27280 - Seminars (1) (G.C)

Academic Year 2024/2025

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

Learning outcomes

The seminar is strictly related to the objectives of the degree course. Students will acquire specific skills to address pivotal and methodological issues within the field of cultural anthropology.

Course contents

The seminar will train students to analyze, comment on, and contextualize texts from multicultural backgrounds such as (but not limited to) Egypt, Arabia, and Mesopotamia in the Graeco-Roman period. Students will also be able to address methodologically relevant issues in anthropology and religious history, including the appreciation of gender roles. At the end of the course, students will be able to understand the potential of and limits of papyri and similar forms of documentation when it comes to perceiving and analysing intercultural relations. Students will become acquainted with tools and digital infrastructures necessary for research on ancient documents.

 

The seminar (30 hours) is divided into two sections:

 

I. An Introduction and three modules (3 weeks, 18 to 20 hours) with the professor. Each module, devoted to a specific topic, includes an annotated reading (in translation) of a group of texts from the Graeco-Roman era on papyrus, ostrakon, a tablet, or transmitted by manuscript tradition. The readings and skills involved in their commentary will prove particularly important in the field of anthropology and the history of religions in the ancient world.

  • Introduction (2 hours): the professor will provide  students with an explanation of Papyrology (origins, objects, methodologies, research tools), discussing the aims of the seminar and clarifying assessment methods.
  • I.1. Deities in Rome and Persia (6 hours): students will learn about Roman religious practices on the fringes of the Empire, including a comparison between official practices prescribed to the soldiers and their genuine worship practices (a remote outpost on the Euphrates will be used as an example). There will be a reading of the Feriale Duranum.
  •  I.2. Ptolemy's dreams (6 hours): students will read about and discuss the analytical revelations regarding the recluse in the temple of Serapis in Memphi, his (often erotic) dreams, his legal problems, the books he read, and the relationship with the twins he cared for. Students will gain a  glimpse of daily (sacred) life in Ptolemaic Egypt.
  • I.3. Deterior condicio (6 hours): the reading will provide clues to everyday life, status, and the trials and tribulations of women within Graeco-Roman Egypt and the Mediterranean basin at large as their stories appear in papyrological evidence in the Latin language.

II. One final module (ca. 2 weeks, 12 hours) of student group presentations, coordinated by the professor. The students, in groups of, ideally, two to four, will choose themes for their presentations from the list below. Students are also welcome to propose other presentation topics relevant to the course, pending the professor's approval.

  • Narratives of healing dreams: the most famous neurotic in antiquity, Aelius Aristides, and the dreams sent by the god Asclepius to Pergamum to help him heal his imaginary illness.
  • Women who write, women who act: the lives and agency of Egyptian women, Greek women, and femal citizens in Roman Egypt, as observed through the letters written by them or about them. This topic can cover family management, business management, power relations, and legal status.
  • Magic in daily life: filters of love, curses, magical objects, and voodoo in Greek and Roman Egypt.

Readings/Bibliography

Mandatory Readings

1. General introduction

  • A. Bowman, L’Egitto dopo i Faraoni, Firenze, Giunti 1997, chapters 1, 2, 5, 6. [Biblioteca DISCI: Storia antica: ESAMI CONS 0135 o ESAMI PRES 0037; BDU ESAMI OO00 10416]

2. Readings on individual sections [available in teaching materials]:

  • P. Xella, Religione e religioni in Siria-Palestina, Roma, Carocci 2007, pp. 69-94
  • E. Bresciani, La porta dei sogni. Interpreti e sognatori nell'Egitto antico, Torino 2005, pp. 93-162
  • F. Maltomini, I papiri e la magia antica, «Atene e Roma» 2008, pp. 221-237
  • L. Migliardi Zingale, Storie di donne nel II sec. d.C., «Atti Accademia Ligure di Scienze e Lettere», s. VI (2002) 5, pp. 441-455

 

Except for Bowman's chapters, the abovementioned material will be found in Virtuale and in the IOL platform, together with several papers discussed during the course and further material to help with the presentations.

Non-attending students will work on all the texts in this sections while attending students will only work on those connected to their presentations.

Teaching methods

The Introduction and the first module (cfr. 'Course contents') will be facilitated by the professor through a series of significant texts, including their relevant bibliography.

The second module will have students present other texts and/or case studies according to the seminar topics, using approved topics granted by the professor.

It is the professor's prerogative:

  • to invite scholars and colleagues to enrich the content of the first module, or if not enough students present in Module II.
  • to propose further themes and case studies on the abovementioned topics during Module I.

The students will be given the prospective time-table of the seminar in the very first lesson; they will immediately be informed should this time-table vary.

Assessment methods

Students who attend at least 25 hours of lessons will be considered attending. For them, the assessment will be based on regular attendance to the classes and their participation within a presentation group at the end of the courseThe presentation should take into account, and explicitly refer to, the mandatory readings (see the Readings/Bibliography section, parts 1 and 2).

 

Non-attending students, or attending students who cannot or will not present, will take an oral exam focussing on the texts in the mandatory bibliography (see the 'Readings/Bibliography' section, parts 1 and 2). They will also be responsible for one volume or three articles among those uploaded to Virtuale. Non-attending students MUST COMMUNICATE their choices to the professor BEFORE they take the exam!

 

The assessment will be on a pass/not pass basis and be based on:

  • the ability to comment on the texts, i.e. the ability to identify, date, and contextualise the documents.
  • mastery of content.
  • the ability to synthesise and analyse issues and problems within the texts.
  • using language appropriate to the subject matter.

The student's ability to discuss the documents, and to express an organic vision of the themes dealt with in the class, with a good command of expression and specific language will allow them to achieve credit.

Gaps in exposure, inappropriate language, or lack of orientation within the bibliographic materials offered during the course will prevent students from receiving credit.

Teaching tools

The lectures will be held using Powerpoint presentations. All texts presented and discussed in class, together with the PDF documents in the 'Readings/Bibliography' section, will be available on IOL and Virtuale.

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD) must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

Office hours

See the website of Giulio Iovine

SDGs

Gender equality

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.