- Docente: Ivo Quaranta
- Credits: 12
- SSD: M-DEA/01
- Language: Italian
- Moduli: Ivo Quaranta (Modulo 1) Ivo Quaranta (Modulo 2)
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
- Campus: Bologna
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Corso:
Second cycle degree programme (LM) in
Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology (cod. 0964)
Also valid for Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology (cod. 6683)
Second cycle degree programme (LM) in History and Oriental Studies (cod. 6813)
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from Sep 17, 2025 to Oct 24, 2025
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from Nov 12, 2025 to Dec 19, 2025
Learning outcomes
Students will learn about the main theorethical and metodological issues related to the socio-cultural analysis of ill/health.
Course contents
The first module will take into account the history of the academic debate by which Medical Anthropology established itself as a specific subfield within socio-cultural anthropology.
The second module will deal with the contemporary debate, and i twill involve students through the constitution of groups focussed on specific issues to be agreed upon with the lecturer.
Readings/Bibliography
PROGRAM FOR "28346 - Anthropology of the Body and Disease (2nd cycle) - 12 cfu"
Students will have to discuss at the exam four volumes for the 12 cfu course (points: 1, 2, 3, 4). Exchange students can negotiate a specific program with the lecturer:
1. Pizza, G. (2005), Antropologia medica. Saperi,
pratiche e politiche del corpo, Roma, Carocci.
2. Quaranta I., (a cura) (2006), Antropologia medica. I testi fondamentali, Milano, Raffaello Cortina.
3. One among the following:
AA.VV., (2006) Sofferenza Sociale, Annuario di Antropologia, Vol. 8. Roma, Meltemi.
Beneduce R., (2007), Etnopsichiatria. Sofferenza mentale e alterità fra storia, dominio e cultura, Carocci.
Beneduce R., (2010) Archeologia del trauma. Antropologia del sottosuolo, Laterza, Roma-Bari.
Castellano V., (2018) Revolving door. I servizi per i minori e la riproduzione delle disuguaglianze a New York, Reggio Emilia, edizioni Junior.
Cola M., (2012), Ragionevolmente differenti. Una riflessione antropologica su Sindrome di Asperger e Disturbo dello Spettro Autistico, I libri bi Emil, Bologna.
Cozzi, D., (2007), Le imperfezioni del silenzio. Riflessioni antropologiche sulla depressione femminile in un'area alpina. Roma, Bonanno Editore.
Cozzi, D., (a cura) (2012), Le parole dell'antropologia medica. Piccolo dizionario. Perugia, Morlacchi.
Ehrenberg A., (1999), La fatica di essere se stessi, Torino, Einaudi.
Fainzang S. (2009), Farmaci e società. Il paziente, il medico e la ricetta, Franco Angeli.
Fassin Didier, (2016), Quando i corpi ricordano. Esperienze e politiche dell'Aids in Sudafrica, Lecce, Argo
Fassin Didier, (2016), Ragione umanitaria. Una storia morale del presente, DeriveApprodi
Fassin Didier, Richard Rechtman, 2020, L'impero del trauma. Nascita della condizione di vittima, Meltemi
Good B., 2006 (1994), Narrare la malattia. Lo sguardo antropologico sul rapporto medico-paziente. Torino, Edizioni di comunità (Einaudi).
Gribaldo A., (2005), La natura scomposta. Riproduzione assistita, genere, parentela. Luca Sossella Editore
Guerzoni Corinna Sabrina, 2020, Sistemi procreativi. Etnografia dell'omogenitorialità in Italia, Milano, Franco Angeli
Hacking Ian (2008), Plasmare le persone. Quattroventi, Milano.
Mattalucci C., (2017), Antropologia e riproduzione. Attese, fratture e ricomposizioni della procreazione e della genitorialità in Italia. Milano, Libreria Cortina.
Minelli M. (2011), Santi, demoni, giocatori. Un'etnografia delle pratiche di salute mentale, Argo, Lecce
Quaranta I., Ricca M. (2012), Malati fuori luogo. Raffaello Cortina, Milano.
Quarta Luigigiovanni, 2019, Resti tra noi. Etnografia di un manicomio criminale, Meltemi
Raffaetà, R., (2011), Identità compromesse. Malattia e cultura: il caso dell'allergia. Ledizioni, Milano.
Raffaetà, R., (2020), Antropologia dei microbi. Come la metagenomica sta riconfigurando l’umano e la salute, Roma: CISU.
Ribeiro Corossacz V. (2004) Il corpo della nazione. Classificazione razziale e gestione sociale della riproduzione in Brasile, Roma: CISU
Richards, Paul, (2016), Ebola. How a people’s science helped end an epidemic. London, Zed Books Ltd.
Rose N., (2008), La politica della vita, Einaudi, Torino.
Scaglioni Marta, Francesco Diodati (a cura di) 2021, Antropologia dell’invecchiamento e della cura. Prospettive globali, Milano, Ledizioni
Schirripa G., e Vulpiani P., (a cura di) (2000), L'ambulatorio del guaritore. Forme e pratiche del confronto tra biomedicina e medicine tradizionali in Africa e nelle Americhe. Lecce, Argo.
Schirripa, P., (2005) Le politiche della cura. Terapie, potere e tradizione nel Ghana contemporaneo, Argo, Lecce.
Schirripa, P. (a cura di) (2012) Terapie religiose. Rituali di guarigione, modernità, neoliberismo nel pentecostalismo contemporaneo, Roma, CISU
Schirripa, P., (2015) La vita sociale dei farmaci. Produzione, circolazione, consumo degli oggetti materiali della cura, Lecce: Argo.
Taliani S., e Vacchiano, F., (2006), Altri Corpi. Antropologia ed etnopsicologia della migrazione, Milano, Unicopli.
Urbano Lorenzo, (2023), Scegliere la malattia. Responsabilità e riflessività nella riabilitazione della tossicodipendenza, Lecce, Argo
4. One among the following:
Antze P., Lambek M. (1996), Tense Past: Cultural Essays in Trauma and Memory, Routledge
Biehl J. (2005), Vita: Life In A Zone Of Social Abandonment, University of California Press
Csordas, T.J (1993) The Sacred Self: A Cultural Phenomenology of Charismatic healing. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Csordas, T.J., (2002), Body/Meaning/Healing. New York: Palgrave.
Farmer, P., 1992, AIDS and accusation: Haiti and the geography of blame, Berkeley, University of California Press.
Farmer, P., 1999, Infections and inequalities. The modern plagues, Berkeley, University of California Press.
Farmer, P., 2003, Pathologies of power. Health, human rights, and the new war on the poor, Berkeley, University of California Press.
Fassin D., 1996, L'espace politique de la santé. Essai de généalogie. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France.
Fassin Didier, (2023), The Worlds of Public Health: Anthropological Excursions, Polity Press
Fassin D. e Pandolfi M. ( a cura) (2010), Contemporary States of Emergency: The Politics of Military and Humanitarian Interventions, Zone Books.
Fassin, D.; Fourcade, M., (eds.), (2022), Pandemic Exposures: Economy and Society in the Time of Coronavirus, Hau, The University of Chicago Press.
Fausto-Sterling A. (2020, updated edition), Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, Basic Books.
Kleinman, A., Das, V. e Lock, M., (a cura), (1997), Social suffering, Berkeley, University of California Press.
Lock M., (1995), Encounters with Aging: Mythologies of Menopause in Japan and North America. University of California Press.
Lock, M. (2001) Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death. University of California Press
Lock, Young, Cambrosio (a cura) (2000) Living and Working with the New Medical Technologies. Intersections of Inquiry. Cambridge University Press.
Manderson, L.; Burke, N.J.; Wahlberg, A., (eds.), (2021), Viral Loads: Anthropologies of Urgency in the Time of Covid-19, London, UCL Press
Martin, E. (1987) The Woman in the Body. Beacon Press.
Martin, E. (1994) Flexible Bodies. Tracking Immunity in American Culture - From the Days of Polio to the Age of AIDS. Boston: Beacon Press.
Martin Emily, (2009), Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression in American Culture, Princeton University Press
Mattingly C. e Garro L., (2000), Narrative and the Cultural Construction of Illness and Healing. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Mattingly, C. (1998) Healing dramas and clinical plots. The narrative structure of experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mazzeo, A. (2020), Dust Inside: Fighting and Living with Asbestos-Related Disasters in Brazil, Oxfrod: Berghahn Books.
Memmi D. (2003), Faire vivre et laisser mourir. Le Gouvernement contemporain de la naissance et de la mort, La Découverte, Paris.
Mol A. (2003), The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice, Duke University Press.
Nichter M. (2008), Global Health: Why Cultural Perceptions, Social Representations, and Biopolitics Matter, University of Arizona Press
Ong A. (1987) Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline. Factory Women in Malaysia. New York: State University of New York.
Petryna A. (2002), Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl, Princeton University Press.
Petryna A., (2009), When Experiments Travel: Clinical Trials and the Global Search for Human Subjects, Princeton University Press.
Petryna, Lakoff, Kleinman, (2006), Global Pharmaceuticals: Ethics, Markets, Practices, Duke University Press.
Scheper-Hughes N. (1993) Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil, University of California Press.
Sunder Rajan, K. (2006), Biocapital: The Constitution of Postgenomic Life. Duke University Press
Wilkinson Iain, Arthur Kleinman, 2016, A Passion for Society. How We Think about Human Suffering. University of California Press.
Young, A. (1995), The Harmony of Illusions. Inventing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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PROGRAM FOR "MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (1) (LM)"
1. Quaranta I., (a cura) (2006), Antropologia medica. I testi fondamentali, Milano, Raffaello Cortina.
2. One volume from the following list:
AA.VV., (2006) Sofferenza Sociale, Annuario di Antropologia, Vol. 8. Roma, Meltemi.
Antze P., Lambek M. (1996), Tense Past: Cultural Essays in Trauma and Memory, Routledge
Beneduce R., (2007), Etnopsichiatria. Sofferenza mentale e alterità fra storia, dominio e cultura, Carocci.
Beneduce R., (2010), Archeologia del trauma. Antropologia del sottosuolo, Laterza, Roma-Bari.
Biehl J. (2005), Vita: Life In A Zone Of Social Abandonment, University of California Press
Biehl João, (2009), Will to Live: AIDS Therapies and the Politics of Survival. Princeton University Press.
Castellano V., (2018) Revolving door. I servizi per i minori e la riproduzione delle disuguaglianze a New York, Reggio Emilia, edizioni Junior.
Cola M., (2012), Ragionevolmente differenti. Una riflessione antropologica su Sindrome di Asperger e Disturbo dello Spettro Autistico, I libri bi Emil, Bologna.
Cozzi, D., (2007), Le imperfezioni del silenzio. Riflessioni antropologiche sulla depressione femminile in un'area alpina. Roma, Bonanno Editore.
Csordas, T.J (1993) The Sacred Self: A Cultural Phenomenology of Charismatic healing. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Csordas, T.J., (2002), Body/Meaning/Healing. New York: Palgrave.
Das Veena, (2024), La violenza e la discesa nell'ordinario, Roma, Castelvecchi
Ehrenberg A., (1999), La fatica di essere se stessi, Torino, Einaudi.
Fainzang S. (2009), Farmaci e società. Il paziente, il medico e la ricetta, Franco Angeli.
Farmer, P., (1992), AIDS and accusation: Haiti and the geography of blame, Berkeley, University of California Press.
Farmer, P., (1999), Infections and inequalities. The modern plagues, Berkeley, University of California Press.
Farmer, P., (2003), Pathologies of power. Health, human rights, and the new war on the poor, Berkeley, University of California Press.
Farmer, Paul, Margaret Connors, and Janie Simmons, (1996), Women, Poverty, and AIDS: Sex, Drugs, and Structural Violence. Monroe: Common Courage Press.
Fassin D., (1996), L'espace politique de la santé. Essai de généalogie. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France.
Fassin Didier, (2016), Quando i corpi ricordano. Esperienze e politiche dell'Aids in Sudafrica, Lecce, Argo
Fassin Didier, (2016), Ragione umanitaria. Una storia morale del presente, DeriveApprodi
Fassin Didier, (2023), The Worlds of Public Health: Anthropological Excursions, Polity Press
Fassin D. e Pandolfi M. ( a cura) (2010), Contemporary States of Emergency: The Politics of Military and Humanitarian Interventions, Zone Books.
Fassin Didier, Richard Rechtman, 2020, L'impero del trauma. Nascita della condizione di vittima, Meltemi
Fassin, D.; Fourcade, M., (eds.), (2022), Pandemic Exposures: Economy and Society in the Time of Coronavirus, Hau, The University of Chicago Press.
Fausto-Sterling A. (2020, updated edition), Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, Basic Books.
Good B., 2006 (1994), Narrare la malattia. Lo sguardo antropologico sul rapporto medico-paziente. Torino, Edizioni di comunità (Einaudi).
Gribaldo A., (2005), La natura scomposta. Riproduzione assistita, genere, parentela. Luca Sossella Editore
Guerzoni Corinna Sabrina, 2020, Sistemi procreativi. Etnografia dell'omogenitorialità in Italia, Milano, Franco Angeli
Hacking Ian (2008), Plasmare le persone. Quattroventi, Milano.
Holmes Seth, (2023), Frutta fresca, corpi spezzati. Braccianti migranti negli Stati Uniti d’America, Milano, Meltemi
Kleinman, A. (1995) Writing at the Margin: Discourse Between Anthropology and Medicine. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Kleinman, A. (2007), What Really Matters. Living a moral life amidst uncertainty and danger. Oxford University Press
Kleinman, A., Das, V. e Lock, M., (a cura), (1997), Social suffering, Berkeley, University of California Press.
Lock M., (1995), Encounters with Aging: Mythologies of Menopause in Japan and North America. University of California Press.
Lock, M. (2001) Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death. University of California Press
Manderson, L.; Burke, N.J.; Wahlberg, A., (eds.), (2021), Viral Loads: Anthropologies of Urgency in the Time of Covid-19, London, UCL Press
Martin, E. (1987) The Woman in the Body. Beacon Press.
Martin, E. (1994) Flexible Bodies. Tracking Immunity in American Culture - From the Days of Polio to the Age of AIDS. Boston: Beacon Press.
Martin Emily, (2009), Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression in American Culture, Princeton University Press
Mattalucci C., (2017), Antropologia e riproduzione. Attese, fratture e ricomposizioni della procreazione e della genitorialità in Italia. Milano, Libreria Cortina.
Mazzeo, A. (2020), Dust Inside: Fighting and Living with Asbestos-Related Disasters in Brazil, Oxfrod: Berghahn Books.
Memmi D. (2003), Faire vivre et laisser mourir. Le Gouvernement contemporain de la naissance et de la mort, La Découverte, Paris.
Minelli M. (2011), Santi, demoni, giocatori. Un'etnografia delle pratiche di salute mentale, Argo, Lecce
Mol A. (2003), The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice, Duke University Press.
Ong A. (1987) Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline. Factory Women in Malaysia. New York: State University of New York.
Petryna A. (2002), Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl, Princeton University Press.
Petryna A., (2009), When Experiments Travel: Clinical Trials and the Global Search for Human Subjects, Princeton University Press.
Petryna, Lakoff, Kleinman, (2006), Global Pharmaceuticals: Ethics, Markets, Practices, Duke University Press.
Quarta Luigigiovanni, 2019, Resti tra noi. Etnografia di un manicomio criminale, Meltemi
Raffaetà, R., (2011), Identità compromesse. Malattia e cultura: il caso dell'allergia. Ledizioni, Milano.
Raffaetà, R., (2020), Antropologia dei microbi. Come la metagenomica sta riconfigurando l’umano e la salute, Roma: CISU.
Ribeiro Corossacz V. (2004) Il corpo della nazione. Classificazione razziale e gestione sociale della riproduzione in Brasile, Roma: CISU
Rose N., (2008), La politica della vita, Einaudi, Torino.
Scheper-Hughes N. (1993) Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil, University of California Press.
Schirripa G., e Vulpiani P., (a cura di) (2000), L'ambulatorio del guaritore. Forme e pratiche del confronto tra biomedicina e medicine tradizionali in Africa e nelle Americhe. Lecce, Argo.
Schirripa, P., (2005) Le politiche della cura. Terapie, potere e tradizione nel Ghana contemporaneo, Argo, Lecce.
Schirripa, P. (a cura di) (2012) Terapie religiose. Rituali di guarigione, modernità, neoliberismo nel pentecostalismo contemporaneo, Roma, CISU
Schirripa, P., (2015) La vita sociale dei farmaci. Produzione, circolazione, consumo degli oggetti materiali della cura, Lecce: Argo.
Seeberg Jens, Andreas Roepstorff, Lotte Meinert (a cura di), (2020), Biosocial Worlds. Anthropology of health environments beyond determinism, UCL Press
Singer Merrill, (2009), Introduction to Syndemics: A Critical Systems Approach to Public and Community Health, Jossey-Bass
Taliani S., e Vacchiano, F., (2006), Altri Corpi. Antropologia ed etnopsicologia della migrazione, Milano, Unicopli.
Urbano Lorenzo, (2023), Scegliere la malattia. Responsabilità e riflessività nella riabilitazione della tossicodipendenza, Lecce, Argo
Young, A. (1995), The Harmony of Illusions. Inventing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Teaching methods
Formal lectures with audio-visual support (when appropriate).
During the second module students of the 12 CFU course will be invited to create groups in order to work collectively on specific issues negotiated with the lecturer. Participation in such groups will substitute points 3 and 4 of the 12 credits program.
Assessment methods
Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.The final exam will be an oral one (presently still online on MS Teams ), 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 showing expositive and critical skills.
Proper language and the ability to critically speak/write about 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.
Insufficient linguistic proficiency and fragmentary knowledge of the books' content will lead to a failure in passing the exam.
Exam sessions are scheduled for the following months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, September, October.
Information on exams dates:
http://www.unibo.it/Portale/Guida/AlmaEsami.htm
Teaching tools
Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.
Attending students are required to register at the following mailing list: ivo.quaranta.Antropologia_Corpo_Malattia
Office hours
See the website of Ivo Quaranta