Programme

The students will be introduced to the major concepts, theories and methods employed by anthropologists to understand social and cultural aspects of human experience, with a particular attention to specifical mechanisms of human relationships and social systems.
They will be also familiarised with fieldwork practice and ethnographic research, so as to form a skilled and qualified personnel, sensitive to the complexities of nowadays.
On completing the course, the students should be able to apply the concepts and perspectives learned in the course of the lessons to new, original research fields and broader contexts, making interdisciplinary connections.
Acquiring the knowledge of the fundamentals of ethno-anthropology, at the end of the course the students should be able to deal independently with anthropological topics and issues.
Besides knowledge and understanding of key terms, concepts and methods in ethnology and anthropology, at the end of the course students will be expected to demonstrate the capacity to express, present and explain with the necessary clarity their knowledge.
The systematic self-reflection peculiar to the anthropological approach, its critical self-conscious thinking not only about the “objects” of its research but also about the tools used to describe and interpret them, is expected to favour the develop in the student of important learning skills such as creative and critical thinking, which will be decisive throughout their formative years and beyond.
The course aims at providing the students with the fundamentals of anthropology, updated and adjusted to the urgencies of modernity and current affairs.

Core Documentation

1. A textbook for the general part:
Matthew Engelke, Pensare come un antropologo, Torino, Einaudi, 2018.

2. The monographic part includes:
Victor Turner, Antropologia della performance, Bologna, il Mulino, 1992.
Stefano de Matteis, Le false libertà. Verso la post globalizzazione, Milano, Meltemi 2017.

Type of delivery of the course

Face-to-face lessons, showing of a selection of films and documentaries, field practice. In case of protraction of the COVID-19 health emergency, all regulations about the procedures for carrying out teaching activities and students’ evaluation will be applied.

Type of evaluation

Oral examination