85493 - Social Anthropology

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing students abilities in cultural analysis with special reference to the making and representation of cultural diversity. The course aims at improving students participation, providing the gain of a specialistic terminology and of a critical attitude toward social and cultural facts.

Course contents

The course introduces students to basic theories and research methods in Social and Cultural Anthropology, with a special focus on contemporary societies, including ethnographic fieldwork and the analysis of cultural dimension. In its focus on the details of everyday activities across a number of communities, it is meant to provide a bridge between sociocultural anthropology and ethnography through the introduction of concepts and analytical techniques that privilege observation, participation, recording and transcription of spontaneous interaction. Topics include cultural theory, practices of ethnography, memory, time, travel and mobility, imagination, the power of communication, agency and aspiration, and universal and culture-specific properties of human condition.

Students are expected to arrive on time, attend all lectures, and complete all reading as scheduled on the syllabus, i.e., prior to the class meeting. The class participation grade is based on participation in discussions as well as on attendance in both lectures and study questions.

Readings/Bibliography

SYLLABUS

LECTURE 1: Feb. 7^th, 2018

INTRODUCTION: My idea of Anthropology. DIVERSITY. USES AND ABUSES.

Reading for Lecture 2:

1. Malinowski B., 1922, Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Introduction.

   LECTURE 2: Feb. 14^th, 2018

   GO ON WITH FIELDWORK. DIVERSITY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

   Reading 1: discussion and study questions

   Reading for Lecture 3:

2. Radcliffe Brown A. R., 1940, On Joking Relationships, Africa: Journal of The International African Institute, vol. 13, 3: 195-210.

   LECTURE 3: Feb. 21th, 2018

   SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS. FUNCTION AND STRUCTURE

   Reading 2: discussion and study questions

   Readings for Lecture 4:

3. Evans-Pritchard E. E., 1940, The Political Structure of Nandi-Speaking People of Kenya, in Africa: Journal of The International African Institute, vol. 13, 3: 250-267 // -, 1950, Anthropology: Past and Present, The Marret Lecture, in Man, 50: 118-125.

   LECTURE 4: Feb. 28^th, 2018

   OTHER WAYS TO ETHNOGRAPHY

   Reading 3: discussion and study questions

   Readings for Lecture 5:

4. Matera V., We are all contemporaries. Time and Anthropology, in Gonzales Falcon I. (ed.), Understanding Cultural Diversity: Perceptions, Opportunities and Challenges, Nova Publisher, in press. (20 pagg.)

   LECTURE 5: March 7^th, 2018

   WE ARE ALL CONTEMPORARIES. TIME AND ANTHROPOLOGY

   Reading 4: discussion and study questions

   Readings for Lectures 6 - 7:

5. Gluckman M., 1940, Analysis of a Social Situation in Modern Zululand, in Bantu Studies, 14: 1-30.
6. Fabian J., 2006, The Other revisited, in Anthropological Theory, 6: 139-152.

   LECTURE 6: March 14^th, 2018

   THE SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS. FACING WITH SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CHANGE

   Reading 5: discussion and study questions

   LECTURE 7: March 15^th, 2018

   THE SOCIAL FIELD. BEYOND THE ANTHROPOLIGIST’S OWN FIELD EXPERIENCE

   Reading 6: discussion and study questions

   Readings for Lectures 8-9:

7. Matera V., 2013, Ethnography: experiences, representations, practices for studying cultural diversity, in AAM, 15: 9-19.
8. Fillitz T., 2013, Spatialising the Field. Conceptualising fields and interconnections in the context of contemporary art in Africa, in Matera V. (ed.), De.-constructing the field, AAM, 13: 103-112.

   LECTURE 8: March 21^th, 2018

   ETHNOGRAPHY 1.

   Reading 7: discussion and study questions

   LECTURE 9: March 22^th, 2018

   ETHNOGRAPHY 2.

   Reading 8: discussion and study questions

   Reading for Lecture 10:

9. Ingold T., 2008, Anthropology is not Ethnography, in Proceeding of the British Academy, 154: 69-92.

   LECTURE 10: March 28^th, 2018

   BEYOND THE FIELD. ETHNOGRAPHY IN A GLOBAL WORLD

   Reading 9: discussion and study questions

   Mid-term Test (Final test for SA students).

   CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND MIGRATION PROCESSES (PART II)

   Readings for Lectures 11-12. CAMP students only:

10. Matera V., 2016, Understanding Cultural Diversity. Culture, cultural traits and cultural change between global and local frames, in Panebianco, Serrelli (eds.), Understanding Cultural Traits, Springer, pagg. 21-42.

11. Geertz C., 1973, Thick Description. Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture, in The Interpretation of Cultures, Basic Book, Ch. 1 (pagg. 3-30).

LECTURE 11: April 4^th, 2018

CULTURAL THEORY 1. DIVERSITY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

Reading 10: discussion and study questions

LECTURE 12: April 5^th, 2018

CULTURAL THEORY 2. UNDERSTANDING CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Reading 11: discussion and study questions

Readings for Lectures 13 – 14:

1. Markowitz, 2004, Talking about culture. Globalization, Human Rights and Anthropology, in Anthropological Theory, 4: 329-352.
2. De Haas, Vezzoli, 2013, Migration and Development on the South-North Frontier: A Comparison of the Mexico-USA and of Morocco-EU cases, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 39, 7: 1041-1065
3. Menin L., 2016, Men are not scared: Luck, destiny and the gendered vocabularies of the clandestine migration in Central Morocco, Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo, 18, 1: 25-36.

   LECTURE 13: April 11^th, 2018

   CULTURES IN CONTACT I.

   Reading 12: discussion and study questions

   LECTURE 14: April 12^th, 2018

   Guest Laura Menin CULTURES IN CONTACT II.

   Reading 13-14: discussion and study questions

   Readings for Lectures 15-16:

4. Marwan M. Kraidy, 2005, Hybridity or the Cultural Logic of Globalization, Tempe University Press, Preface and Ch. 1.
5. Duvell F., 2012, Transit Migration: A Blurred and Politicized Concept, Population, Space, and Place, 18: 415-427.
6. Menin L., 2016, “Anti-black racism”: debating racial prejudices and the legacies of slavery in Morocco, SWAB-WPS, 2.

   LECTURE 15: April 18^th, 2018

   WE WANT OUR CULTURE! FROM ESSENTIALISM TO CREOLIZATION

   Reading 15: discussion and study questions

   LECTURE 16: April 19^th, 2018

   Guest Laura Menin BELONGINGS, MIMESIS, MODERNITY

   Reading 16-17: discussion and study questions

   Reading for Lectures 17 – 18:

7. Sahlins M., 1999, Two or Three Things that I Know about Culture, in The Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute, 5: 399-421
8. Marcus G., 2007, “How Short Can Fieldwork Be?”, in Social Anthropology, 15: 353-367

   LECTURE 17: May 2^th, 2018

   BELONGINGS, MIMESIS, IMAGINATION

   Reading 18: discussion and study questions

   LECTURE 18: May 3^th, 2018

   MAKING PAST. MEMORY AND IDENTITY

   Reading 19: discussion and study questions

   Readings for Lectures 19-20:

9. Gupta A., 2015, An Anthropology of Electricity from the Global South, in Cultural Anthropology, 30, 4: 555-568.
10. Appadurai A., 2004, The Capacity to Aspire, in Culture in Public Action, Stanford University Press.

LECTURE 19: May 9^th, 2018

WHERE/WHAT MODERNITY IS?

Readings 20: discussion and study questions

LECTURE 20: May 10^th, 2018

MAKING FUTURE.

Reading 21: discussion and study questions

FINAL TEST

Teaching methods

Lectures, discussions, weekly tests based on study questions.

Assessment methods

• First Test (Midterm) 7.50 points. Second Test (last week of classes) 7.50 points. Final short essay and oral presentation (15 points).

Office hours

See the website of Vincenzo Matera