Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

Interest in new and critical perspectives that this field of research discloses about the meaning of suffering, on the consequences of violence, the experience of the body, the gender issues, the different politics of body and memory, and so on.

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
Anthropology of body, illness, and memory offers, in the first part, an
introductory overview of Medical Anthropology by illustrating its
theoretical foundations and its current development.

The second part will explore ethnographic cases and specific issues (therapeutic
effectiveness and non Western medical systems; memory studies;
research on political, structural, private violence; effects of torture;
traumatic past; politics of storytelling, and so on). The aim is to develop the students’ critical awareness and
autonomy of judgment.

The course aims at providing advanced and specific knowledge of main
authors, concepts and debates within Medical Anthropology. It intends to
enhance the students’ ability to learn about this specific field and its
specific conceptual lexicon (illness, disease, sickness, semantic network,
symbolic effectiveness, symbolic violence, reification of disease,
epistemic violence, diagnostic proliferation, and so on), by explicitly
encouraging students’ autonomy and their critical abilities, analyzing
ethnographic cases presented in class and implementing meaningful
comparison between them.

Lectures - in Italian. The teacher is able to understand and speak English, French and
Spanish with those students who prefer use these languages.

Students will sit an oral exam aiming to assess the acquired basic notions
in Political anthropology, their ability to apply such notions to specific
cases, and to critically discuss a selected topic. Questions will address
both notions acquired while attending the course, and the texts each
student selects upon previous agreement with the teacher. The answers
will be evaluated according to the following criteria: a) Appropriateness
and richness of the contents; b) Clearness of language, speech
consistency and sector-based vocabulary; c) Critical-analytical capacity
and ability to give examples.
Students who do not or cannot attend class will present an oral exposition
of the texts specifically listed for “non – attending students”. Non-native
speakers can give their answers in English, Spanish or French.

The course will provide students with an overview of the main authors,
themes, and theories that have characterized the medical anthropology
since the ‘70s (Kleinman, Young, Good, Taussig, Scheper-Hughes ecc.). It
will be in particular analyzed the way by which medical knowledge
contributed to shape particular expression of power, as well as
governance of bodies, desire, subjectivities (Foucault, Bourdieu,
Canguilhem, Hacking, Rose, and so on). The field of critical applied
medical anthropology will receive particular emphasis. The second part of
the course will privilege specific issues: 1) the diagnostic proliferation in
psychiatry and the PTSD hegemony against the background of an
increasing de-historicization of disease; 2) The politics of memory and
oblivion; political, epistemological, symbolic, and private violence; the concept of ritual de-historification; 3) The
challenges coming from other paradigms of disease, healing and
effectiveness (folk and traditional medicines; therapeutic rituals; religious
dimensions of healing; the healing churches (Pentecostal and Charismatic
churches); trivialization of the miracle; etc.; 4) the political profiles of
illness and healing (human organs trafficking; gender issues;

Reading Materials

Texts for students attending the course (two among the following):

A) Trauma, violence, memory:

1. R. Beneduce, Archeologie del trauma. Un’antropologia del sottosuolo,
Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2010.
2. 4. A. Young, The Harmony of Illusions. Inventing Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder, Princeton University Press
3. C. Caruth (ed.), Trauma. Exploration in Memory, The John Hopkins
University Press.
4. P. Connerton, Come le società ricordano, Armando Editore
5. E. Scarry, La sofferenza del corpo. La distruzione e la costruzione delmondo, Il Mulino.
6. M. Taussig, Shamanism, Terror, an the Wild Man: A Study in Terror an Healing, Univ. of Chicago Press.
7. A. Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, Pan Macmillan.
8. I. Pappé, The ethnic cleansing of Palestine, Oneworld Oxford Publ.
9. L. H. Malkki, Purity and Exile. Violence Memory and NationalCosmology among the Hutu Refugees in Tanzania, Univ.of Chicago Press.

1. R. Beneduce, Archeologie del trauma. Un’antropologia del sottosuolo,
Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2010.
2. 4. A. Young, The Harmony of Illusions. Inventing Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder, Princeton University Press
3. C. Caruth (ed.), Trauma. Exploration in Memory, The John Hopkins
University Press.
4. P. Connerton, Come le società ricordano, Armando Editore
5. E. Scarry, La sofferenza del corpo. La distruzione e la costruzione delmondo, Il Mulino.
6. M. Taussig, Shamanism, Terror, an the Wild Man: A Study in Terror an Healing, Univ. of Chicago Press.
7. A. Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, Pan Macmillan.
8. I. Pappé, La pulizia etnica della Palestina,Fazi editore
9. L. H. Malkki, Purity and Exile. Violence Memory and NationalCosmology among the Hutu Refugees in Tanzania, Univ.of Chicago Press.

10.  N. Rose Hunt, A colonial Lexicon, Duke University Press

B) Politics of diagnosis, mental health, biological citizenship:

1. aut aut (numero speciale), a cura di M. Colucci, La diagnosi in
psichiatria, 357, 201.
2. R. Beneduce (a cura di), Frantz Fanon, Decolonizzare la follia: scritti
sulla psichiatria coloniale, ombre corte
3. R. Beneduce, Etnopsichiatria. Sofferenza mentale e alterità fra Storia,
dominio e cultura, Carocci.
4. A. Petryna, Exposed Life. Biological Citizens after Chernobyl, Princeton
University Press.
5. N. Rose, La politiche della vita, Einaudi

C) Anthropology of health and illness: culture, religion, and medical
kowledge

1. E. De Martino, La terra del rimorso, Il Saggiatore.
2. E. De Martino, Il mondo magico, Bollati Boringhieri.
3. E. De Martino, Sud e magia, Feltrinelli.
4. H. G. West. Kulipikula, Governance and the Invisible Realm in
Mozambique, University of Chicago Press.
5. R. Beneduce, E. Roudinesco (a cura di), Antropologia della cura, Bollati
Boringhieri.

Moreover: 3 articles among those suggested and made available by the
teacher (see teacher's site).

Texts for students not attending the course (three books among the following):

A) Trauma, violence, memory:

1. R. Beneduce, Archeologie del trauma. Un’antropologia del sottosuolo,
Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2010.
2. 4. A. Young, The Harmony of Illusions. Inventing Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder, Princeton University Press
3. C. Caruth (ed.), Trauma. Exploration in Memory, The John Hopkins
University Press.
4. P. Connerton, Come le società ricordano, Armando Editore
5. E. Scarry, La sofferenza del corpo. La distruzione e la costruzione delmondo, Il Mulino.
6. M. Taussig, Shamanism, Terror, an the Wild Man: A Study in Terror an Healing, Univ. of Chicago Press.
7. A. Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, Pan Macmillan.
8. I. Pappé, La pulizia etnica della Palestina,Fazi editore
9. L. H. Malkki, Purity and Exile. Violence Memory and NationalCosmology among the Hutu Refugees in Tanzania, Univ.of Chicago Press.

10.  N. Rose Hunt, A colonial Lexicon, Duke University Press

B) Politics of diagnosis, mental health, biological citizenship:

1. aut aut (numero speciale), a cura di M. Colucci, La diagnosi in
psichiatria, 357, 201.
2. R. Beneduce (a cura di), Frantz Fanon, Decolonizzare la follia: scritti
sulla psichiatria coloniale, ombre corte
3. R. Beneduce, Etnopsichiatria. Sofferenza mentale e alterità fra Storia,
dominio e cultura, Carocci.
4. A. Petryna, Exposed Life. Biological Citizens after Chernobyl, Princeton
University Press.
5. N. Rose, La politiche della vita, Einaudi

C) Anthropology of health and illness: culture, religion, and medical
kowledge

1. E. De Martino, La terra del rimorso, Il Saggiatore.
2. E. De Martino, Il mondo magico, Bollati Boringhieri.
3. E. De Martino, Sud e magia, Feltrinelli.
4. H. G. West. Kulipikula, Governance and the Invisible Realm in
Mozambique, University of Chicago Press.
5. R. Beneduce, E. Roudinesco (a cura di), Antropologia della cura, Bollati
Boringhieri.

Inoltre: una selezione di 3 articoli fra quelli discussi e indicati nel corso
delle lezioni (disponibili sul sito del docente).

INTERNATIONAL AND ERASMUS STUDENTS MAY PREPARE FOR
EXAMINATIONS AND TAKE THEM IN ENGLISH, SPANISH OR FRENCH.

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. Students attending the course are invited to discuss one of the choosen articles during the course.