72401 - Anthropology of North and South America (1)

Academic Year 2022/2023

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

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 indigenous peoples of the Americas. Historical and ethnographic issues.

 
The course aims to provide students on the one hand with a general overview of indigenous America and on the other hand with the tools to begin to undertake an ethnographic analysis of the indigenous Americas.
In the first lectures, the topic of colonisation will be discussed, the category of 'indigenous' will be defined, and the issue of indigenous rights will be exposed.
In the second part of the course, some contemporary ethnographies will be presented in order to understand the ethnographic analysis of the indigenous Americas.

CLASSES WILL BE CONDUCTED BY THE TEACHER IN ATTENDANCE AND WILL BEGIN THE WEEK OF 19 SEPTEMBER.

Readings/Bibliography

 THE TEXTS TO BE PREPARED ARE THE FOLLOWING:

 
- Giraudo L., La questione indigena in America Latina, Carocci, Milan 2009.
- Cammarata R., Indigenous to whom? Diritti e discriminazioni allo specchio, Giappichelli, Turin, 2021.


- One (1) text to be chosen from the following. These are contemporary ethnographies in Italian, Spanish or English; classic texts of the History of American Anthropology in Italian. All texts cover different geographical areas of the Americas.


MEXICO
- Lupo A., The Corn in the Cross. 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., We are all indigenous! Mirror games between Europe and Chiapas, Cleup, Padua, 2013.

- Tallè C., Sentieri di parole. Language, landscape and sense of place in an indigenous fishing community in southern Mexico, Seid, Florence, 2015.

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

- Cuturi F. (ed.), In the name of God. L'impresa missionaria di fronte all'alterità, Roma, Meltemi 2004 (EXCEPT THE LAST TWO CHAPTERS).

- Bonfil Batalla G., México profundo: una civilización negada, México, D.F, Conaculta, 2001.
- Cuturi F., El mundo Ikoots en el arte de tejer de Justina Oviedo. Jayats mitiiüd Justina, Carteles Editores, 2018.

GUATEMALA

- Freddi A., The journey and the plot. Migration, development and power in an indigenous community in Guatemala, Rome, Cisu, 2020.

- Burgos E., My name is Rigoberta Menchu, Milan, Giunti, 2006.
BOLIVIA

- Lelli S., Trasformazioni Guaraní: tra paradigma sciamanico e scuola, Rome, Cisu, 2007.

- Scionti F., Mborookuai Iya. Guaraní jury practice in the Bolivian Chaco, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2019.

-Cerbini F., The soap house. Ethnography of the Bolivian prison of San Pedro, Milan, Mimesis, 206.

ARGENTINA

- Bridges Lucas, Last Border of the World: Journey to Tierra del Fuego,Torino. Einaudi, 2009.

- Franceschi Z.A., Dasso M.C., Ethno-graphies. La scrittura come testimonianza tra i Wichi, Bologna, Emil, 2008.

- Franceschi Z.A., Weaving stories. Ethnography in the Argentine Chaco, Bologna, Emil 2018.

- Salvucci D., Women shepherds, gauchos and children of the wind. Andean ecologies, kinship networks in the Argentine Northwest, Cleup, Padua.

- 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.

ECUADOR

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

BRAZIL

- Chagnon N.A., Dangerous tribes: my life among the Yanomamö and anthropologists, Milan, Il Saggiatore, 2014.

- Kopenawa D., Bruce, A., The Fall of Heaven. Parole di uno sciamano yanomani, Milan, Figure nottetempo, 2010.

- Malighetti R., Il quilombo di Frechal : identity and fieldwork in a Brazilian community of slave descendants, Milan, Cortina, 2004.

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

PERU

 
- Cecconi A., Dreams come from outside. Exploring the Night in the Peruvian Andes, Florence, Edit, 2012.

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

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

UNITED STATES/CANADA

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

- Comba E., La danza del sole, Miti e cosmologia degli indiani delle Pianure, Novalogos, Latina 2013. (First three chapters).

- Savard R., Carcajou at the dawn of the world. Written fragments of an oral innu encyclopaedia, Imprimitur Editrice, Padua, 2018.

- Alliegro E.V., (ed.) Frank Hamilton Cushing among the Zuñi of New Mexico (1879-1884), Rome, Cisu, 2016.

- Alliegro E.V., (ed.) Lewis Henry Morgan and anthropological research on kinship systems, Rome, Cisu, 2017.

- 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.

COLOMBIA

- Mancuso A., Colajanni A., An uncertain future. Development processes and indigenous peoples in Latin America, Rome, Cisu, 2008.

CHILE

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

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

PARAGUAY

- 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.

CURATORSHIPS CONTEMPLATING DIFFERENT PLACES

- Colajanni A., (ed.) The Crystal Feathers. Indigenous nations and state in Latin America, Rome, Meltemi, 1998.

- Schmidt D., Spain F., Collaborative ethnographies and environmental issues: research in contemporary indigenous America, Padua, CLEUP, 2012.

- 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.

- Richard N., Franceschi Z.A., Córdoba L., La misión de la maquina. Têcnica, extractivismo y conversión en las Tierras bajas sudamericanas, Bologna, BUP, 2021.

- Kohn E., Come pensano le foreste, Milan, Nottetempo, 2012.

- 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, Italy, 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). Online journal: https://confluenze.unibo.it/issue/view/574

CLASSICS

- Lévi-Strauss C., Tristi Tropici, Milan, Il Saggiatore, 1960.

- Boas F., The Social Organisation and Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians, preface and edited by Enrico Comba, Rome, Cisu, 2001. INTRODUCTION and CHAPTER 1,2,3.

- Métraux A., Religion and Magical Rites in South America, Milan, Il Saggiatore, 1971.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Teaching tools


The frontal lessons will be supported by Power Point presentations. The Power Point presentation will be uploaded in the “Teaching materials” section of this website.

Office hours

See the website of Zelda Alice Franceschi

SDGs

No poverty Reduced inequalities Life on land

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