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

The natives of American continent. Historical and ethnographic issues.

 

The aim of the course is to allow the student to get a general perspective of the indigenous peoples of the American continent and to handle tools to start an ethnographic analysis of the American continent native populations. A pre-requisite to fulfil such an ambitious goal, an active and continuous participation of the student, from the first to the last lesson, is required.

The first part of the course will provide a general overview of the history and dynamics of American continent peopling, together with notions on its colonization in order to define the concept of “native/indigenous people” and to understand the hot question of native rights.

To address these topics the book by David Abulafia, La scoperta dell'umanità. Incontri atlantici nell'età di Colombo (2008) will be analyzed. This key book includes both historical and anthropological issue, and will be critically discussed during the lessons in order to lay the foundations for an understanding of the issue of the American continent natives. The following topics will be specifically address, among others: colonization, the impact of the contact with foreign people, the definition of “native”, the written description of foreign people, syncretism, perpectivism.

The second part of the course will focus on the analysis of key transdisciplinary concepts such as shamanism, cannibalism, syncretism, material culture and myth. The definition of “cultural area” and “linguistic family” will be used to analyze these topics.

Finally, the life and the scientific work/trajectory of Franz Boas, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Alfred Métraux e Curt Nimuendajú will be presented.

The course will start on September 26th

Class hours and rooms:

Monday: 15-17

Thursday: 13-15

Friday: 13-15

AULA II
Piano Primo
Via Zamboni, 38 - Bologna

 

• Thursday September 26th PRESENTATION OF THE COURSE. THE POPULATIONS OF THE AMERICAN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

• Friday September 27th WHO WERE THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE? WHO ARE THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE TODAY?

• Monday September 30th DAVID ABULAFIA: THE DISCOVERY OF THE HUMANITY. A CRITICAL READING OF THE TEXT

• Thursday October 3rd DAVID ABULAFIA: THE DISCOVERY OF THE HUMANITY. A CRITICAL READING OF THE TEXT

• Friday October 4th NO LESSON. PATRON SAINT DAY

• Monday October 7th DAVID ABULAFIA: THE DISCOVERY OF THE HUMANITY. A CRITICAL READING OF THE TEXT

• Thursday October 10th NO LESSON FOR AN INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR

• Friday October 11th NO LESSON FOR AN INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR

• Monday October 14th SOME TRANSVERSAL THEMES FOR THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE AMERICAS: THE SHAMANISM

• Thursday October 17th SOME TRANSVERSAL THEMES FOR THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE AMERICAS: THE MYTHS

• Friday October 18th CULTURAL AREAS AND LINGUISTIC FAMILIES

• Monday October 21st CULTURAL AREAS

• Thursday October 24th THE ANTHROPOLOGIST STUDYNG IN THE AMERICAS: FRANZ BOAS

• Friday October 25th THE ANTHROPOLOGIST STUDYNG IN THE AMERICAS CURT NIMUENDAJÚ

• Monday 28th October THE ANTHROPOLOGIST STUDYNG IN THE AMERICAS: CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS

• Thursday October 31st THE ANTHROPOLOGIST STUDYNG IN THE AMERICAS:: ALFRED MÉTRAUX

•Friday November 1st NO LESSON All Hallows' Day

THE NEXT WEEK NO LESSONS (4/8 November is the didactic break for the Degree exams).

• Monday November 11th A CRITICAL READING OF THE TEXT: “TESSERE STORIE”

• Thursday November 14th CONCLUSION OF THE COURSE.

Readings/Bibliography

READINGS:

•Abulafia D., The discovery of mankind: Atlantic encounters in the age of Columbus, New Haven London, Yale University Press, 2008.

• Two among the following:

• 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.

• Cuturi F., El mundo Ikoots en el arte de tejer de Justina Oviedo. Jayats mitiiüd Justina, Carteles Editores, 2018.

• 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.

• Bonifacio V., Del trabajo ajeno y vacas ariscas Puerto Casado. Genealogías (1886-2000), Centro de Estudios Antropológicos de la Universidad Católica “Nuestra Señora de la Asunción” (CEADUC) Biblioteca Paraguaya de Antropología - Vol. 108.

Teaching methods

The course will consist of lectures supported by audio visual material (when required).

At the end of each lecture there will be a concept checking session to ensure students’ understanding of the themes and issues covered, which will also allow active student participation.

 

Assessment methods

Open questions on each of the texts in the syllabus.

The test will be 3 hour long.

It is essential that students demonstrate they have read all 3 (three) of the volumes mentioned in the syllabus. Lexis, format, as well as the student’s capacities for organization and synthesis will be assessed.

In marking the following assessment criteria will be applied:

30 cum Laude: exceptional exam, solid knowledge, articulate discursive skills, expressive competence, and ability to synthesize.

30: outstanding result, adequate and appropriate knowledge, well-articulated and correctly expressed notions. Good ability to synthesize.

29-27: good exam, more than adequate knowledge, good capacity for expression. Fair ability to synthesize

26-24: fair exam, basic but not exhaustive knowledge, and or not consistently well articulated. Sufficient ability to synthesize.

23-21: passable exam, general but superficial knowledge; limited capacity for expression and confused discourse management. Passable ability to synthesize.

20-18: barely passable exam, discourse management and expressions demonstrating inadequate knowledge. Modest ability to synthesize.

<18: inadequate exam, deficient or severely inadequate knowledge, lack of bearing as regards the subject matter.

EXAM RESULT: The professor will communicate the mark via email to the student’s Unibo email address 10 days after the exam date. Students will have a week from the date of said communication to accept or refuse their mark.

If students wish to see their paper they may do so during office hours, within a two week frame.

For information on exam dates and signing up, please see the Almaesami program, at the following address: [http://www.unibo.it/Portale/Guida/AlmaEsami.htm].

 

Teaching tools

Students attending the course are kindly requested to enroll in the following distribution list, so as to receive any urgent notices on changes to the timetable or the venue of lessons:

zelda.franceschi.Antropologia-Americhe

Office hours

See the website of Zelda Alice Franceschi