93246 - Anthropology of Material Culture (1)

Learning outcomes

The course purports to investigate, within the Italian and international debate, the notion of material and immaterial culture, with the aim of singling out its characteristics and the various research approaches. Students will be formed to carry out fieldwork research in its applied aspects in the domain of collecting, producing and using objects, and their forms of consumption and enhancement in the communities, organizations, institutions and museums. The course will provide a basis to continue relevant training at higher educational levels.

Course contents

The course aims to introduce students to the anthropology of material culture through a general overview of the main lines of research and specific case studies that investigate and problematize the complex, diverse and possible relationships established between people and things.

The study of material culture, as a broad interdisciplinary field, offers the possibility of understanding how certain objects become piece of art, symbols of power, identity icons, tourist images, valuable merchandise or waste. During the lectures, various investigations will be examined concerning both the study of objects that populate contemporary everyday life and the social life of objects through their production, circulation and consumption.

Particular emphasis will be given to recent debates on:

- The role of objects in defining relationships between worlds and objects of ethnological interest as creators of connective and dialogic heritage through restitution and sharing;

- the experience of materiality in the digital age, analyzing the challenges that technological innovations pose for the transformation of the concepts of "object", "collection", "archive" in the museum and artistic context.

Readings/Bibliography

3 Mandatory readings:

1. Dei, F., Meloni, P., 2017, Antropologia della cultura materiale, Roma: Carocci

2. Miller, D., 2013, Per un'antropologia delle cose, Milano: Ledizioni

3.  Harrison, R., 2020, Il patrimonio culturale. Un approccio critico, Milano: Pearson.

or alternatively:

3. Ingold, T., 2019, Making. Antropologia, archeologia, arte e architettura, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.

Further suggested readings (not mandatory)

Bonetti, R., Simonicca, A., (a cura di) 2016, Etnografia e processi di patrimonializzazione. Roma: CISU.

Ciabarri, L., (a cura di), 2018, Cultura Materiale, Oggetti, immaginari, desideri in viaggio tra mondi, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore

Clifford, J.,1988, The Predicament of Culture. Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art, Harvard University Press.

Edwards, E., Gosden, C., Philips, R.B., 2006, Sensible objects. Colonialism, Museums and Material Culture, Oxford: Berg.

Gell, A., 2021, Arte e agency. Una teoria antropologica, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.

Herman, A., 2022, Restituzione. Il ritorno a casa dei tesori trafugati, Johan & Levi

Miller, D., Cose che parlano di noi, Milano: Il Mulino.

Paini A., Aria M.2014. La densità delle cose. Oggetti ambasciatori tra Oceania e Europa, Pisa: Pacini.

Palumbo B. 2006, L'Unesco e il campanile. Antropologia, politica e beni culturali in Sicilia orientale, Roma: Meltemi.

Taussig M, 2019, Il mio museo della cocaina, Milano: Milieu.

Thomas N. 1991. Entangled Objects: Exchange, Material Culture, and Colonialism in the Pacific. Harvard University Press.

Tilley C. 2006, Handbook of Material Culture. London: SAGE

 

Teaching methods

Lectures will be complemented by lessons involving active participation by students, who will work individually or in groups on specific areas of interest related to material culture. Readings and visual presentations will be offered to meet the learning needs of the students present in class.

Assessment methods

The student will take an individual oral examination to test learning with respect to the development of skills related to the themes and problems of the Anthropology of Material Culture.
Assessment will take into account application in relation to the study of the bibliography provided, active participation in class and contributions made during lectures.

Teaching tools

Information and communication technologies, audiovisual tools.

Attending students are kindly requested to subscribe to the following distribution list in order to receive any communications and materials useful for the course of study:

chiara.scardozzi.cultura_materiale

Office hours

See the website of Chiara Scardozzi