39426 - Historical Anthropology (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

Underscoring the importance of a diachronic dimension in anthropological thinking, the course will discuss the history and the core themes of scientific debate concerning historical anthropology and ethnohistory. At the end of the course, the student should have acquired a basic knolwledge of methods and theory of histirical anthropology, as well as the ability to carry on an anthropological reading of various kind of historical sources.

Course contents

Historical anthropology and colonial processes.

The course isplanned as an introduction tohistorical anthropology and will resume the theoretical and methodological debate concerningthe relationships between anthropology, history and - mainly in the American continent - archaeology. Specifically, it will be shown how historical anthropology, beside bringing back the temporal dimension at the very center of anthropological thinking, gave its best results in the analysis of colonial processes. Overcoming the fallacious dichotomic oppositions between colonized and colonizers, between tradition and modernity, the discipline revealed how in colonial situations the various social actors were involved in a process of mutual redefinition and transformation that was also reflected in historical sources whose complexity can only be understood in light of the historical, political, economic, and cultural processes that determined the specific conditions of knowledge production in a context of colonial semiosis.

Part of the course will focus on the Mesoamerican area and, beside introducing elements of early colonial history in New Spain, will deal with problems linked to the reading of colonial sources that, due to formation processes and production contexts, can be defined as hybrid.". In particular, we will present some 16th century texts produced by Franciscan missionaries through “proto-ethnographic” methodologies including questionnaires, dialogues with indigenous informants, and use of native language. The analysis of some specific cases will show haw these sources area characterized by a deep polyphony where the relationship between colonizer and colonized is revealed in a dialectic between different forms of memory recording and in a complex interrelation between orality, pictography, and alphabetic writing.

Lessons starting on November, 13th, 2012

Tuesday, h. 15-17, Aula Fumagalli, P.za san Giovanni in Monte, 2

Wednesday, h. 15-17, Aula Fumagalli, P.za san Giovanni in Monte, 2

Thursday, h. 15-17, Aula Fumagalli, P.za san Giovanni in Monte, 2

Readings/Bibliography

Viazzo, Pier Paolo, Introduzione all'antropologia storica, Laterza, Roma 2000.

Todorov Tzvetan e Georges Baudot, Racconti aztechi della Conquista, Einaudi, Torino1988(only pages. IX-L and 5-114, regarding nahuatl texts).

Hill Boone, Elizabeth, “Pictorial Documents and Visual Thinking in Postconquest Mexico”, in Elizabeth Hill Boone and Tom Cummins (eds.), Native Traditions in the Postconquest World, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C. 1998. Scaricabile dal sito:

http://www.doaks.org/resources/publications/doaks-online-publications/pre-columbian-studies/native/trad07.pdf

Domenici Davide, "Vesti di segni, disegni di vesti. Lo scambio di doni nei primi incontri tra aztechi e spagnoli", in Sergio Botta (a cura di ), America indigena, Quaderni di simbologia del vestire, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, Roma 2007. (downloadable from the didactic materials linked to the present program)

Apart from mandatory readings, students must choose one of the following texts:

Asad, Talal (ed.),Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter, Ithaca Press, London 1975.

Axel, Brian Keith (ed.), From the Margins. Historical Anthropology and Its Futures, Duke University Press, Durham & London 2002.

Baudot, Georges, Utopia e storia in Messico. I primi cronisti della civiltà messicana, 1520-1569, Biblioteca Francescana, Milano 1991.

Bellagamba Alice, L'Africa e la stregoneria. Saggio di antropologia storica, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2008.

Comaroff John e Jean Comaroff, Ethnography and the Historical Imagination, Westview Press, Boulder 1992.

Fabian Joannes, Il tempo e gli altri. La politica del tempo in antropologia, L'ancora del Mediterraneo, Napoli 1999.

Gruzinski, Serge, La colonizzazione dell'immaginario. Società indigene e occidentalizzazione nel Messico spagnolo, Einaudi, Torino 1994.

Gruzinski, Serge – Bernard, Carmen, Dell'idolatria. Un'archeologia delle scienze religiose, Einaudi, Torino 1995.

Sahlins, Marshall,Isole di Storia. Società e mito nei mari del sud, Einaudi, Torino 1986.

Thomas, Nicholas, Out of Time. History and Evolution in Anthropological Discourse, University of Michigan Press, Chicago 1996.

Wachtel, Nathan, La visione dei vinti. Gli indios del Perù di fronte alla conquista spagnola, Einaudi, Torino 1977.

Nota: Students of archaeology can choose the following text :

Gosden Christopher, Anthropology and Archaeology: A Changing Relationship, Routledge, London-New York 2005.

Students that cannot find some of the English volumes are invited to contact the professor.

Hill Boone, Elizabeth, “Pictorial Documents and Visual Thinking in Postconquest Mexico”, in Elizabeth Hill Boone and Tom Cummins (eds.), Native Traditions in the Postconquest World, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C. 1998. Downloadable at: http://www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/Native/trad07.pdf

Domenici Davide, "Vesti di segni, disegni di vesti. Lo scambio di doni nei primi incontri tra aztechi e spagnoli", in Sergio Botta (a cura di ), America indigena, Quaderni di simbologia del vestire, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, Roma 2007. (Downloadable in the "materiali didattici" section of the program)

Beside the above-mentioned texts, the student must choose one of the following texts:

Baudot, Georges, Utopia e storia in Messico. I primi cronisti della civiltà messicana, 1520-1569, Biblioteca Francescana, Milano 1991.

Bellagamba Alice, L'Africa e la stregoneria. Saggio di antropologia storica, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2008.

Botta, Sergio, Religione e conquista: saggi sul discorso coloniale in Messico, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, Roma 2008.

Burkhart, Louise M., The Slippery Earth. Nahua-Christian Moral Dialogue in Sixteenth-Century Mexico, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson 1989.

Gruzinski, Serge, La colonizzazione dell'immaginario. Società indigene e occidentalizzazione nel Messico spagnolo, Einaudi, Torino 1994.

Gruzinski, Serge – Bernard, Carmen, Dell'idolatria. Un'archeologia delle scienze religiose, Einaudi, Torino 1995.

Ricard, Robert, La conquete spirituelle du Mexique: essai sur l'apostolat te les methodes missionnaires des ordres mendiants en Nouvelle-Espagne de 1523-24 a 1572, Institut d'Ethnologie, Paris 1933. Disponibile anche nella traduzione spagnola: La conquista espiritual de México : ensayo sobre el apostolado y los métodos misioneros de las órdenes mendicantes en la Nueva España de 1523-1524 a 1572, Fondo de Cultura Economica, Messico 1986.

Roulet, Eric, L'évangélisation des Indiens du Mexique. Impact et réalité de la conquête spirituelle (XVIe siècle), Presses Universitaire de Rennes, Rennes 2008.

Sahlins Marshall, Isole di storia. Società e mito nei mari del Sud, Einaudi, Torino 1986.

Note: Students in Archeologia e Culture del Mondo Antico can choose the following text:

Gosden Christopher, Anthropology and Archaeology: A Changing Relationship, Routledge, London-New York 2005.

Teaching methods

The frontal lessons, in which discussion of new findings and publication will be stimulated, will be integrated by discussion sessions and speeches aimed to inform the students about the ongoing researches.

Assessment methods

The final exam will be an oralone, with questionsaimed to verify the student's knowledge of the themes discussed during frontal lessons as well as those treated in the program's texts.

Teaching tools

The frontal lessons will be supported by Power Point presentations in order to visualize elements that, due to their "exotic" character, are scarcely known to the students.During classwork, selected parts ofEarly Colonial Mesoamerican historical sources will be read and commented.

Office hours

See the website of Davide Domenici