LM8703 - CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

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.