Italian. Explanations in English can be given on request.
Explications en Français peuvent etre données sur demande.
Course Content
The first part of the course analyzes the development of fieldwork methodology in the UK, USA, France, Italy. The different approaches shall be examined in relation to the theories characterizing the various schools. The instructor will subsequently present his own researches showing the relations between theory and practice in his work. The second part shall focus on the contribution of anthropology to the analysis of conflicts. Ethnographic films shall be used as materials for discussion.
Cacopardo, Augusto S., "Pagan Christmas. Winter Feasts of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush". Gingko Library. London 2016.
English versions of the other prescribed readings are available. Contact the teacher if in need.
Learning Objectives
The class has the aim of giving students a historical knowledge about the methodological debate in ethnography with special attention to the role of anthropology in the analysis of present-day conflicts, and to the problems of field research in situations of violent conflict.
Prerequisites
Previous attendance of a class in Cultural Anthropology is helpful, though not mandatory.
Teaching Methods
The class includes tendentially interactive lectures and laboratorial activities. These consist mainly in powerpoint presentations by students on a topic of their choice among the ones treated in the lectures. The ethnographic films used as iconographic documentation will be followed by moments of collective reflection and discussion.
Type of Assessment
Final mark upon oral examination. Students who attend class have a reduced programme of readings (see the list above) and are evaluated on the basis of their participation to class-room discussions and of a powerpoint presentation (or of a brief written essay in English or Italian) on a topic of their choice among those treated in the course.
Course program
The first part of the class examines the origins and the developments of ethnographic fieldwork in the UK, USA, France and Italy. The different methodological approaches will be analyzed in the frame of the different historical contexts, and the most interesting problems and findings of 20th century anthropology will be illustrated. Subsequently the instructor will present his own researches and will describe his personal experience of fieldwork.
The second part of the class is focussed on the contribution anthropology can offer to the analysis of present-day conflicts, starting from the notion of the 'continuum of genocide' which opens the way to an investigation of the forms of violence occurring in times of peace as well as those typical of armed conflicts. Among the topics to be discussed, ethnic conflicts, terrorism, State terrorism, structural violence, war in its many contemporary forms, the proposals of non-violent thought and the objections of its critics. Students may be taken to the venue of the Middle EastFilm Festival in Florence, if the programme will include films of interest for the topics treated in class.
The order of the two sections may be inverted.