Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

According to the learning objective of the Master in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, aimed at providing a basic preparation in the anthropological discipline and its main thematic fields, the course Fields of Anthropology and Methodologies of Ethnographic Research offers, in the first part, a general overview of more relevant issues by illustrating the theoretical foundations of Anthropology and its historical development. The notion of culture, personhood identity, the "belief" issue, the debate on "modernity of witchcraft", the concept of "fetish" and ritual will receive particular emphasis. The second axe will explore “colonial situation” and its legacy, as well as the "coloniality"; the anthropology of migration and the politics of citizenship; the "Ontological Turn" and the perspectivism; and so on). The aim is to develop the students' critical awareness and autonomy of judgment by the comparative and historical analysis of different research fields and issues. Particular attention will also be paid to those issues that have made the present time particularly gloomy: the racist violence in Europe and US, the lesson of the coronavirus pandemic, the environmental conglicts. These issues directly interpellate the anthropological discipline.

An important part of the course will analyse the methodological issues, such as what ethnography means today? which kind of subjective questions it interpellates and involves? how thinking about the risks of anthropological research? how to conceive an anthropology "on demand"? and so on

The didactic materials used for the exam and discussend during the course will enable students to acquire advanced knowledge about the main concepts and debates of anthropology and ethnology.
The students will be able to actively discuss the specific methodologies (participant observation, observing participation, hearing; subjective dimensions of the research; different strategies of research;  and so on).

FInally, students will be able to analyze ethnographic cases presented in class or in the books, and to articulate a critical dialogue with history, geography, psychoanalysis, cultural studies and so on.

In presence (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 4-6 pm). During the first week and on 26th, even in streaming

Exam will be only oral. The answers will be evaluated according to the following criteria: a) clearness of language and speech consistency; b) knowledge of anthropological vocabulary; c) ability to analyze specific ethnographic issues.
Questions will address the texts (3 books plus 3 articles) each student selects upon previous agreement with the teacher.

Erasmus students can speak in English, Spanish or French during the examen, but they have to demonstrate to be able to understand written and oral Italian.

The course aims to deepen the developments of anthropology considering it as a historical, political and epistemological watershed.

Some of the major classics of anthropology will be taken into consideration in order to offer an in-depth analysis of the most significant theoretical passages of the discipline, studying in detail those authors and those texts that have given rise to schools, debates, controversies.

The current developments promoted by the critique of colonial anthropology and the new methodological perspectives arising from the "crisis of representation" and the dissolution of previous approaches will also be treated

The aim of the course is essentially to

1. interpellating the ways in which anthropology was born and explored the social, historical, political and cultural realities within which the phenomena studied take shape, exploring the foundations of the ethnographic method and the reasons for its crisis. It is therefore a question of analyzing not "what anthropology is" but "what anthropology has been and what is becoming", considered as a knowledge in the making.
2. to cross these thematic fields placing oneself “inside” the flow of events and “between” the social actors who have directed their direction (colonized, young people, immigrants, etc.).
3. offer concrete training on the methodological aspects of ethnographic research.

Special themes:

Analysis of the epistemological space (in the Foucaultian sense) occupied by anthropology and its perspective on cultural otherness.

Anthropology as a Crisis of Western Consciousness. "The scandal of the ethnographic encounter" (de Martino)

Failure to meet. The anthropologist in the colony and his misunderstandings. The Breakup: Frantz Fanon

The postcolonial debate and the main methodological perspectives of anthropology.

The "postcolonial subjects" (immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers) and the riddles of citizenship.

Post-structuralism (perspectivism, ontological turn, etc.) and its limits.

Anthropology and the debate on epistemic injustice. The decolonzation of knowledge: a ceaseless process

Anthropology: gender, class, race and ... Women's anthropological writing 

The challenges of the climate crisis and environmental conflicts. Living in an apocalyptic time

Methodological issues in ethnography. Ethics in anthropological research. Self-ethnography; autochtonous ethnographies.

The course (in Italian) will be in presence but, according to the suggestion of university, even in streaming during the first week and on 26th september.

The book Corpi e saperi indocili is mandatory for all, except from Erasmus students, that can  substitute it with another book after contacting the teacher.

Erasmus studentsb can study the English, French or Spanish version of the suggested books in the list, or contact the teacher to receive suggestions.