The course offers an overview of cultural anthropology, illustrating its method, theory and languages. The intent is not so much to privilege a history of studies or to propose a traditional thematic exhibition, but to address the subject by focusing on problematic issues and interpretative categories that make cultural anthropology an instrument of fundamental and advanced reflection for the understanding of the complexities of the contemporary world. Main topics: the construction of anthropological knowledge; anthropological positivisms; structure, interpretation, dialogue; changes, conflicts, transformations. Race, racism and migration; the anti-racism of Franz Boas; the UNESCO and Lévi-Strauss documents; post-colonial studies, gender dynamics and structural violence; neo-racism and cultural differences; institutional racism; migrants, media and social networks. The field of rights: the approach of legal anthropology; conflict and revenge. An anthropological view of the changing family: family structures; family definitions; the family in anthropological studies; new forms of family. Intercultural dynamics in the school: an anthropological look. Migration processes, socio-cultural inclusion and school contexts; the educational setting between structure and agency. Folklore, popular culture, mass culture: themes and problems of an applied anthropology of the contemporary through an ethnography of cultural heritage.

Educational goals
To know in depth the main themes and conceptual apparatus that found the discipline. Acquire skills aimed at encouraging communication between different socio-cultural realities in a perspective of relationship, mediation and identification of shared values. To analyse pluralisms and expressive dynamisms of local / global level. To observe the expressive activities of a context, exposing its political, relational and social functions. To analyze the socio-cultural processes, overcoming the simplifying image that wants a single meaning for each place, a single identity.

Contents
The course offers an overview of cultural anthropology, illustrating its method, theory and languages. The intent is not so much to privilege a history of studies or to propose a traditional thematic exhibition, but to address the subject by focusing on problematic issues and interpretative categories that make cultural anthropology an instrument of fundamental and advanced reflection for the understanding of the complexities of the contemporary world. Main topics: the construction of anthropological knowledge; anthropological positivisms; structure, interpretation, dialogue; changes, conflicts, transformations. Race, racism and migration; the anti-racism of Franz Boas; the UNESCO and Lévi-Strauss documents; post-colonial studies, gender dynamics and structural violence; neo-racism and cultural differences; institutional racism; migrants, media and social networks. The field of rights: the approach of legal anthropology; conflict and revenge. An anthropological view of the changing family: family structures; family definitions; the family in anthropological studies; new forms of family. Intercultural dynamics in the school: an anthropological look. Migration processes, socio-cultural inclusion and school contexts; the educational setting between structure and agency. Folklore, popular culture, mass culture: themes and problems of an applied anthropology of the contemporary through an ethnography of cultural heritage.

Bibliographic material

Manuela Tassan, Antropologia per insegnare. Diversità culturale e processi educativi, Bologna, Zanichelli, 2020.


Antonino Colajanni, Lia Giancristofaro, Viviana Sacco, Le Nazioni Unite e l'antropologia. La dimensione culturale nei programmi dell’UNESCO, della Banca Mondiale, della FAO e dell’IFAD, Roma, CISU, 2020.

Antonino Colajanni, Lia Giancristofaro, Giacomo Nerici, L’antropologia collaborativa. Una nuova visione del rapporto tra ricercatori e gruppi sociali, Roma, CISU, 2024.

Final verification:
Oral exam with marks out of 30, aimed at verifying the ability to expose the topics presented during the course with clarity and autonomy of judgment.