Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

Students will gain knowledge about the main theoretical "objects" of anthropological and ethnological sciences (culture, representations, notion of personhood, thinking's systems, extended family, ) and on historical events that contributed to determine its methodological orientations and interests knowledge (colonialism, Second World War, decolonization, genocides and so on).
They will be encouraged to learn about dialogue with other knowledge fields (History, Psychoanalysis) the understanding of each area and object of research, through an active confrontation with teachers and among students themselves on the issues of anthropological research, ethnography styles, and the notions that animate the contemporary debate (refugees, citizenship and human rights; identities and gender issues; violence and its reproduction; ontological turn; and so on).

Students will gain ability to apply knowledge in different areas of anthropology.
The student will be invited to study the texts indicated (books and articles) and to actively intervene on some of them during the lessons with the aim of encouraging independent judgment and critical approach, and more generally:

a) the development of historical and critical awareness of the main theoretical and methodological options;

b) the ability to compare between different cultural contexts;

c) consideration of issues in the interests of genuine interdisciplinarity.

Particular attention will be given to ethnographic contextualization, in view of which the student will use both knowledge of ethnological area is the knowledge that relate to specific thematic areas.

The student will then be able to:

a) analyze field research conducted by anthropologists;

b) seize the anthropological significance of specific forms of social organization and culture;

c) applying anthropological knowledge in fields such as migration, health, illness, care (medical knowledge), the political order, teaching, intercultural mediation, development, art and heritage and so on.

The course aims to examine the development of anthropology considering the time of decolonization as a historical, political and epistemological watershed.
There will be taken into consideration some of the greatest classics of anthropology (Malinowski, Griaule, Leiris, Evans-Pritchard, Turner, Lévi-Strauss, Turner, de Martino) in order to provide a thorough analysis of the most significant steps theoretical discipline, studying in detail those authors and texts that have given rise to schools, debates and controversies.
A second part of the course will focus on the current developments promoted by the critique of colonial anthropology (Bhabha, Mbembe and so on) and new methodological perspectives that emerged from the "crisis of representation" in anthropology and the dissolution of the previous ethnographic styles (Clifford , Comaroff & Comaroff, Crapanzano Amselle, Fabian, R. and M. Rosaldo, Scheper-Hughes, Bourgois, etc..).

The aim of the course is twofold:

a) to allow the student to question about the ways in which anthropology was born and explore the social, historical, political and cultural, contexts within which are formed the phenomena it studied (prophetisms, Pentecostal churches, possession cults, witchcraft, violence, concept of personhood, and so on). At the same time the course will explore the ethnographic method and the reasons for its crisis;

b) the student will be invited to stand "inside" the flow of events (colonialism, diaspora, globalization, economic uncertainty, wars, etc..) and "among" social actors who have guided its direction (young people, immigrants, prophets etc.). TThe work and the thought of Frantz Fanon will receive particular emphasis. The reflection on the role of specific subjects (colonists and colonized, researchers and research subjects, experts and immigrants) wants to familiarize the student with both the historical and social contexts of theories’ production.

Students will study 4 texts among those listed below and 4 articles (listed at the beginning of the course and made available on the website by the teacher). Other texts will be suggested at the beginning of the course

1. M. Griaule, Ogotemmeli
2. C. Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology
3. V. Turner, The forest of symbols
4. J. & J. Comaroff, Ethnography and the Historical Imagination
5. J. & J. Comaroff, Modernity and its malcontents
6. P. Geschiere, Witchcraft, intimacy, and trust
7. F. Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks
8. F. Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
9. R. Beneduce, Senderos de la migración entre violencia, memoria, y deseo. Miradas antropólogicas y etnopsiquíatricas (forthcoming)
10. V. Crapanzano, Imaginative Horizons
11. V. Crapanzano, Tuhami: A Portrait of a Moroccan
12. A. Sayad, The Suffering of the Immigrant
13. R. Rosaldo, Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis
14. J. Clifford, G. Marcus, Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography
15. J. Clifford, The Predicament of Culture
16. S. Pandolfo, Impasse of the Angels

Students are strongly encouraged to discuss materials and issues during
the classes. Some documentary films will be used in order to promote
debates and analysis about the issues taken in consideration during the
course.

Attendance is not mandatory but students are strongly encouraged to attend classes and participate actively in the discussion provided in the course.