Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

The course will be easier to follow for students who already possess some previous knowledge of socio-cultural anthropology. However, this is no absolute requirement as this module is designed to be essentially self-contained and will offer a few introductory lectures on selected anthropological concepts and theoretical perspectives of special relevance to the topics dealt with in the course.

• The course is part of the Middle East and North Africa - MENA Politics programme. By presenting students with relevant ethnographic materials and introducing them to methodologies that are distinctive of socio-cultural anthropology it broadens the range of interdisciplinary knowledge and skills offered by this programme.
• More specifically, through a combination of lectures and seminars its aim is to furnish conceptual tools and interpretative perspectives by examining the theoretical approaches and the debates that have characterized the anthropological study of the Mediterranean area. Starting from the problem of the unity or diversity of Mediterranean societies, the course will raise the student's awareness of the complex interconnections between cultural similarities and differences and of the multiple discourses on the Mediterranean - in terms of geo-politics, identity or common sense - currently proposed by different social actors.

• The first half of the course will mainly consist of lectures aimed at providing students with critical knowledge of the historical process through which different social and human sciences have contributed to the emergence of a definition of the Mediterranean region within the framework of power relations between countries on the northern and southern shores.
• The second half of the course will partly consist of seminars where students will analyze and discuss such central topics in the anthropological study of the Mediterranean as honour/shame, family forms, religious pluralism and migration, thus furthering their ability to draw on different theoretical perspectives and methods and to establish connections between ethnographic contexts and time periods. In this way the course promotes the development of the students' ethnological competences while strengthening both their interpretative and communicative skills.

Structure of the course

The course will consist of two parts for a total of 54 hours spread over about 9 weeks:

- the first part (36 hours / 6 weeks) will consist of a few introductory lectures on selected basic concepts and theoretical perspectives from socio-cultural anthropology that are especially relevant to the topics addressed in the course, followed by lectures that will examine central topics in the anthropological debate on Mediterranean societies (unity and/or diversity of the area, the "scientific construction" of the Mediterranean, the cultural syndrome of honour and shame, household structures and kinship relations, cosmopolitism and religious pluralism, migrations, the representations of the Mediterranean);

- the second part (18 hours / 3 weeks) will mainly consist of seminars where texts of special significance will be read and discussed by the whole class and seminars where students (organized in work groups) will present the results of researches carried out in the previous weeks.

 Attendance requirements

- lle/students of International sciences (and other students needing 9 credits) are expected to attend all three parts of the course;

- students of Cultural anthropology and ethnology (and other students needing 6 credits) are expected to attend only the lectures in weeks 2-7.

NB: all students needing 6 credits but lacking basic anthropological knowledge are advised to attend the introductory lectures given in the first week of the course.

• Mainly whole class teaching, but seminar-like meetings will also held entailing greater involvement by students through the reading and analysis of texts and other materials in order to promote group discussion.
• In the final part of the course students (organized into work groups) will present the results of researches on selected topics carried out in the previous weeks. Suggestions will be made by the teachers about the texts to be read and presented, but each group will organize autonomously its work (how to structure the presentation, which kind of technical support to utilize, which texts to read in addition to the ones suggested by the teachers, which audio and video material to use etc.): this will favour the acquisition and development of organizational and relational skills.
• Whole class teaching. Lectures are expected to be delivered face-to-face, but they will be made accessible via streaming during regular class hours. (Changes in teaching methodology might be imposed by dispositions issued by health authorities.)

The exam will be oral. The aim is on the one hand to ascertain that the technical and methodological  knowledge provided by the lectures has been successfully acquired and that the texts suggested for the exam have been properly understood, and on the  other to gauge the student's interpretive abilities as applied to specific cases or topics, possibly starting from the student's experience.

Introductory volume for all students:  D. Albera, A. Blok & C. Bromberger (eds.), L'anthropologie de la Méditerranée/The Anthropology of the Mediterranean, Paris, Maisonneuve et Larose, 2001.

Students taking part in the lectures and related learning activities will be given further indications about the exam programme during the course. Teaching and learning materials concerning the lectures (given face-to-face and online) as well as all communications about lectures and exam programmes will be made available on Moodle.

Students unable to attend the course will choose three of the following monographs if they need 9 credits, only two if they need 6 credits:

• L. Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments. Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2016 [1986].
• D. Albera & M. Couroucli (eds.), Sharing Sacred Spaces in the Mediterranean: Christians, Muslims, and Jews at Shrines and Sanctuaries, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2012 [French original: Religions traversées. Lieux saints partagés entre chrétiens, musulmans et juifs en Méditerranée, Arles, Actes sud, 2009].
• J. Anderlini e E. Fravega (eds.), Crocevia mediterraneo, Milan, Eleuthera, 2023.
• E. Banfield, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society, New York, Free Press, 1958.
• N. Ben-Yehoyada, The Mediterranean Incarnate. Region Formation between Sicily and Tunisia since World War II, Chicago & London, The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
• N. Ben-Yehoyada & P. Siverstein (eds.), The Mediterranean Redux. Ethnography, Theory, Politics, New York, Routledge, 2022.
• F. Cassano & D. Zolo (eds.), L'alternativa mediterranea, Milano, Feltrinelli 2007 (only these chapters: D. Zolo, La questione mediterranea; F. Cassano, Necessità del Mediterraneo; S. Latouche, La voce e le vie di un mare dilaniato).
• L. Ciabarri, L'imbroglio mediterraneo. Le migrazioni via mare e le politiche della frontiera, Milano, Raffaello Cortina, 2020.
• J. A. Clancy-Smith, Mediterraneans. North Africa and Europe in an Age of Migration, c. 1800-1900, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2011.
• E. de Martino, 1959, Sud e magia, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1959 [French trans.: Italie du Sud et magie, Paris, Gallimard, 1963; English trans.: Magic: A Theory from the South, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2015].
• E. de Martino, La terra del rimorso. Contributo a una storia religiosa del Sud, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 1961 [French trans.: La terre du remords, Paris, Gallimard, 1966; English trans: The Land of Remorse: A Study of Southern Italian Tarantism, London, Free Association Books, 2005].
• L. Ferrero, Protagoniste in secondo piano. Femminilità egiziane tra mobilità e immobilità, Roma, CISU 2018.
• P. Horden & S. Kinoshita (eds.), A Companion to Mediterranean History, Oxford, Wiley Blackwell, 2014 (only these chapters: P. Horden, Introduction; N. Ben-Yehoyada, Mediterranean Modernity?;  M. Herzfeld, Po-Mo Med; P. Sacchi & P.P. Viazzo, Family and Household).

This course is intended primarily for students of International sciences and Cultural anthropology and ethnology, but all students from other second-level degree courses are welcome.

International and Erasmus students may prepare for examinations and take them in English or French.