39426 - Historical Anthropology (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

Underscoring the importance of a diachronic dimension in anthropological thinking, the course will discuss the history and the core themes of scientific debate concerning historical anthropology and ethnohistory. At the end of the course, the student should have acquired a basic knolwledge of methods and theory of histirical anthropology, as well as the ability to carry on an anthropological reading of various kind of historical sources.

Course contents

Native American movements of resistance and rebellion

The first part of the course will provide the students with information on the long-standing debate regarding the thoretical and methodological statute of historical anthropology. The lessons will then concentrate on the problem of the analysis of cultural change in situations of colonial contact, specifically analyzing some colonial and modern religious/political movements of resistance, rebellion, and negotiation. Among the discussed cases there wil be the Andean Taki Onqoy, various maya rebellions as the uprising of Cancuc and the Caste War, the Pueblo Revolt and the North American Ghost Dance.

 

Lessons starting on February, 2nd, 2015

Hours and places:

Monday, h. 11-13, Aula 2, Via Zamboni 33.

Tuesday, h. 11-13, Aula 2, Via Zamboni 33.

Friday, h. 11-13, Aula 2, Via Zamboni 33.

Readings/Bibliography

Readings:

A. Viazzo, Pier Paolo, Introduzione all'antropologia storica, Laterza, Roma 2000.

 

B. One of the following volumes:

Gruzinski, Serge, La colonizzazione dell'immaginario. Società indigene e occidentalizzazione nel Messico spagnolo, Einaudi, Torino 1994.

Wachtel, Nathan, La visione dei vinti. Gli indios del Perù di fronte alla conquista spagnola, Einaudi, Torino 1977.

 

C . Beside the abovementioned volumes, students that participated in classwork must study one more book, choosen among those in the following list. Students that didn't participated in classwork must choose two books fron the same list. In any case, it is also possible to choose the book previously not choosen in group B.

N.B. Students having difficulties to find the non-Italian books are invited to contact the professor with an e-mail.

AA.VV. “Antropologia e storia. Prove di dialogo”. L'Uomo. Società Tradizione Sviluppo, 2013, n. 1.

Assmann Jan, La memoria culturale. Scrittura, ricordo e identità politica nelle grandi civiltà antiche, Einaudi, Torino 1997.

Axel, Brian Keith (ed.), From the Margins. Historical Anthropology and Its Futures, Duke University Press, Durham & London 2002.

Bellagamba Alice, L'Africa e la stregoneria. Saggio di antropologia storica, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2008.

Borutti S., Fabietti U. (a cura di), Fra antropologia e storia, Milano, Mursia, 1998

Comaroff John e Jean Comaroff, Ethnography and the Historical Imagination, Westview Press, Boulder 1992.

Crosby Alfred, Lo scambio colombiano. Conseguenze biologiche e culturali del 1492. Einaudi, Torino 1972.

Dube Saurabh, Historical anthropology, Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2007.

Fabian Joannes, Il tempo e gli altri. La politica del tempo in antropologia, L'ancora del Mediterraneo, Napoli 1999.

Gruzinski, Serge, Les homme-dieux du Mexique: Pouvoir et société coloniale (XVIe-XVIIe siècles , Édition des archives contemporaines, Paris, 1985.

Lanternari Vittorio, Movimenti religiosi di libertà e salvezza, Editori Riuniti, Roma 2003 (si consiglia l'uso di questa edizione riveduta ed ampliata).

Sahlins, Marshall, Isole di Storia. Società e mito nei mari del sud, Einaudi, Torino 1986.

Scott James, Il dominio e l'arte della resistenza. I "verbali segreti" dietro alla storia ufficiale, Elèuthera, Milano 2006.

Thomas, Nicholas, Out of Time. History and Evolution in Anthropological Discourse, University of Michigan Press, Chicago 1996.

Note : The following books are suggested for students of the Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Archeologia e Culture del Mondo Antico:Gosden Christopher, Anthropology and Archaeology: A Changing Relationship, Routledge, London-New York 2005.

Preucel, Robert W. (ed.), Archaeologies of the Pueblo Revolt: Identity, Meaning and Renewal in the Pueblo World. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 2002.

 

Teaching methods

The frontal lessons, in which discussion of new findings and publication will be stimulated, will be integrated by discussion sessions and speeches aimed to inform the students about the ongoing field researches.

Assessment methods

The final exam will be an oral one, with questions aimed to verify the student's knowledge of the themes discussed during frontal lessons (only for students that participated in classwork) as well as those treated in the program's texts. The questions will deal with general themes, and in his answer the student should show his capacity to go into specific details. Among the elements that concur in the final evaluation there are: detailed knowledge of the book's content, property of language, and especially the capacity of organizing the information – also deriving from different sources – into complex answers showing expositive and critical skills.  

 

To sign up for the exam, please use the Almaesami website.

 

Teaching tools

The frontal lessons will be supported by Power Point presentations in order to visualize elements that, due to their "exotic" character, are scarcely known to the students. The Power Point presentation will be uploaded in the “Didactic materials” section of this website.

Office hours

See the website of Davide Domenici