Programme

The course introduces students to the main themes, methods and problems of social and cultural anthropology, understood as a critical field of knowledge concerned with differences, social relations and the historical forms through which human beings produce meanings, classifications, belongings, bodies and moral worlds.
Special attention will be paid to the anthropological construction of the concepts of culture, alterity, ethnocentrism, ethnic group, ethnicity, identity, gender, body and globalization. The course aims to show that anthropology is not limited to describing “other cultures”, but provides critical tools to examine the categories through which societies classify persons, practices, bodies, differences and inequalities.
Through introductory texts, methodological essays and ethnographies, the course will address the relationship between theory and fieldwork, the production of ethnographic data, the connections between gender, emotions, morality and everyday life, women’s work and embodied knowledge in an Italian context, as well as the issue of body modifications and the vocabulary through which they are named, judged and governed.

Core Documentation

Francesco Pompeo, Elementi di antropologia critica. Ediz. ampliata, Torino, Meti, 2018.
Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, “La politica del campo. Sulla produzione di dati in antropologia”, PDF in MOODLE
Lila Abu-Lughod, Sentimenti velati. Onore e poesia in una società beduina, Torino, Rosenberg & Sellier, 2022.
Lila Abu-Lughod, “Le donne musulmane hanno davvero bisogno di essere salvate? Riflessioni antropologiche sul relativismo culturale e i suoi altri”, Achab. Rivista di antropologia, PDF in MOODLE
Elena Zapponi, La notte delle anguille. Donne, lavoro e relazioni di genere nella Laguna di Venezia, Roma, Viella, 2026 (In OA).
Michela Fusaschi, I segni sul corpo. Per un’antropologia delle modificazioni dei genitali femminili, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2003.

Attendance

Attendance is not mandatory, but it is strongly recommended. Students who attend at least 80% of classes will be considered attending students, according to the attendance recording procedures that will be communicated at the beginning of the course.

Type of evaluation

Assessment will include in-class activities during the course and a final examination. During the course, students will take in-class self-assessment tests, aimed at progressively checking their understanding of the main concepts, required readings and topics discussed in class. These tests are intended as formative activities and as a support for individual study. The final examination will consist of a multiple-choice test based on the required readings and on the topics addressed during the course. For attending students, group work may also be organized, provided that the number of participants allows it. Group activities may focus on specific themes, readings or ethnographic cases discussed during the course. Detailed instructions will be provided in class and published on Moodle/Teams. Assessment will take into account: knowledge of the required readings; understanding of fundamental anthropological concepts; ability to connect the different texts included in the programme; appropriate use of disciplinary vocabulary; capacity for critical and comparative analysis; participation in in-class activities, for attending students. Assessment criteria Positive evaluation will be based on: the ability to reconstruct the main arguments of the authors; the ability to distinguish between ethnographic description, anthropological interpretation and moral judgement; the ability to critically discuss concepts such as culture, relativism, ethnocentrism, ethnic group, ethnicity, identity, gender, body and globalization; the ability to connect ethnographic cases with the theoretical and methodological issues addressed in the course. A merely mnemonic preparation, not accompanied by the ability to connect texts, concepts and ethnographic cases, will not be sufficient for a high evaluation.