Anthropology

This course offers an in-depth exploration of the multifaceted world of Chinese tea, encompassing its rich history, culture, art, science, philosophy, and economics over 4,000 years. Students investigate the entire process of tea production, from cultivation to brewing and tasting, gaining insight into how it embodies tea art, ceremony, and Chinese philosophy. The course examines the global impact and influence of Chinese tea culture. Key topics include the historical significance of tea, its botanical and chemical properties, health benefits, cultural practices, and economic implications will be explored. This course highlights the critical economic role of tea, with China being the largest producer and exporter, while also incorporating a comparative view to other drinks to highlight the similarities and differences with tea, both in China and globally. Through a combination of lectures, tutorials, field trips, and hands-on workshops, students experience traditional Chinese tea ceremonies and the underlying philosophy, enriching their understanding of Chinese tea from various perspectives.

This course reviews the development of research in the field of linguistic anthropology and related academic fields, providing an overview of what aspects of language and communication reveal about society and culture. The course also explores concrete examples, sometimes including audio and video clips, to further the discussion. The course aims to gain insight into the complex and reciprocal relationships between language and society as well as language and culture.

This course introduces one of sociology's sister disciplines, social anthropology, which is also referred to as cultural anthropology or ethnology. This course has a theoretical and an applied dimension. In the theoretical portion it introduces classical and modern examples of anthropological theory ranging from B. Malinoswki and C. Levi-Strauss to C. Geertz and J. Diamond. The applied portion uses a variety of examples and field studies ranging from geographically closer regions such as Northern Ireland, the Basque country, and South Tyrol, to more "exotic" regions and examples.

This course questions the place of researchers in the 21st century and law through the ethnographer's field. Is there such a field? The course introduces basic concepts of law and anthropology, human sciences, its colonial background and methodological critiques to further how lawyers can lean in and explore anthropology's paradigm of alterity to further critical legal thinking and how anthropologists and other social scientists can look at law as a cultural technique. The course discusses why using empirical work, sometimes uncomfortable for a researcher, similar to looking in the mirror, can contribute to better addressing today's ethical and political challenges. Through the revision of diverse examples, old and new, students learn about the method of “explorers."

This course examines the language of, about, and surrounding food. It explores the role of food (and its discursive enactment) in community-building, lifestyles, and the creation of social elites. Other topics include food performances (e.g., cooking and eating shows), dinner talk and socialization, and food and language in the public landscape. Special emphasis lies on the entanglements of language, food, and the digital realm.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. By the end of the course, students are aware of the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of the European colonization of America and of its relationship with the early modern globalization. Students will be able to recognize the active role played by indigenous groups and individuals in the shaping of the emerging global world. At the end of the course, the student is able to contextualize the European conquest of America within a global historical and cultural framework, as well as to independently engage in the critical analysis of historical sources and early modern ethnographic records. The students are also able to deploy such analytical skills to professional activities linked with the popularization and public use of historical and anthropological knowledge. This course examines the cultural processes that unfolded during the European colonization of the Americas and their role in fostering Early Modern globalization. A special attention is devoted to the Mesoamerican cultural area.

Week 1 introduces the course and provides an overview of the European colonization of the Americas. Week 2 examines the impact of the conquest on early modern globalization, focusing on phenomena such as the Columbian Exchange, the international trade of American resources and the transatlantic slave trade. It also introduces Mesoamerica as a cultural area and, more specifically, the Late Postclassic Nahua world. Week 3 describes the Conquest of Mesoamerica and the political and economic structures of New Spain. One session this week is dedicated to a collective discussion of selected articles and book chapters provided by the instructor. Week 4 addresses the so‑called "spiritual conquest", the emergence of mestizaje across social and cultural domains, and the epistemological dimensions of colonialism, which at the same time extracts and downplays local indigenous knowledge. Week 5 considers the role of missionary‑ethnographers like Bernardino de Sahagún, the colonial origins of anthropological practices, and early modern conceptions of human difference as a formative stage in the development of racism and coloniality. 

This course questions the most generalized binary oppositions (State versus indigenous people, government versus community, etc.) that are loaded with moral values ​​(“bad” State versus “good” people) through readings and reflections that provide a complex understanding of the relationships between law, right, State, indigeneity and anthropology. The class becomes familiar with the history and institutionalisation of the rights of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants by analyzing case studies that show the possibilities and limitations of new legislation at national and international level.  The course also examines the difference between multiculturalism and interculturality through different intercultural projects. 

The course explores the relationship between religion and artificial intelligence (AI), examining how AI challenges, complements, and transforms religious beliefs and practices. It covers theological implications, ethical considerations, and the philosophical questions that arise from AI's impact on spirituality, morality, and religious traditions. The course also investigates how religious perspectives can inform the development and use of AI. Students study the anthropological perspective of humans and AI entanglement in the religious sphere, and learn to understand the historical and contemporary interactions between religion and technology. They analyze how AI influences religious beliefs, practices, and institutions, and they critically assess ethical and theological challenges related to AI. Finally, they explore how religious traditions contribute to discussions on AI ethics and morality, and they engage with philosophical questions regarding consciousness, personhood, and the soul in the context of AI.