00045 - Cultural Anthropology (A-E)

Course contents

Antropologia culturale (A-E )

Prof. Ivo Quaranta

Lectures start on Wednesday the 30th of september 2009

Title: Models of manhood and anthropopoiesis   contents

The course consists of two 30 hours modules.
Students taking the 6 CFU (credits) exam must prepare the texts for the first of the modules only. The 12 CFU exam calls for the preparation of the syllabus of both the modules.
First module
In the first module the specificity of anthropological reflection is investigated, examining the main themes and conceptual apparatuses that underpin anthropology as a science. Themes tackled: Relationship between Nature and Culture (1st week), Identity and Otherness (2nd week), Forms of Social Organisation (3rd week), Ethnography and Representation (4th week) Persons and antropopoiesi (cultural construction of man) (5th week).

Second module

The second module will deal with the history of Anthropology, synoptically describing the main currents of thought that through time have redefined the technical and methodological paradigms of the investigation of different human realities in historical and cultural terms. Themes: From Evolutionism to British Functionalism (1st week) From Sociology to Anthropological Structuralism in France (2nd week) American Anthropology, from Boas to the Crisis of Ethnographical Representation (3rd week), the Italian Panorama (4th week)

In-depth Analysis: 2 classic monographs of Malinowski and Evans-Pritchard will be considered. The course will focus on the biographies of the authors, their methodologies and the influence of their work in the history of the discipline. For the exam, students are expected to choose and study only one monograph. 

Recommended reading

First module: Foundations of Cultural Anthropology

a) Destro A., “Complessità dei mondi culturali”, Bologna, Pàtron, 2001.

b) Remotti F., (a cura di), “Forme di umanità”, Milano, Mondadori, 2002.

Second module: classics in anthropology

c) Fabietti U., Storia dell'Antropologia, Bologna, Zanichelli (2nd edition), 2001 (excluding chapters number: 1, 6, 8, 9, 11, 17, 20 and the section exemplary texts).

d) one monograph among: 1) Malinowski B., Gli Argonauti del Pacifico Occidentale. Riti magici e vita

                                                 quotidiana nella società primitiva, Torino, Boringhieri, 2004 [1922].

                                                 Evans-Pritchard E.E., Stregoneria, oracoli e magia tra gli Azande,

                                                 Milano, Cortina, 2002 [1937]. (english versions are accepted)

Orario e sede delle lezioni:

Wednesday  15-17 room II in Via Zamboni, 38

Thursday 11-13 room V in Via Zamboni, 38

Friday 11-13 aula V in Via Zamboni, 38

 

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

monograph. 

Recommended reading

First module: Foundations of Cultural Anthropology

a) Destro A., “Complessità dei mondi culturali”, Bologna, Pàtron, 2001.

b) Remotti F., (a cura di), “Forme di umanità”, Milano, Mondadori, 2002.

Second module: classics in anthropology

c) Fabietti U., Storia dell'Antropologia, Bologna, Zanichelli (2nd edition), 2001 (excluding chapters number: 1, 6, 8, 9, 11, 17, 20 and the section exemplary texts).

d) one monograph among: 1) Malinowski B., Gli Argonauti del Pacifico Occidentale. Riti magici e vita

                                                 quotidiana nella società primitiva, Torino, Boringhieri, 2004 [1922].

                                                 Evans-Pritchard E.E., Stregoneria, oracoli e magia tra gli Azande,

                                                 Milano, Cortina, 2002 [1937]. (english versions are accepted)

  

Assessment methods

Oral exam

Office hours

See the website of Ivo Quaranta