Expected learning outcomes: knowledge and understanding; ability to analyze, synthesize, and argue; ability to communicate knowledge in appropriate anthropological language; critical thinking; independent judgment; comparative skills regarding societies and cultures; developing the ability to observe the social and cultural construction of phenomena; Ability to apply the critical knowledge learned in anthropology to everyday and professional contexts.
Nobody
Lectures, participatory dialogue, debates and exercises, applications of anthropological themes to current issues.
In-depth analysis through visual materials: texts, slides, films and documentaries.
Oral exam with the following evaluation criteria: knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, ability to present and argue, use of specific language and terminology, and critical reasoning skills.
Testi di riferimento
U. FABIETTI, Elementi di antropologia culturale, Terza edizione, Mondadori Università, Milano
2015.
M. TASSAN, Antropologia per insegnare. Diversità culturale e processi educativi, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2020 (TERZA PARTE: Antropologia dei processi educativi e della scuola, pp.167 – 221).
T. TARSIA, Educare lo sguardo. Esperienze e proposte formative sull’osservazione nelle scienze sociali, Aracne editrice, Roma, 2009 (Capp. 1 - 2 - 4 - 5).
Testi consigliati
F. DEI, Cultura, scuola, educazione: la prospettiva antropologica, Pacini editore, Pisa, 2018.
G. SEMI – M. BOLZONI, L’osservazione partecipante. Una guida pratica, Seconda edizione, il Mulino, Bologna, 2022.
G. GENOVESI, La scuola del futuro: cultura, intelligenza umana e intelligenza artificiale, in Ricerche pedagogiche, rivista trimestrale 232-233, 2024 ea ANICIA, Parma.
M. F. FONTEFRANCESCO, Antropologia nell’era dell’Intelligenza Artificiale Generativa: Cosa fare con la scrittura, l’IA e l’educazione antropologica, in Narrare i gruppi, Rivista semestrale, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2025.
The course aims to demonstrate the distinctive features of the anthropological perspective and its methodological tools. It introduces the major theoretical currents and thematic areas of the discipline, providing tools for critical reflection on the contemporary world and stimulating a theoretical understanding of the processes of constructing identity and difference.
The first part of the course will illustrate the general concepts and key thematic areas characterizing the historical construction of anthropological discourse. It will provide an overview of contemporary anthropological reflection, presenting the discipline's constitutive notions and identifying its methodological specificities: the origin and meaning of anthropology; the objects and methods of cultural anthropology; the characteristics of anthropological reasoning; races, genes, languages, and cultures; historical forms of adaptation, acquisitive societies, and farmers and herders; orality and writing; perception and cognition; time and space; closed and open systems of thought; metaphorical and magical thought; mythical thought; identity, bodies, and persons; sex, gender, emotions; castes, classes, and ethnicity; kinship: relationships, representation, and social practice; religion; Cults, symbols, and rites; religion and globalization; cultural creativity and aesthetic expression; tribal art; power and resources; economic and political life forms; anthropology and artificial intelligence.
The second part will focus specifically on the Anthropology of Educational Processes: its origins; culture, multiculturalism; schooling; cultural deprivation, cultural discontinuity; cultural and social reproduction; labeling and selective processes; and the paradigm of intersectionality in education.
The third part will focus on the observation techniques necessary in educational action: participant observation, direct and indirect observation; the phases of observation; the function of Simmel's eye.
Contact: gianfranco.surace@unirc.it
Office hours: 15 minutes before class time
