CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
- Academic year
- 2022/2023 Syllabus of previous years
- Official course title
- ANTROPOLOGIA CULTURALE SP.
- Course code
- FM0003 (AF:378689 AR:213816)
- Modality
- On campus classes
- ECTS credits
- 6
- Degree level
- Master's Degree Programme (DM270)
- Educational sector code
- M-DEA/01
- Period
- 1st Semester
- Where
- VENEZIA
- Moodle
- Go to Moodle page
Contribution of the course to the overall degree programme goals
The course has the objective of introducing students to the debates on kinship in Cultural Anthropology. The study of kinship has been at the centre of the development of Cultural Anthropology and its definition continues to accompany the most distinctive theoretical and methodological turns of the discipline. The course has the objective to introduce students to the debates on kinship in Cultural Anthropology. The study of kinship has been at the centre of the development of Cultural Anthropology and it would be possible to say that it continues to characterize the most significant theoretical and methodological turns of the discipline. The course proposes a critical reading of the main approaches to the study of kinship from the evolutionary period to today. The subjects include kinship terminology in social evolutionism; kinship as a social and political organizing principle in structural-functionalism; the elementary forms of kinship in levistrauassian structuralism; the post-structuralist critique by Pierre Bourdieu; the symbolic approach critique by David Schneider; kinship understood within the broader notion of 'relatedness' by Janet Carsten. This notion shifts attention to the construction of kinship (performing kinship) through daily practices. What is kinship? In what ways anthropologist have explained the articulation between natural and social aspects of kinship? What does it mean to be related to humans and 'other-than-humans' ? What role has conviviality, co-residence and sharing of food, and being close or distant in kinship relationships? The recent perspective focusing on the notion of relatedness emerges from the premise that natural/biological aspects are interdependent on the social construction of kin relations. In relation to specific ethnographic case studies, the course illustrates the efficacy of relationality in terms of "intersubjective belonging" (Stasch 2007:128, Sahlins 2011).
The course aims to provide students with knowledge and tools:
- to learn the main themes and debates in the study of kinship in Cultural Anthropology
- to acquire the ability to identify le limits of theoretical approaches in the light of more recent critiques
- to acquire an ability to synthesize ideas and articulate complex theoretical approaches
Expected learning outcomes
1. Knowledge an comprehension
- to know main themes and debates in the Anthropology of kinship
- to know theoretical approaches applied to contemporary realities (challenges of new reproduction technologies)
. to know main theoretical approaches characterizing the history . of anthropological thought
2. Ability to apply knowledge and comprehension
- to interpret a case study in the specific theoretical frameworks
- to apply theoretical notions to specific case studies from a comparative perspective
3. capacity for evaluation
- be able to formulate and express complex ideas comparing and contrasting different theoretical and methodological perspectives
- to develop a critical approach to the literature (identify contributes and limits)
4. Communicative abilites
- To be able to summarize and present complex ideas orally (class presentations) and in writing (final exam essay)
- to develop ability for synthesis and knowledge of technical language (expressions and terminology)
5. Learning capacity
- Specialized knowledge in structuring and writing a scientific essay
- capacity to develop research autonomy in the interpretation of data
Pre-requirements
Contents
1) list of 'COMPULSORY READINGS', see below, available in pdf format in pdf in MOODLE
2) TWO ARTICLES from the list " Testi facoltativi o letture integrative
EXAM PROGRAM NON ATTENDING STUDENTS
1) Compulsory readings indicated in reading order in "Compulsory readings" below, and available in pdf from MOODLE (monographs are not included)
2) TWO MONOGRAPHS from the list "Testi facoltativi o letture integrative"
PLEASE NOTE: Students who have no anthropological background are advised to choose the monograph by Arioti (2006)
IMPORTANT: This course is not valid for the M-DEA/01 cfu for the Italian teaching abilitation (FIT)
COMPULSORY READINGS:
Lévi-Strauss, C. 2003 [1967]. "Endogamia e esogamia"; "Il principio di reciprocità", Le strutture elementari della parentela. Feltrinelli, pp. 87-99; 100-138.
Bourdieu, P. 2003. La parentela come rappresentazione e come volontà. "L'azione del tempo e il tempo dell'azione", Per una teoria della pratica. Raffaello Cortina Editore, pp. 75-91; 99-
114;281-292.
Schneider, D. 1968. "Relatives"; "A relative is a person"; "Conclusion", American Kinship. Englewood: New Jersey, pp. 21-29; 57-75; 107-117.
Carsten, J. 2000 Introduction: Cultures of Relatedness, Cultures of RElatedness. New approaches to the Study of Kinship, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.1-20.
Carsten, J. 2004. Families into nations: the power of metaphor and the transformation of kinship, After Kinship, Cambridge University Press, pp. 136-162.
Hutchinson, S. 2000. Identity and substance: the broadening bases of relatedness among the Nuer of southern Sudan. In Carsten, J. ed. Cultures of Relatedness. New Approaches to the Study
of Kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 55-72.
Myers, Fred 1997. Logica e significato della collera fra gli Aborigeni Pintupi. In Ricerca Folklorica N. 35:53-66 (
Orsi, A. 1985. The domus-centred society. In The Madonna of 115th Street. Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp.75-106.
Tamisari, F and J. Bradley 2005. To Have and to Give the Law: Animal Names, Place and Event". In Animal Names, A. Minelli, G. Ortallli and G. Sanga eds. Venice: Istituto Veneto delle Scienze,
Lettere ed Arti pp. 421-440.
Tamisari 2022 Yolngu Country as a Multidimensional Tangle of Relationships How ‘Everything is Linked to One Another’disponibile al seguente link: https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni4/riviste/the-venice-journal-of-environmental-humanities/2022/1/yolngu-country-as-a-multidimensional-tangle-of-rel/
Tosi, S. 2004. "Il gruppo, i legami, i luoghi"; "Stare insieme. Il sentimento, il racconto, il piacere di incontrarsi"; "Il dono di poesie". In Gente di sentimento. Per un'antropologia delle persone che vivono in strada. Roma: CISU, pp. 126-132; 158-180.
Sahlins, M. 2011 What Kinship is (part one), in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 17, pp. 2-19.
Viazzo, P. P. e F. Remotti 2007, La famiglia. Uno sguardo antropologico, in Personal Manager. L'economia della vita quotidiana, vol. V
Referral texts
Bourdieu, P. 2003 Per una teoria della pratica. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.
Carsten, J. 2007 Constitutive Knowledge: Tracing Trajectories of Information in New Contexts of Relatedness, Global Kinship: Anthropology and the Politics of Knowing, in Anthropological
Quarterly, 80, 2: 403-426.
*Carsten, J 2004 After Kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Carsten, J. 2000. Cultures of Relatedness. New Approaches to the Study of Kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Carsten, J. 1997 The Heat of the Hearth: The Process of Kinship in a Malay Fishing Community. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clark, M. 2007 Closeness in the Age of mechanical Reproduction: Debating Kinhip and Biomedicine in
Lebanon and the Middle East, in Global Kinship: Anthropology and the Politics of Knowing, in Anthropological Quarterly, vol 80, 2:479-402
Di Silvio, R. 2008 Parentele di confine. La pratica adottiva tra desiderio locale e mondo globale, Ombre Corte.
Levi-Strauss, C. 1969 (1949). Le strutture elementari della parentela. Feltrinelli, Milano.
*Lubkemann, S. C. 2007 Kinship and Globalisation, Anthropological Quarterly 80:2
Meillassoux, C. 2001. Le Sang et les Mots. Mythes et limites de l'anthropologie. Lausanne: Page Deux.
Orsi, A. 1985. The Madonna of 115TH Street. Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950. New Haven: Yale University Press.
*Parkin, R. e L. Stone 2004 Kinship and Family: An Anthropological Reader, Blackwell Publishers.
Piasere, L. & P. G. Solinas 1998. Le culture della parentela e l'esogamia perfetta. CISU, Roma.
Remotti, F. 2008 Contro natura. Una lettera al Papa. Laterza
Remotti, F. 1973 I sistemi di parentela, Einaudi, Torino
Sahlins, M. 2011 What Kinship is (part two), In Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 17, pp.227-242
Schneider, A. 1984. A Critique to the Study of Kinship. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Strathern, M. 2006 Kinship, Law and the Unexpected. Relatives are Always a Surprise, Cambridge University Press.
Strathern, M. 1992. After Nature. English Kinship in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Strathern, M. 1988 The Gender of the Gift, University of California Press.
Strathern, M. 1992. Reproducing the Future: Essays on Anthropology, Kinship and the New Reproductive Technologies. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Tosi, S. 2004. Gente di sentimento. Per un'antropologia delle persone che vivono in strada. Roma: CISU.
Vilaca, A. 2002 Making Kin out of Others in Amazonia, in The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 8:347-365
Assessment methods
1) oral presentation in class: each student must present an article or book chapter choosing from the compulsory readings indicated in the exam program in collaboration with other students. Students are asked to contextualize the readings within specific theoretical approaches, present authors and formulate questions in order to stimulate class discussion. The oral presentation could serve to propose and get approved the argument of the final exam essay. Non attending students must obtain approval of the final essay topic from the lecturer.
2) Written essay (22.000 characters including spaces and references for attending students and 25.000 characters including spaces and references for non attending students) to be submitted to the lecturer in printed hard copy and in pdf format at least 15 days before the exam date.
3) Oral exam. Each student will receive comments on the written essay and on how to improve his/her own work (content and form). Each student will be asked a few questions on the exam material prepared.
4) The final vote is composed as follows:
70% written essay
20% oral exam
10% oral presentation in class
Teaching methods
1. Class presentation. Each student must present one of the compulsory articles or book chapters in collaboration with other students. At the end of the presentation , each student must generate a discussion and answer colleague's questions
2. the written final essay must be submitted (printed hard copy) 15 days before the exam date. The essay submission date date will be communicated during the lectures. The essay must present an issue dealt with in the course and discuss it in relation to the compulsory and the further readings indicated in "Testi facoltativi o letture integrative". The issues identified in he introduction must be demonstrated with ethnographic examples and theoretical approaches discussed during the course and in the course readings. The essay is not a simple summary of the readings but an opportunity to reflect on specific approaches in order to develop one own critical capacity. The written essay (22.000 characters including spaces and references for attending students and 25.000 characters including spaces and references for non attending students) must be printed (Times New Roman 12), with a 1,5 line spacing and with 2 cm margin. All ideas quoted directly or indirectly in the course and further readings (monographs, articles, book chapters) must be attributed to the author indicating the author's name, publication date and page number. The author-date method is preferred but must be completed by a list of references at the end of the text. Students are invited to use editorial guidelines of a national or international anthropological journal.
Teaching language
Further information
Ca' Foscari applies the Italian law (Legge 17/1999; Legge 170/2010) in order to support students with a disability or learning problems. If you have any disability, you can ask for support for the lectures and the exams contacting the Disability Service disabilitàunive.it
Type of exam
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals
This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development