30036 - ANTROPOLOGIA CULTURALE E DELLO SVILUPPO / CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Scopo del corso è quello di fornire agli studenti una comprensione adeguata del mondo contemporaneo da una prospettiva culturale. Dopo un’introduzione all’antropologia culturale in cui se ne esaminano le origini, i fondamenti teorici e metodologici e le relazioni con le altre scienze sociali e umane, si tratta delle dinamiche culturali dei processi di globalizzazione. Basandosi su una serie di casi di studio riferiti a diverse aree del pianeta, il corso illustra il ruolo svolto da simboli e oggetti nella definizione delle relazioni sociali (uguaglianza, disuguaglianza, gerarchia) e delle identità culturali in contesti diversi (politici, economici, religiosi, etnici).

• Campi dell’antropologia
• La ricerca antropologica, i suoi fondamenti teorici e le sue basi metodologiche
• la nozione antropologica di cultura
• Media e comunicazione 
• Diversità culturale, disuguaglianze e globalizzazione
• Politiche dell'identità e della memoria
• Cultura materiale e vita sociale delle cose
• Dono, scambio, merce
• Creatività culturale
• L’arte come sistema culturale
• Il collezionismo come pratica trans-culturale

• Conoscere in modo adeguato i concetti e i metodi basilari dell'antropologia culturale.
• Comprendere i rapporti culturalmente significativi che si instaurano tra individui o tra comunità.
• Comprendere il collegamento esistente tra lo scambio e l'uso di immagini, di oggetti, di merci, di doni e le forme di relazione sociale improntate a fattori quali uguaglianza, disuguaglianza, gerarchia in rapporto a dinamiche di tipo economico, religioso, interetnico ecc.

• Utilizzare strumenti antropologici adeguati per collocare le conoscenze acquisite nel contesto dell'iter formativo previsto dal corso di laurea, in riferimento soprattutto agli aspetti socio-culturali connessi con gli eventi artistici e culturali e con speciale attenzione alla comunicazione interculturale nel quadro dei flussi globali .

• Lezioni frontali
• Lezioni online
• Testimonianze (in aula o a distanza)
• Analisi casi studio / Incidents guidati (tradizionali, multimediali)

• Lezioni frontali con utilizzo di software e/o tecnologia innovativa.
• Visione e analisi di video
• Discussioni di teorie e/o casi di studio anche in riferimento ad etnografie condotte in prima persona dal docente.

Il docente attraverso domande aperte accerta la conoscenza  e comprensione dei contenuti del corso con riferimento agli specifici argomenti trattati in aula e ai testi indicati nella bibliografia dell'esame,

Il docente attraverso domande aperte accerta la conoscenza  e comprensione dei contenuti del corso, relativamente ai testi indicati nella bibliografia che per gli studenti non frequentanti prevede un testo aggiuntivo.

Bargna I., a cura, Mediascapes. Pratiche dell'immagine e antropologia culturale, Mimesis, Milano, 2018

Bargna I., Collecting Practices in Bandjoun, Cameroon. Thinking about Collecting as a Research Paradigm, African Arts, 49, 2, 2016

Godbout J., Lo spirito del dono, Bollati Boringhieri Torino, 2002

Ingold T., Antropologia. Ripensare il mondo, Meltemi, Milano, 2020

Plattner S., A Most Ingenious Paradox: The Market for Contemporary Fine Art, American Anthropologist, 100, 2, 1988

Bargna I., a cura, Mediascapes. Pratiche dell'immagine e antropologia culturale, Mimesis, Milano, 2018

Bargna I., Collecting Practices in Bandjoun, Cameroon. Thinking about Collecting as a Research Paradigm, African Arts, 49, 2, 2016

Geertz C., Mondo globale, mondi locali, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2009

Godbout J., Lo spirito del dono, Bollati Boringhieri Torino, 2002

Ingold T., Antropologia. Ripensare il mondo, Meltemi, Milano, 2020

Plattner S., A Most Ingenious Paradox: The Market for Contemporary Fine Art, American Anthropologist, 100, 2, 1988

The course aims to exercise the comparative and ethnographic approach to understand the complexity of the contemporary world. It explores how the globalizing ideas and practices are appropriated and inserted into the local actions and forms. In the first part it provides the students with the main theoretical tools (concept of culture and ethnographic method). In the second part, drawing from ethnographic case-studies, it examines the application of the anthropological perspective to some selected topics.

After successful completion of this course students will be able to:

- understand the complexity of contemporary world using the anthropological theories and methods;

- understand the impact of globalization on the selected topics: culture, organizations, international cooperation and development, finance, art;

- integrate cultural anthropology into an interdisciplinary approach;

- work, interact and communicate in intercultural contexts.

Place the anthropological conceptual tools in the context of the educational process, with particular reference to socio-cultural and artistic aspects as well as to inter-cultural communication.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Online lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)

• Lectures will be structured according to the standard format: they include, in addition to face-to-face lectures, case-studies discussions and interactions with guest speakers who actively contributed to the scientific literature on a specific topic. The lectures are not a simple reproductions of the required readings (all uploaded in the BBboard), which the students are invited to study before classes, in order to enhance their active participation. The lectures and the use of PowerPoint are an integrative support to understand the written material and cannot in any way be considered as autonomous texts to be studied independently.

• Attendance: some of the assigned readings feature a high degree of theoretical complexity. Therefore, students’ attendance is strongly recommended. No formal prerequisites are required.  The lectures provide students the necessary background to understand the contents of the teaching materials.

Oral exam, (100% of the finale grade) based on open questions. It aims to assess the student's skills to elaborate the contents proposed by the course, discussed in class and analysed by the required readings. It verifies the ability to apply the theoretical contributions to case studies and to the topics selected by the course as well as to one's own educational and work projects.

Oral exam, (100% of the finale grade) based on open questions. It aims to assess the student's skills to elaborate the contents proposed by the required readings. It verifies the ability to apply the theoretical contributions to case studies and to the topics selected by the course as well as to one's own educational and work projects.

PART ONE: BUILDING AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Lesson 1.  The Anthropological Perspective

1.1 Shultz E.A., Lavenda R.H. 2014, «What is the Anthropological Perspective?» in Shultz E.A., Lavenda R.H., Cultural Anthropology, Oxford University Press,  Chapter 1 (pp. 4-18).

1.2 Shultz E.A., Lavenda R.H. 2014, «How has Anthropological Thinking about Cultural Diversity Changed over Time?», in Shultz E.A., Lavenda R.H., Cultural Anthropology, Oxford University Press,  chapter 4 (pp. 73-97).

Lesson 2. The Ethnographic Method and the Modern Concept of Science

2.1 Shultz E.A., Lavenda R.H. 2014, «What is Fieldwork?» in  Shultz E.A., Lavenda R.H., Cultural Anthropology, Oxford University Press,   chapter 3. (pp.41-40 = 29)

2.2  Malighetti, R. 2021, Anthropology and Ethnography. Science, Method, Writing,

(eBOOK available on the main platforms: Amazon, Ibs, La Feltrinelli, Mondadori Store, Libreria Universitaria, Hoepli, ecc.)

Lesson 3.  The Ethnographic Method Today

3.1 Malighetti, R. 2020, “The Work and Legacy of Clifford Geertz. An Essay on the Interpretive Turn in Anthropology” in Bérose - Encyclopédie internationale des histoires de l’anthropologie, Paris, IIAC- LAHIC, UMR 8177. URL: http://www.berose.fr/

Lesson 4.  The Contributions of Anthropology to the Scientific Dialogue

4.1 Malighetti, R. 2019, «The plural unification of sciences: the epistemological contributions of a perpetually dissatisfied discipline» in International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology, 3:1, https://doi.org/10.1186/s41257-019-0016-8

Lesson 5.  The Concept of Culture

5.1  Shultz E.A., Lavenda R.H. 2014, «Why Is the Concept of Culture Important?», in  Shultz E.A., Lavenda R.H., Cultural Anthropology, Oxford University Press,  chapter 2 (pp. 21-39).

Lesson 6.  Globalization from an Anthropological Perspective

7.1 Shultz E.A., Lavenda R.H. 2014, «What Can Anthropology Tell Us about Globalization?» Shultz E.A., Lavenda R.H., Cultural Anthropology, Oxford University Press, chapter 14 (pp. 373 – 407).

Lesson 7.  Multiculturalism and identity.

8.1 Malighetti R., 2010, “Identitarian Policies in the Quilombo Frechal: Live Histories in a Brazilian Community of Slave Descendants” in Outlines. Critical Practice Studies, n° 2, pp. 97-112.

PART TWO:  APPLYING ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORIES

Lesson 8.  Anthropology of Development and Cross-cultural Management

7.1. Lewis D. Mosse D. «Encountering Order and Disjuncture: Contemporary Anthropological Perspectives on the Organization of Development», in Oxford Development Studies, Vol. 34, No. 1, 2006, pp. 1-13.

Lesson 9. Anthropology of Organizations and Cross-cultural Management

9.1. Baba, M. L. 2012, Anthropology and Business: Influence and Interests, Journal of Business Anthropology, 1 (1), pp. 20-71.

Lesson 10. Media Anthropology

Peake B.,   2020, «Media Anthropology: Meaning, Embodiment, Infrastructure, And Activism» in Nina Brown, Thomas McIlwraith, Laura Tubelle de González,    Perspectives: An Open Introduction To Cultural Anthropology, American Anthropological Association Arlington, VA. pp. 407-424

Lesson 11. Anthropology of Fashion

10.1 Hansen K.T. «The World in Dress: Anthropological Perspectives on Clothing, Fashion, and Culture», in Annual Review of Anthropology, 2004, vol. 33, pp. 369.392.

Lesson 12. Anthropology of Art and Collecting

12.1 Geertz, C. «Art as a cultural system», in C. Geertz Local Knowledge, Basic Books, New York, 1983, pp. 94-120.

12.2 Kisin E., Myers F.R. «The Anthropology of Art, After the End of Art: Contesting the Art-Culture System», in Annual Review of Anthropology, 2019, vol. 48, pp.  317–34

All teaching materials are online and can be downloaded

The lectures are not simple reproductions of the required readings. The students are invited to study the teaching materials them before classesì in order to enhance their active participation.

The lectures and the use of PowerPoint are integrative supports to the written material. They cannot be considered as autonomous texts to be studied independently.

Non-attending students should add to the required readings the following text:

Ingold T. 2018, Anthropology: why it matters,  Polity Press, Medford.

All teaching materials are online and can be downloaded

The lectures are not simple reproductions of the required readings. The students are invited to study the teaching materials them before classesì in order to enhance their active participation.

The lectures and the use of PowerPoint are integrative supports to the written material. They cannot be considered as autonomous texts to be studied independently.