship between biological and social, deconstruction of the concept of "race" (2 hours);
- “culture”: social origins and evolution of the concept, universalist conception and particularist conception of culture, essentialist and procedural approaches (2 hours);
-identity, otherness and difference, ethnocentrism and cultural relativism, inculturation, acculturation, habitus and practices (2 hours);
- society and social systems, status and role, social organization and power relations (2 hours);
-forms of exchange and distribution: reciprocity, gift, redistribution (2 hours);
-gender: sex and gender, models, roles and stereotypes (2 hours);
-kinship and descent: forms of family life, family and descent, degrees and terminology of kinship (2 hours);
-religion and spirituality: animism and totemism, myth and ritual, rites of passage (2 hours);
-the body: body techniques, incorporation processes, cultural representations of health and illness (2 hours);
-popular traditions, folklore, heritage and patrimonial policies (2 hours);
-globalization and mobility processes, migratory flows, intercultural mediation (2 hours);
- ethnographic practice: relationship between observer and observed and "participant observation", multiplicity of field experience (sensory, emotional, ethical dimensions), investigation tools (writing, audio, photography, video ), ethnographic documentation techniques (diary, interviews, life stories) and forms of textualization (diary, articles and monographs) (10 hours). - Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile