THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF SOUTHEAST ASIA

The course is part of the Master's Degree Programmes in ACEL "Cultural Anthropology, Ethnology, Anthropological Linguistics" and "Language and Civilisation of Asia and Mediterranean Africa" (South Asia Curriculum). Its educational objectives fall within the area of historical, cultural, and humanistic skills learning.

Knowledge and understanding:
- identify and understand key themes and debates in the anthropology of Southeast Asia
- gain awareness of ethnographic research methods in the anthropological study of South-East Asia

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- Ability to read and discuss critically ethnographic studies of Southeast Asia
- Develop analytical tools to discuss, interpret, and contextualise ethnographic data gathered in two or more of the region's countries
- Analyse the contribution of Southeast Asia-focused ethnographic studies to the broader development of anthropological theory

Interest in the societies, cultures, and peoples of South-East Asia.

Southeast Asia (Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Timor-Leste The Philippines, and Vietnam) is an extraordinary crossroad of cultures. The distinctiveness of Southeast Asian political-economic forms, gender relations, kinship structures, religious practices, and social arrangements have led to ethnographic studies of the region that have not only illuminated its extraordinary cultural richness, but have also produced major contributions to broader theoretical debates within social anthropology.

This course will examine selected ethnographic studies of Southeast Asia's peoples in a range of national and ecological contexts and cultural niches, focusing on a number of "cultural characters", including: slum squatters, pro-democracy youth activists, and businessmen in Bangkok; street vendors in Ho Chi Minh City; environmental and/or revolutionary Buddhist monks in Myanmar, Laos and Thailand; ethnic minority highlanders in northern Cambodia; fishermen communities scattered across the Indonesian archipelago. Key anthropological issues will be theoretically re-addressed though these ethnographic incursions in Southeast Asia's multiple ways of life. This ethnographical analysis of Southeast Asia will serve to comparatively assess the alleged regional specificity of the following anthropological fields of investigation:

- Hierarchy and equality
- Politics and kinship
- Childhood, parenting, and the self
- Religion, development and humanitarianism
- Capitalism, magic, and modernity

Required readings:
Adams, K. M, and Gillogly, K. A (Eds.) (2011). Everyday Life in Southeast Asia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press (selected chapters).
Barker, J., Harms, E. and Lindquist, J. (Eds.). (2013). Figures of Southeast Asian Modernity. Honolulu: Hawaii University Press (selected chapters).

Monograph:
Bolotta, G. (2020). Belittled Citizens: The Cultural Politics of Childhood on Bangkok’s Margins. Copenhagen: NIAS Press.

Additional required readings will be announced in class and provided through Moodle

Background readings (recommended but not compulsory):
Osborne, M. (2021) Southeast Asia: An Introductory History, 13th edition. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.
Scott, J. C. (2020). L’arte di non essere governati. Storia anarchica degli altipiani del Sud-est asiatico. Einaudi: Torino.

The oral examination will be focused on:
a. The assessment of the student's ability to articulate a theoretical and critical analysis, with a comparative scope, of two or more ethnographies of Southeast Asia discussed during the course.
b. The assessment of the student's general assimilation of the course's key contents, especially in reference to the monograph listed in the bibliography.

Regarding the grading system (method through which grades will be assigned), regardless of attendance or non-attendance:
A. Scores in the range 18-22 will be attributed in the presence of:
- Sufficient knowledge of the program's contents;
- Limited ability to interpret the contents, formulating independent judgments;
- Adequate communicative skills, especially concerning the use of specific language related to the anthropological-ethnographic analysis of Southeast Asia;
B. Scores in the range 23-26 will be attributed in the presence of:
- Fair knowledge of the program's contents;
- Fair ability to interpret the contents, formulating independent judgments;
- Fair communicative skills, especially concerning the use of specific language related to the anthropological-ethnographic analysis of Southeast Asia;
C. Scores in the range 27-30 will be attributed in the presence of:
- Good knowledge of the program's contents;
- Good ability to interpret the contents, formulating independent judgments;
- Fully appropriate communicative skills, especially concerning the use of specific language related to the anthropological-ethnographic analysis of Southeast Asia;
D. Honors (30 cum laude) will be attributed in the presence of excellent knowledge and understanding, critical analysis skills of the program's contents, judgment abilities, and communicative skills.

Lectures (interspersed with presentations of films and materials), group discussions, exercises in small groups.

Italian

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