ID:
509390
Duration (hours):
40
CFU:
6
SSD:
DISCIPLINE DEMOETNOANTROPOLOGICHE
Year:
2025
Overview
Date/time interval
Primo Semestre (29/09/2025 - 12/12/2025)
Syllabus
Course Objectives
At the end of the course, students are expected to know the main debates, methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks of social and cultural anthropology. They will be also able to critically engage with - and make use of - key anthropological concepts in the discussion of global and local processes of social change.
Course Prerequisites
A basic knowledge of the political history of the 19th and 20th centuries is required
Teaching Methods
Frontal lessons, class discussions and presentations.
Assessment Methods
Oral examination: Students will be asked to present and discuss the content of the books they studied. The evaluation is based on the degree of knowledge and critical understanding of the topics discussed.
Texts
For the exam, students will have to study two books:
1) McGee R. J. and R. L. Warms 2025. ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY: An introductory history. 8th edition. Rowman and Littlefield, London.
In particular, students will focus on the following chapters:
PART 1: Historical Foundation of Anthropological Theory
• Nineteenth-Century Evolutionism (pp. 9-18) LEWIS HENRY MORGAN, Ethnical Periods (1877) (pp. 52-65)
• The Foundations of Sociological Thought (pp. 83-88) ÉMILE DURKHEIM: What Is a Social Fact? (1895) (pp. 88-96) MARCEL MAUSS: Excerpts from The Gift (1925) (pp. 96-111)
PART 2: Culture Theory in the Early Twenty Century
• The Boasians (pp. 129-142) FRANZ BOAS, The Methods of Ethnology (1920) (pp. 142-152) MARGARET MEAD, Introduction to Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) (pp. 181-185)
• Functionalism (pp. 213-218) BRONISLAW MALINOWSKI, The Essentials of the Kula (1922) (pp. 218-236) A. R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN, On Joking Relationships (1940) (pp. 236-251)
PART 3: Theory at Mid-century
• The Reemergence of Evolutionary Thought (pp. 251-256)
• Neo-materialism (pp. 293-297) MARVIN HARRIS, The Cultural Ecology of India’s Sacred Cattle (1966) (pp. 297-312)
• Structure, Language, and Cognition (pp. 329-335) CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS, Four Winnebago Myths: A Structural Sketch (1960) (pp. 335-344) SHERRY B. ORTNER, Is Female to Male as Nature as to Culture (1974) (pp. 344-361)
PART 4: Late Twentieth Century Developments
• Feminist Anthropology (pp. 361-364) SALLY SLOCUM, Woman the Gatherer: Male Bias in Anthropology (1975) (pp. 364-374)
• Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology (pp. 391-395) MARY DOUGLAS, External Boundaries (1 9 6 6) (pp. 395-405) CLIFFORD GEERTZ, Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight (1973) (pp. 425-447)
• French Social Thought: Postmodern and Practice (1980) (pp. 447-452) PIERRE BOURDIEU, Structures, Habitus, Practices (1980) (pp. 452-469) MICHEL FOUCAULT, The Incitement to Discourse (1976) (pp. 469-483)
• Postmodernism (pp. 483-488) RENATO ROSALDO, Grief and Headhunter’s Rage (1989) (pp. 488-503) MICHEL-ROLPH TROUILLOT: Anthropology and the Savage Slot: The Poetics and Politics of Otherness (1991) (pp. 503-531)
• Globalization (pp. 531-535) ERIC R. WOLF: facing Power–Old Insight, New Questions (1990) (pp.535-551)
PART 5: Trends in Contemporary Anthropology
• Gender (pp. 575-578) LILA ABU-LUGHOD, A Tale of Two Pregnancies (1995) (pp. 578-588) TOM BOELLSTORFF: The Emergence of Political Homophobia in Indonesia Masculinity and National Belonging (2004) (pp. 588-609)
• Agency and Structure (pp. 609-613) PHILIPPE BOURGOIS, From Jíbaro to Crack Dealer: Confronting the Restructuring of Capitalism in El Barrio (1995) (pp. 613-630) •Phenomenological Anthropology and the Anthropology of God (pp. 669-675) VEENA DAS, Engaging the Life of the Other: Love and Everyday Life (2010) (pp. 675-695)
• Decolonization and Whiteness (pp. 717-725).
2) The second book must be chosen among the following list:
ARJUN APPADURAI, Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1996.
AYŞE ÇAĞLAR and NINA GLICK SHILLER, Migrants and City-Making: Dispossession, Displacement, and Urban Regeneration, Duke University Press, 2018.
CATI COE, The Scattered Family: Parenting, African Migrant and Global Inequality, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2013.
PETER GESCHIERE, The Modernity of Wichcraft. Politics and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa, 1997, University of Virginia Press.
JAMES FERGUSON, Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order, Durham and London, Duke University Press, 2006.
MICHAEL HERZFELD, Subversive Archaism. Troubling Traditionalists and the Politics of National Heritage, Durham, Duke University Press, 2021.
1) McGee R. J. and R. L. Warms 2025. ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY: An introductory history. 8th edition. Rowman and Littlefield, London.
In particular, students will focus on the following chapters:
PART 1: Historical Foundation of Anthropological Theory
• Nineteenth-Century Evolutionism (pp. 9-18) LEWIS HENRY MORGAN, Ethnical Periods (1877) (pp. 52-65)
• The Foundations of Sociological Thought (pp. 83-88) ÉMILE DURKHEIM: What Is a Social Fact? (1895) (pp. 88-96) MARCEL MAUSS: Excerpts from The Gift (1925) (pp. 96-111)
PART 2: Culture Theory in the Early Twenty Century
• The Boasians (pp. 129-142) FRANZ BOAS, The Methods of Ethnology (1920) (pp. 142-152) MARGARET MEAD, Introduction to Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) (pp. 181-185)
• Functionalism (pp. 213-218) BRONISLAW MALINOWSKI, The Essentials of the Kula (1922) (pp. 218-236) A. R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN, On Joking Relationships (1940) (pp. 236-251)
PART 3: Theory at Mid-century
• The Reemergence of Evolutionary Thought (pp. 251-256)
• Neo-materialism (pp. 293-297) MARVIN HARRIS, The Cultural Ecology of India’s Sacred Cattle (1966) (pp. 297-312)
• Structure, Language, and Cognition (pp. 329-335) CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS, Four Winnebago Myths: A Structural Sketch (1960) (pp. 335-344) SHERRY B. ORTNER, Is Female to Male as Nature as to Culture (1974) (pp. 344-361)
PART 4: Late Twentieth Century Developments
• Feminist Anthropology (pp. 361-364) SALLY SLOCUM, Woman the Gatherer: Male Bias in Anthropology (1975) (pp. 364-374)
• Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology (pp. 391-395) MARY DOUGLAS, External Boundaries (1 9 6 6) (pp. 395-405) CLIFFORD GEERTZ, Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight (1973) (pp. 425-447)
• French Social Thought: Postmodern and Practice (1980) (pp. 447-452) PIERRE BOURDIEU, Structures, Habitus, Practices (1980) (pp. 452-469) MICHEL FOUCAULT, The Incitement to Discourse (1976) (pp. 469-483)
• Postmodernism (pp. 483-488) RENATO ROSALDO, Grief and Headhunter’s Rage (1989) (pp. 488-503) MICHEL-ROLPH TROUILLOT: Anthropology and the Savage Slot: The Poetics and Politics of Otherness (1991) (pp. 503-531)
• Globalization (pp. 531-535) ERIC R. WOLF: facing Power–Old Insight, New Questions (1990) (pp.535-551)
PART 5: Trends in Contemporary Anthropology
• Gender (pp. 575-578) LILA ABU-LUGHOD, A Tale of Two Pregnancies (1995) (pp. 578-588) TOM BOELLSTORFF: The Emergence of Political Homophobia in Indonesia Masculinity and National Belonging (2004) (pp. 588-609)
• Agency and Structure (pp. 609-613) PHILIPPE BOURGOIS, From Jíbaro to Crack Dealer: Confronting the Restructuring of Capitalism in El Barrio (1995) (pp. 613-630) •Phenomenological Anthropology and the Anthropology of God (pp. 669-675) VEENA DAS, Engaging the Life of the Other: Love and Everyday Life (2010) (pp. 675-695)
• Decolonization and Whiteness (pp. 717-725).
2) The second book must be chosen among the following list:
ARJUN APPADURAI, Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1996.
AYŞE ÇAĞLAR and NINA GLICK SHILLER, Migrants and City-Making: Dispossession, Displacement, and Urban Regeneration, Duke University Press, 2018.
CATI COE, The Scattered Family: Parenting, African Migrant and Global Inequality, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2013.
PETER GESCHIERE, The Modernity of Wichcraft. Politics and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa, 1997, University of Virginia Press.
JAMES FERGUSON, Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order, Durham and London, Duke University Press, 2006.
MICHAEL HERZFELD, Subversive Archaism. Troubling Traditionalists and the Politics of National Heritage, Durham, Duke University Press, 2021.
Contents
The course will provide an introduction to the main theories and methodologies of socio-cultural anthropology. In the first part we will discuss the history of the discipline, by focusing on some of its main authors and theoretical approaches. In the second part we will discuss how anthropologists have explored issues related to globalization and neoliberal global (dis-)orders.
Course Language
English
More information
Agli studenti che hanno ottenuto la certificazione di trovarsi nelle condizioni previste dalla normativa di Ateneo, (https://portale.unipv.it/it/didattica/servizi-lo-studente/modalita-didattiche-inclusive) saranno assicurate fino a due ore alla settimana di ricevimento online e indicazioni sui materiali didattici che consentano la preparazione dell'esame in autonomia.
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POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Bachelor’s Degree
3 years
SOCIAL SCIENCES FOR GLOBAL CHALLENGES
Bachelor’s Degree
3 years
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