Learning outcomes
The students will acquire the basic elements of a comparative approach to political phenomena, including state formations,learning to place them in their social and cultural context.
The course deals with some of the key concepts in political anthropology-power, dependence, inequality, legitimacy, violence, gender- and with their use in recent ethnographic work. It will also analyse the historical processes of definition of political and territorial boundaries. including those set in train by colonialism, and finally consider the anthropological debate on the “ invention of the ethnic group”.
Examination texts.
Li Causi, L., Uomo e potere. Un'introduzione all'antropologia politica, Carocci, Roma, 2006
Students who have not attended other courses in Cultural Anthropology should also read
Kottak, C.P. Antropologia Culturale, McGraw-Hill, Milano, 2008
ONE text to choose among the following:
Amselle,J-L., Logiche meticce, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 1999
Bellagamba,A, L'Africa e la stregoneria,Laterza, Bari-Roma, 2008
Sòrgoni,B. Parole e corpi, Liguori, Napoli, 1998
Vereni, P. Vite di confine; etnicità e nazionalismo nella Macedonia occidentale greca, Meltemi, Roma, 2004
Viti,F. Schiavi, servi e dipendenti, Cortina, Milano, 2007
Optional. Hari D.,Il traduttore del silenzio, Piemme, Milano, 2008
The examination will take the form of a written essay and its discussion, for the students who regularly attend the course, and in an oral examination for those who do not.
