Unit FUNDAMENTALS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
- Course
- Cultural heritage
- Study-unit Code
- A000908
- Curriculum
- In all curricula
- Teacher
- Pietro Meloni
- Teachers
-
- Pietro Meloni
- Hours
- 36 ore - Pietro Meloni
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2022
- Offered
- 2022/23
- Learning activities
- Base
- Area
- Discipline geografiche e antropologiche
- Academic discipline
- M-DEA/01
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- italian
- Contents
- In the first part of the course, the theoretical foundations and the main concepts of the discipline, with brief notes on the history of Anthropology – as well as classic and contemporary ethnographic cases – will be illustrated. In the second part, referring to the key concepts of the scientific debate, we will try to reflect – opening the discussion in the classroom – on complex issues such as: culture, economy, religion, family, gender, tradition, transmission of knowledge, heritage. In the third part attention will be paid to studies on everyday life and material culture.
- Reference texts
- 1. Fabietti U. 2015. Elementi di antropologia culturale. Milano: Mondadori. Terza edizione.
2. Meloni P., 2018. Antropologia del consumo. Doni, merci, simboli. Roma: Carocci. - Educational objectives
- The main knowledge that students will acquire will be:
- Critical analysis of social and cultural phenomena
- The “view from afar” and the “view from near”
- Methodologies of anthropological research
- Knowledge of the cultural and political uses of heritage, time and identities
The main skills that allow to apply the acquired knowledge will be:
- Ability to deconstruct common sense
- ability in data analysis and reporting research results
- ethnographic writing - Prerequisites
- none
- Teaching methods
- The course is organized as follows:
- Frontal lesson
- Discussion groups
- Meetings with scholars - Other information
- .
- Learning verification modality
- oral verification and/or test
- Extended program
- In the first part of the course, the theoretical foundations and the main concepts of the discipline, with brief notes on the history of Anthropology – as well as classic and contemporary ethnographic cases – will be illustrated.
Specifically we will address the following topics:
- Introduction to the anthropological perspective
- cultural anthropology in the frame of human sciences
- Origins of Anthropology
- The anthropological definition of the “concept of culture”.
In the second part, referring to the key concepts of the scientific debate, we will try to reflect – opening the discussion in the classroom – on complex issues such as: culture, economy, religion, family, gender, tradition, transmission of knowledge, heritage.
Specifically we will address the following topics:
- The construction of “race” concept.
- The deconstruction of the concept of “race”.
- The notion of relativity: questions of method and ethics.
- The concept of culture: definitions and etymology. Essentialist conceptions and processual conceptions. Some anthropological definitions of the concept of culture.
- The relational notion of “identity”: “us” and “them”.
- New forms of separation. Forms of racism. Institutional racisms. Cultural relativism and ethnocentrism. Critical ethnocentrism.
- “Biological” and “socio-cultural”: gender, gender and sexuality. Family-families. Contextualization of the family concept.
In the third part attention will be paid to studies on everyday life and material culture.
Specifically we will address the following topics:
- home cultures
- theory of gift
- material culture
- memory