Anthropology of the Mediterranean
Academic Year 2022/2023 - Teacher: Mara BENADUSIExpected Learning Outcomes
This course is aimed at deepening students' knowledge on the Mediterranean and the identity-bases processes related to its construction and historical re-proposition as a transnational space in transition. At the end of the course students will be able to:
- problematize in an anthropological key the socio-political dynamics linked to the representation of the Mediterranean as a "cultural area", starting from the post second war period;
- familiarize with key socio-cultural transformations impacting the Mediterranean at different scales, local, regional, national and transnational;
- analyze the socio-cultural and political dynamics underling the progressive incorporation of the idea of ecological and energy transition in the Mediterranean, and particularly in Southern Italy.
Course Structure
The course comprises of both classic teaching of anthropological theories and methods, and interactive teaching with an active involvement of students in presenting and analyzing their readings and in making direct experience of anthropological methodologies and data collection technics.
Required Prerequisites
A basic knowledge of cultural anthropology is required. For those who have not already taken a course in cultural anthropology, I recommend the following textbook: B. Palumbo, G. Pizza, P. Schirripa (edited by), 2022, "Cultural and social anthropology Concepts, History, Perspectives", HoepliAcademy+ Edition, ISBN 978-88-360-0708-0.
Attendance of Lessons
This course is designed in a seminar style and students are encouraged to prepare before class. Punctuality, participation and overall contribution to the activities carried out in the classroom also affect the final score.
Detailed Course Content
"The Mediterranean is not just a sea: It is a system of symbols, it is a repertoire of myths, it is an imaginary horizon, at least of the Western imagination".
This course will start from a basic question: is there a Mediterranean culture capable of distinguishing this area from other cultural areas in anthropology? Starting from this question, we will analyze the frictions between external and internal gazes on the Mediterranean; a fracture that highlights both the effects of "orientalization" of the cultures and peoples of the Mediterranean, and the current conformation of imaginaries linked to this region.
After a few initial lessons were I will give a general overview on the discipline, the course will be divided into three teaching modules.
In the first module we will deepen the debate around the Mediterranean. By reading and commenting specific essays, the class will reconstruct the path taken by anthropology within this disputed cultural space, retracing the birth and developments of Mediterraneanist anthropology as a branch of study.
In the second module, students will have the opportunity to study an ethnographic monograph, to be chosen from a shortlist of texts indicated in the syllabus. The monographs cover different themes and research fields: "honor and shame", "amoral familism", "patronage" dynamics, “female sexual segregation”, “folk religiosity”, “heritagization” processes, “organized crime” and mafia-type relationships.
Finally, in the third module students will analyze a case study in south-eastern Sicily that explores the socio-cultural and political domestication of the so-called "green transition" in territories forced to deal with the effects of fossil fuel production.
Textbook Information
FIRTS MODULE:
- D. Albera, A. Blok, C. Bromberger, "Antropologia del Mediterraneo", Milanio, Guerini e Associati, 2007 (pag. 7-48; pag. 309-342).
- Luciano Li Causi, "Etnologia mediterranea", voce dell'Enciclopedia Italiana online, VII Appendice, 2006, https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/etnologia-mediterranea_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/
SECOND MODULE:
3. One book chosen among the following monographs:
- E. De Martino, "La terra del rimorso", Il saggiatore, 2002.
- L. Abu Lughod, "Sentimenti velati. Onore e poesia in una società beduina", Le Nuove Muse, 2007.
- B. Palumbo, "Piegare i santi. Inchini rituali e pratiche mafiose", Marietti, 2020.
- N. Ben-Yehoyada, "Incorporare il Mediterraneo. Formazione regionale tra Sicilia e Tunisia nel secondo dopoguerra", Milano, Meltemi, 2019.
- T. Rakopoulus, "Coltivare la legalità. Mafia e antimafia nelle terre confiscate in Sicilia", Meltemi, 2022.
- S. Pontigia, "Il bacino maledetto. Disuguaglianza, marginalità e potere nella Tunisia postrivoluzionaria", OmbreCorte, 2017.
THIRD MODULE:
4. Mara Benadusi et al, "Tardo industrialismo. Energia, ambiente e nuovi immaginari di sviluppo in Sicilia", Milano, Meltemi, 2021 (scaricabile in open access da: http://www.meltemieditore.it/wp-content/uploads/meltemi-benadusi-tardo-industrialismo.pdf).
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
The final evaluation will be an oral exam. Students attending the course can also have an intermediate test: divided in small groups, they will present a monographs chosen among the books included in the syllabus. Students will be assessed on the basis of: a) their active participation in the course; b) the results of their group activity; c) the ability to connect theoretical knowledge and issues emerging from specific ethnographic cases.