11292 - Cultural Anthropology (1) (A-L)

Academic Year 2022/2023

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Anthropology, Religions, Oriental Civilizations (cod. 8493)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will know the conceptual framework that characterize the disciple and will be able to understand its different intellectual schools of thought.

Course contents

The course (12 cfu) is composed by two integrated modules that cannot be divided (Cultural Anthropology and History of Anthropology).

The course aims at presenting an introduction to the main concepts and theories that characterize cultural anthropology. Particular attention will be dedicated to the limits and potentialities of different conceptualizations of the concept of culture, to the nature/culture relationship, to the ethnographic method, to the contemporary challenges for anthropological knowledge .



Even though attendance is not mandatory, it is strongly suggested.

Readings/Bibliography

Students will have to prepare the following four volumes

For the first module "Cultural Anthropology" (1):

1. Emily A. Schultz e Robert H. Lavenda, 2015, Antropologia culturale, Zanichelli, Bologna (Either Third or Fourth Italian edition). [Orig., Cultural Anthropology. A Perspective on the Human Condition, Ninth/Tenth Edition, 2013/2017, Oxfrod University Press, Oxford].

2. Eriksen Thomas Hylland, Fuori controllo. Un’antropologia del cambiamento accelerato, 2017, Einaudi Torino. [Orig., Overheating. An Anthropology of Accelerated Change, 2016, Pluto Press, London].

For the second module "History of Anthropology" (1):

3. Mary Douglas (2014), Purezza e pericolo. Un'analisi dei concetti di contaminazione e tabù. Il Mulino, Bologna. [Orig., Purity and danger. An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, 1966, Routledge, New York].

4. Ugo Fabietti, 2011-2020, Storia dell'antropologia, Zanichelli, Bologna (Either Third or Fourth Edition).

Teaching methods

Formal lectures with audio-visual support (when appropriate).

In each lecture, students will be engaged in order to verify the proper understanding of the issues discussed.

Assessment methods

Assessment will be done through a test in the IT laboratories of the School of Arts, Humanities and Cultural Heritage.

Students will have to answer one question for each of the four volumes indicated above.

Proper language and the ability to make connections between the books' content will lead to a good/excellent final grade.

Acceptable language and the ability to resume the books' content will lead to a sufficient/fair grade.

The exam is failed if students:

- do not demonstrate to master the "learning outcomes" of the course;

- show insufficient linguistic proficiency and fragmentary knowledge of the books' content;

- do not answer all the exam questions.

Students with special needs are kindly invited to contact the lecturer in order to define together the proper assessment method.

Students can consult Exams dates and register at the following URLhttp://www.unibo.it/Portale/Guida/AlmaEsami.htm

Teaching tools

Students are kindly invited to subscribe to the following mailing list in order to receive information about possible variations in lectures timetable and rooms: ivo.quaranta.Antropologia_Culturale

Office hours

See the website of Ivo Quaranta