72401 - Anthropology of North and South America (1)

Learning outcomes

The course is aimed at providing the student the basic elements of the history of anthropological research in the Americas. It will also analyse the long process that, starting in the early Colonial period, led to the construction of an “indigenous” identity that came to be not only the object of anthropological research but also the subject of the complex political and cultural dynamics that today characterize the American continent. The student should thus acquire anthropological tools useful to look at both historical and contemporary phenomena.

Course contents

 LESSONS STARTING ON 2 october 2017

Natives in Americas. Historiographical and ethnographical issues.

The first part of the module is focused on the Bulgarian critic Tzvetan Todorov’s (1992): a fundamental book in order to understand how the topic of the American natives is analysed from an historical and anthropological perspective. The module investigates the following themes: the encounter with “ otherness”, the naming and the definition of “native”, the writing of “otherness”, the syncretism, the “perspectivism”. The second part of the module is focused on the definition of the two concepts of “cultural area” and “ linguistic family”.

In the third part some main ethnographic texts of the history of anthropology - Franz Boas, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Alfred Métraux -are analysed . Finally some contemporary ethnographies are

The main aims of the teaching module are 1- to provide a methodological framework in order to understand the social and historical American background in its complexity 2- To offer an adequate terminology and lexicon 3- to give basic anthropological tools for starting an investigation of the American continent.

Readings/Bibliography

Readings/Bibliography

STUDENTS MUST PREPARE THREE TEXTS.

THE SYLLABUS FOR BOTH ATTENDING AND NON ATTENDING STUDENTS IS THE SAME, SINCE THE TEACHER WILL MAKE ALL MATERIALS USED DURING THE LESSONS AVAILABLE AT THE END OF THE COURSE.

THE MATERIALS WILL BE FOUND AT THE PHOTOCOPY SHOP MASTERCOPY IN VIA CARTOLERIA AS WELL AS ONLINE (Materiali Didattici).

A COMPULSORY TEXT:

•T.Todorov, La conquista dell'America, Torino, Einaudi, 2014 (1982).

One text to be chosen amongst those listed under 1 (AREA IN DEPTH STUDY) and on text to be chosen amongst those listed under 2 (GENERAL IN DEPTH STUDY )

1) AREA IN DEPTH STUDY.

• Lupo A., Il mais nella croce. Pratiche e dinamiche religiose nel Messico indigeno, Roma, Cisu, 2009.

• Cuturi F., Juan Olivares. Un pescatore scrittore del Messico indigeno, Roma, Meltemi, 2003.

• Apostoli Cappello E., Tutti siamo indigeni! Giochi di specchi tra Europa e Chiapas, Cleup, Padova, 2013.

• Tallè C., Sentieri di parole. Lingua, paesaggio e senso del luogo in una comunità indigena di pescatori nel Messico del sud, Seid, Firenze, 2015.

• Lévi-Strauss C., Tristi Tropici, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 1960.

• Lelli S., Trasformazioni Guaraní: tra paradigma sciamanico e scuola, Roma, Cisu, 2007.

• Bridges Lucas, Ultimo confine del mondo: viaggio nella Terra del Fuoco,Torino. Einaudi, 2009.

• Gnerre M., La saggezza dei fiumi, Roma, Meltemi, 2003.

• Chagnon N.A., Tribù pericolose: la mia vita tra gli Yanomamö e gli antropologi, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2014.

• Franceschi Z.A., Dasso M.C., Etno-grafie. La scrittura come testimonianza tra i Wichi, Bologna, Emil, 2008.

• Boas F., L' organizzazione sociale e le società segrete degli indiani kwakiutl, prefazione e cura di

Enrico Comba, Roma, Cisu, 2001. INTRODUZIONE e CAPITOLO 1,2,3.

• Comba E., Il cerchio della vita: uomini e animali nell'universo simbolico degli indiani delle pianure, Torino, Il Segnalibro, 1999.

• Comba E., La danza del sole, Miti e cosmologia degli indiani delle Pianure, Novalogos, Latina 2013. (Primi tre capitoli).

• Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, Il cosmo amazzonico : simbolismo degli indigeni tukano del Vaupés (a cura di A.Colajanni), Milano, Adelphi, 2014.

• Mancuso A., Colajanni A., Un futuro incerto. Processi di sviluppo e popoli indigeni in America latina, Roma, Cisu, 2008.

• Burgos E., Mi chiamo Rigoberta Menchu, Milano, Giunti, 2006.

• Casagrande O., Il tempo spezzato. Biografia di una famiglia mapuche tra golpe ed esilio, Padova, Unicopli, 2015.

• Venturoli S., Il paesaggio come testo: la costruzione di un'identità tra territorio e memoria nell'area andina, Bologna, Clueb 2004.

• Quattrocchi P., Corpo, riproduzione e salute tra le donne maya dello Yucatan (Messico), Ospedaletto, Pacini, 2011.

• Malighetti R., Il quilombo di Frechal : identità e lavoro sul campo in una comunità brasiliana di discendenti di schiavi, Milano, Cortina, 2004.

2) GENERAL IN DEPTH STUDY

• Colajanni A., ( a cura di) Le piume di cristallo. Indigeni nazioni e stato in America Latina,Roma, Meltemi, 1998.

• Schmidt D., Spagna F., Etnografie collaborative e questioni ambientali: ricerche nell'America indigena contemporanea, Padova, CLEUP, 2012.

• Giraudo L., La questione indigena in America Latina, Roma, Carocci, 2009.

• Cammarata R., Indigeno a chi? Diritti e discriminazioni allo specchio, Torino, Giappichelli Editore, 2012.

• Cuturi F. (a cura di), In nome di Dio. L’impresa missionaria di fronte all’alterità, Roma, Meltemi 2004 (TRANNE GLI ULTIMI DUE CAPITOLI).

• Clastres P., La società contro lo Stato. Ricerche di antropologia politica, Verona, Ombre Corte, 2003.

• E.Banfi & Grandi N., Le lingue extra-europee: America, Australia e lingue di contatto, Roma, Carocci, 2008. SOLO IL CAPITOLO DI M.Gnerre, “La distribuzione delle principali famiglie linguistiche nel continente americano”.

• Franceschi Z.A., Peveri V. Raccontare di gusto : arti del cibo e della memoria in America latina e Africa, Pisa, ETS, 2014.

•Cattarulla C., (a cura di) Identità culinarie in Sudamerica, Nova Delphi Roma, 2017.

ERASMUS STUDENTS AND STUDENTS WHO DESIRE TO STUDY TEXTS IN SPANISH, ENGLISH OR FRENCH MAY ALSO CHOOSE AMONGST THE FOLLOWING TEXTS. IT IS HOWEVER ESSENTIAL THAT THE TEXTS STUDIED BE 3 (THREE) IN ALL.

• Bengoa J., La emergencia indígena en America Latina, Santiago, Fondo de Cultura Economica, 2007.

• Carrasco M., Briones C., La tierra que nos quitaron: reclamos indígenas en Argentina, Iwgia Grupo Internacional de Trabajo sober Asuntos Indígenas, 1996.

• Carrasco M., Zimerman S., Argentina: el caso Lhaka Honhat, Copenhagen, International WorkGroup for Indigenous Affairs, 2006.

• Gow P., An Amazonian myth and its history, New York, Oxford University Press, 2001.

• Rival L. The Social life of trees: anthropological perspective on tree symbolism, Oxford-New York, Berg, 1998.

• Combés I., La tragedie cannibale chez les anciens Tupi-Guarani, Paris, PUF, 1992.

• Bastien J.W., Healers of the Andes : Kallawaja herbalists and their medicinal plants, Salt Lake City University of Utah Press, 1987.

• Cruikshank J., Life lived like a story: life stories of three Yukon native elders, Lincoln, Bison Book 1992.

• Cruikshank J., Do glaciers listen? Local knowledge, colonial encounters, and social imagination, Vancouver, Toronto, UBC Press, 2005.

• Kohn E., How forests think: toward an anthropology beyond the human, Berkeley University of California Press, 2013.

• Bonfil Batalla G., México profundo: una civilización negada, México, D.F, Conaculta, 2001.

• Oakdale S., I foresee my life: the ritual performance of autobiography in an Amazonian community, Lincoln, University of Nebraska press, 2005.

• Basso E., Sherzar J., (coordinadores), Las culturas nativas latinoamericanas a traves de su discurso: ponencias del simposio del 46. Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Amsterdam, Julio de 1988, Quito, Ecuador, Abya-Yala -Roma, Italia, MLAL, 1990.

• Basso E., Native Latin American cultures through their discourse, Bloomington, Indiana University, 1990.

• González Díez J., Viazzo P.P., How to study family diversity in Latin America: methodologies for an anti-hegemonic perspective, Vol 8, No 1 (2016). Rivista in rete: https://confluenze.unibo.it/issue/view/574

•Métraux A., Religions et magies indiennes d'Amérique du Sud, Paris, Gallimard, 1967.

Teaching methods

LECTURES, COUPLED WITH END OF LECTURE Q&A AND DISCUSSIONS ON THEMES TOUCHED UPON DURING LESSONS, PPT AND VIDEOS RELEVANT TO THE TOPICS OF THE COURSE.

 

Assessment methods

END OF COURSE EXAM:

WRITTEN TEST, PARTLY WITH MULTIPLE ANSWER QUESTIONS AND OPEN QUESTIONS.

LENGTH: 3 HOURS

IT IS FUNDAMENTAL THAT STUDENTS SHOW THEY HAVE READ ALL THREE (3) OF THE TEXTS IN THE SYLLABUS. STUDENTS WILL THEN BE ASSESSED ON THEIR LEXIS, FORM, THEIR ABILITY TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES AND TO SYNTHESISE.

ASSESSMENT

Excellent: achieving an organic vision of the themes offered during the lessons and a critical effort showing mastery of the contents and of technical language.

Average: knowledge by rote and a not wholly accurate use of the technical lexis.

Pass: minimal knowledge of topics encountered (names, dates), without outstanding errors.

Fail: lack of minimum requirements (as detailed in Pass)

RESULT OF THE EXAM: the mark achieved will be make known via email (exclusively at the student’s university email address) 10 days after the exam. Students will have to answer via email to communicate their acceptance or refusal of the mark within a week of said communication.

If students wish to see their exam, they may do so during office hours and they have two weeks to do so.

 

Office hours

See the website of Zelda Alice Franceschi