11292 - ANTROPOLOGIA CULTURALE (1)

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

Al termine del corso lo studente conosce i principali temi e apparati concettuali che fondano la disciplina . Acquisisce inoltre competenze volte a favorire la comunicazione fra differenti realtà socio-culturali. è in grado di discutere criticamente le principali correnti di pensiero nonché di applicarle alle situazioni sociali caratterizzate da varietà culturale. Applica i principali modelli di analisi critica e processuale dei concetti di cultura, etnie, generi, e generazioni e sa problematizzare gli aspetti socio-culturali che riguardano i processi migratori, la globalizzazione e la società della conoscenza. Sa ascoltare, comprendere e comunicare nel rispetto di punti di vista culturali diversi e sviluppa capacità di giudizio sia sul piano professionale, sia su quello umano ed etico.

Contenuti

This course, which is taught in English, looks at Anthropology through the intertwined lens of (post)colonialism, gender, race and the environment.

The first weeks will involve a general introduction on anthropology as a discipline that was for a long time tasked with studying and constructing "otherness" - that is "culture(s)"- as object of enquiry. We will carry on by tracing how the discipline has changed over time and shifted its focus from the study of culture to the study of boundaries as relational and contextual processes through which communities come into being. We will then look at key anthropological scholars and work that has helped understanding the working of gender, race, war, colonialism and empire and their interrelation.  In this context, we will focus on research of scholars who argue for a need to 'decolonise anthropology'. Indigenous Black and brown anthropologists have been among the most prominent figures in underlying the colonial roots of anthropology and the need to decolonise the discipline.

While the focus of the discipline has by and large been on human subjects and communities - their diversities and commonalities, cultural and social systems, power relations, rituals and beliefs- with the human induced climate crisis and ensuing planetary devastation, emphasis is now posed also onto the relationship between the human and non-human, whether it be nature (animals, vegetation, rivers) and/or buildings and ruins. In this light, students will also be introduced to some of the debates and theories, particularly those initiated by Indigenous scholars across a variety of contexts, on questions of violence, ecologies, co-existence, (in)justice and reparation.

From boundaries to borders :The final and more thematic part of the course will look at how the study of human (im)mobility has contributed to a more refined understanding of issues of power, time, death, life, the environment, borders and bodies.

The red thread throughout the course revolves around the question: What is anthropology and who is/was it for? In this context, the course will also include a timely seminar on what anthropology can and must do in the face of genocide, ecocide and scholasticide, most notably in Palestine. What responsibilities and complicities exist? What is the relation between knowledge and power?

 

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is suggested that they get in touch as soon as possible with the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) and with the lecturer in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the examination.

Testi/Bibliografia

For attending students a complete syllabus will be uploaded at the beginning of the course.

Metodi didattici

Classes will be a mixture of frontal and guest lectures, class discussions and presentations. We will also rely on audio-visuals, documentaries, blogs, podcasts and visual arts story-telling, maps, fiction and non fiction work.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Attending students will be doing their own short mini-ethnographic project which will be presented and discussed in class. The aim of this exercise is to learn how to think anthropologically about the contexts in which we live and breathe, (or die ) and beyond.

For this exercise students will be invited to select a topic of their interest. It can be something that they are involved with in their daily life (hobbies, activism, travels, community issues, family memories, identity issues among others ) but can also be about a more theoretical or political question (examples include: reproductive technologies, environmental struggles, reparation, feminicide, migration, euthanasia, genocide), they will be asked to thoroughly engage with anthropological literature by searching and selecting a minimum of 5 anthropological articles on their chosen subject which will serve to elaborate and define a research question. They will then engage in a mini-ethnographic project which might include interviews, searching through family or other "archives", analysis of media discourse, photographs, participant observation and other methods.

Students will then write a blog/commentary on their project.

Past mini-ethnographies have included ethnographies of crochet groups and material cultures, gender masculinities and fishing, yoga cultures, waiting in train stations and many others.

Non-attending students: An oral exam based on the following text:

Nina Brown, Thomas McIlwraith, Laura Tubelle de González (2020) Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology Part 1 and 1 chapter of your choice from Part 2. Pressbooks

The book is available for free to download at:

https://perspectives.americananthro.org/Chapters/Perspectives.pdf

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Ruba Salih