00045 - Cultural Anthropology

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide the basic tools useful to understand the concept of cultural diversity, in all its expressions and with reference to the different dimensions of experience and human condition. The course also aims to highlight meanings, dynamics and processes, even conflictual ones, that in contemporary societies derive from the high concentration of cultural diversity in close contact, according to an ethnographic approach. At the end of the course students acquire: 1. the ability to identify the contents of diversity (religion, eating habits, behaviours, identity, memory, communication, etc.) and correctly analyze its meanings and implications; 2. the ability to use an empirical observation practice in reading social behaviours and their cultural meaning; 3. the ability to conceptually manage the confrontation with cultural diversity within the great contemporary social scenarios.

Course contents

Starting from an idea of cultural anthropology as the study and practical understanding of cultural diversity, the course aims a) to provide the basic methodological tools for anthropological reflection and ethnographic research, b) to present the main theoretical approaches; c) to enhance students' ability to critically orient themselves towards the main cultural dynamics of contemporary societies.
At the end of the course, the student will also have acquired the ability to observe cultural phenomena from an ethnographic perspective, starting from the details of everyday life in the direction of the broader global frames in which they fit. Main topics:

1. What is cultural anthropology; 2. The concept of culture; 3. Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism; 4. Ethnography; 5. Evolution, diffusion, function and structure of culture; 6. Anthropologists and ethnographers: interpreting cultures; 7. Cultural identity; 8. Cultural "traffic"; 9. Uniformity or diversity of cultures; 10. Transnational and delocalized cultures; 11. Forms of mobility: emigrants, immigrants, foreigners, travelers, tourists; 12. Global imagination and imagined communities. 13. Construction of memory and cultural heritage.

Readings/Bibliography

1. Fabietti U. Malighetti R., Matera V., Dal tribale al globale, Pearson, 2020.

2. Matera V., Antropologia contemporanea. La diversità culturale in un mondo globale, Laterza, 2017.

Not attending students:

3. Due testi a scelta fra i seguenti:

Matera V. (a cura di), Storia dell'etnografia. Autori, teorie, pratiche, Carocci, 2020.

- Fabietti U., Matera V., Memorie e identità, Meltemi, 2018.

- Harrison R., Il Patrimonio culturale, a cura di V. Matera e L. Rimoldi, Pearson, 2020.

- Valeria Ribeiro Corossacz, Bianchezza e mascolinità in Brasile, Mimesis.

- Alessandro Mancuso, Altre persone. Antropologia, visioni del mondo e ontologie indigene, Mimesis.

- Maria Angelillo (a cura di), Teoria e prassi dello spazio in India, Mimesis.

- Alessandra Brivio, Donne, emancipazione e marginalità. Antropologia della schiavitù e della dipendenza in Ghana, Meltemi.

- Max Gluckman, Analisi di una situazione sociale nel moderno Zululand, a cura di M. Gardini e L. Rimoldi, Ledizioni, 2019.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures, in-depth seminars, debates and written exercises

Assessment methods

Oral examination. The examination consists of an oral interview, with specific dates, which will be published in advance on Almaesami.
The examination requires the knowledge of the texts included in the syllabus and evaluates the student's critical and expositive capacity and coherent argumentation. Students who want to take the exam have to register through the relative web page of Almaesami, and have to prepare the entire exam. Students who have prepared only part of the material will not be admitted to the exam.
The final result of the exam will be: insufficient in case of poor expression during the exam, and lack of or incorrect critical analysis of the texts in the syllabus; sufficient in case of correct expression, acquisition of basic knowledge and understanding of the specific line of reflection of cultural anthropology; good in case of expressive mastery and knowledge of the texts; excellent in case of excellent expressive and critical capacity, together with in-depth knowledge of the texts in the syllabus.
Students who require further clarifications may contact the professor by e-mail and/or ask for a meeting. The professor will also be available to answer students' questions at the beginning and end of each lesson.

Teaching tools

power point, online learning materials 

Office hours

See the website of Vincenzo Matera