Programme

This course explores the contemporary elaboration of political anthropology (first part). Analyze the dissemination of human rights as discourse (global and local) and practice (2nd part). It examines the opposition between culture and rights along with current theoretical efforts to negotiate an intermediate space (third part) focusing in particular on gender-based violence (female genital modifications, rape, etc.). Finally, the course examines the moral economy concept and the approaches to transnational, deterritorialized, and multi-sited ethnography as well as the gaps between human rights as global law and implementation in the local context. Some cooperation projects related to gender-based violencep will be analyzed in class.

Core Documentation

1. Didier Fassin, 2013,Humanitarian Reason. A Moral History of the Present. University of California Press. Berkeley (introduction only)
2. Michela Fusaschi, 2007, I segni sul corpo. Per un’antropologia delle modificazioni dei genitali femminili, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.
3. Michela Fusaschi, 2011, Quando il corpo è delle Altre. Retoriche della pietà e umanitarismo spettacolo, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.

Reference Bibliography

Abu-Lughod L., 2013, Do Muslim Women Need Saving?, Harvard University Press, Massachussetts & London, England, Cambridge. Boltanski, L. 1993. La souffrance à distance : Morale humanitaire, médias et politique. Paris : Seuil. Brunelli G., 2007, “Prevenzione e divieto delle mutilazioni genitali femminili: genealogia (e limiti) di una legge”, Quaderni costituzionali, vol. XXVII, n. 3, p. 567-588. Coene G., Longman C. (dir), 2005, Féminisme et multiculturalisme. Les para-doxes du débat, Bern, Peter Lang. DelageP., Lieber M. et Chetcuti-Osorovitz N., 2019, Lutter contre les violences de genre. des mouvements féministes à leur institutionnalisation, Cahiers du Genre , vol. 1 n° 66, pp. 5- 16 Engle Merry S., 2006, Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice, Chicago, University of Chicago Press. —, 2007, The Practice of Human Rights: Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local. Codirigé avec with Fassin D., 2010, La raison humanitaire: Une histoire morale du temps présent, Paris, Éditions du Seuil. Fassin D., Lézé S. (a cura di), 2013, La question morale. Une anthologie critique, Paris, PUF. Fusaschi M.,2003, I segni sul corpo. Per un’antropologia delle modificazioni dei genitalifemminili, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri. —, 2007, Verso un multiculturalismo all’italiana. Il dibattito sull’infibulazione in Italia, in Pompeo F. (dir.), La società di tutti. Multiculturalismo e politiche dell’identità, Roma, Meltemi, p. 95-116. —, 2010a, “Victimes à tout jamais: les enfants et les femmes d’Afrique. Humanitarisme spectacle et rhétoriques de la pitié”, Cahiers d’Études africaines, L (2-3-4), p. 1033-1053. - 2011a, Quando il corpo è delle Altre. Retoriche della pietà e umanitarismo spettacolo, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri. —, 2014, “Modifications génitales féminines en Europe: raison humanitaire et universalismes ethnocentriques”, Synergies Italie, 10, p. 95-107. —, 2015, “Humanitarian Bodies. Gender and Genitals Modifications in Italian immigration policy”, iCahiers d’études Africaines, vol. LV, 1, 217, p. 11-28. —, 2018, “L’etnografia attraversata dal genere: per uno sguardo storico e pratico- politico sulle soggettività”, Etnografia e ricerca qualitativa n. 2, p. 388- 340. Fusaschi M., Cavatorta G. (dir.), 2018, FMG/C From medicine to critical anthropology, Torino, Meti. Goodale M., 2007, Locating rights, envisioning law between the global and the local, in M. Goodale et S. Engle Merry, The Practice of Human Rights Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007, pages 1-39. Johnsdotter S., 2018, Girls and boys as victims: asymmetries and dynamics in Europeanpublic discourses on genital modifications in children, in Fusaschi M., Cavatorta G. (dir.), FGM/C: From Medicine to Critical Anthropology, Torino, Meti Edizioni, p. 31-50. Mesnard, P. 2002 La victime écran. La représentation humanitaire en question. Paris : Textuel. Nader L., 2006, Human Rights and Moral Imperialism, in “Anthropology News” , p. 6. Moore H., 1988, Feminist Anthropology, Cambridge, Polity press. Peroni L., 2016, Violence Against Migrant Women: The Istanbul Convention Through a Postcolonial Feminist Lens, Femminist Legal Studies, n. 24, pp. 49–67 C. J. Walley, Searching for “Voices”: Feminism, Anthropology, and the Global Debate over Female Genital, dans “Cultural Anthropology”, 12, n. 3, 1997, pp.405-438. S. Engle Merry, Le norme per la protezione dei diritti umani e la demonizzazione della cultura (passando per l’antropologia), dans R. Cammarata, L. Mancini (édité par), Diritti e culture: Un’antologia critica, Giappichelli, Torino 2014. Shell-Duncan B., 2008, “From Health to Human Rights. Female Genital Cutting and the Politics of Intervention”, American Anthropologist, vol. 110, n. 2, p. 225-236. Tamale S., 2005, “Eroticism, Sensuality and Women’s Secrets’ Among the Baganda: A Critical Analysis”, Feminist Africa, vol. 5, p. 9-36. —, 2008, “The right to culture and the culture of rights: a critical perspective on women’s sexual rights”, Africa in Feminist Legal Studies, vol. 16, 1, p. 47-69.

Type of delivery of the course

Lectures; audiovisual material. The active student involvement will be stimulated and will contribute to the final evaluation.

Attendance

Class participation is strongly recommended but not mandatory.

Type of evaluation

For the students attending: 1. Mid term written exam based on multiple choice questions . 2. final written exam based on open questions. The final grade is formed by 70% on the written tests 1.and 2.; 30% on attendance and active participation during classes . Students who do not attend will have to take an oral examination (15/20 min.), unless a different agreement reached during office hours. See also art.1 del Decreto Rettorale n°. 703 del 5 maggio 2020