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2023/2024

Ethnological Approach to Cultural Diversity

Code: 101279 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500256 Social and Cultural Anthropology FB 1 1

Contact

Name:
Alice Marie Sophie van den Bogaert
Email:
alicemarie.vandenbogaert@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.


Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites


Objectives and Contextualisation

Ethnographic approach to cultural diversity: 

INDIA (Professor Alice Van den Bogaert) 

We will address cultural diversity and the role of ethnography in the study of human beings, discovering major issues of anthropology (classifications, kinship, economics, politics, religion) with concrete examples and in-depth case studies from India and the Himalayas. This area of the world presents an immense linguistic, religious, political, and cultural diversity, which will allow us to delve into ethnography from classical and contemporary themes such as castes, Hinduism, possession, debt bondage, indigenous struggles or contemporary feminisms, among others.

 

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
										
											
										
											Faced with the challenges that different societies face, in 2015 the United Nations (UN) defined 17 goals for sustainable development (ODS), which are broken down into 169 goals. 
The SDGs address issues that affect different areas, from the eradication of poverty to the preservation of marine life. These are the objectives that must be achieved by 2030, and that challenge the whole of society.
										
											The ODS included in this subject are the following:
										
											
SDG 1: End poverty
										
											SDG 2: Zero hunger
										
											SDG 3: Health and well-being
										
											SDG 5: Gender equality
										
											ODS 10: Reduction of inequalities
										
											ODS 12: Responsible consumption and production
										
											ODS 13: Climate action
										
											SDG 16: Peace, Justice and strong institutions

 

 


Competences

  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  • Apprehending cultural diversity through ethnography and critically assessing ethnographic materials as knowledge of local contexts and as a proposal of theoretical models.
  • Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
  • Demonstrate skills for working autonomously or in teams to achieve the planned objectives including in multicultural and interdisciplinary contexts.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Using the discipline's ethnographic and theoretical corpus with analytical and synthesis skills.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse the sex- or gender-based inequalities and the gender biases present in one's own area of knowledge.
  2. Analysing a contemporary fact from an anthropological perspective.
  3. Applying the basic concepts of Social and Cultural Anthropology to the understanding of relationships between various societies and cultures.
  4. Applying the knowledge of cultural variability and its genesis to avoid ethnocentric projections.
  5. Apprehending cultural diversity through ethnography.
  6. Communicate using language that is not sexist or discriminatory.
  7. Consider how gender stereotypes and roles impinge on the exercise of the profession.
  8. Critically analyse the principles, values and procedures that govern the exercise of the profession.
  9. Effectively working in teams and respecting different opinions.
  10. Express ideas with a specific vocabulary appropriate to the discipline.
  11. Identify main and secondary ideas and express them with linguistic correctness.
  12. Identify the principal forms of sex- or gender-based inequality and discrimination present in society.
  13. Identifying the sociocultural variability through ethnographic texts and audiovisual resources.
  14. Interpreting the cultural diversity through ethnography.
  15. Knowing and assessing the various processes of intercultural relationship.
  16. Plan work effectively, individually or in groups, in order to fulfil the planned objectives.
  17. Theoretically analysing ethnographic examples of cultural diversity in the fields of kinship, economy, politics and religion.
  18. Using the basic concepts of Social and Cultural Anthropology for the understanding of relationships between various societies and cultures.
  19. Using the ethnographic corpus in the cultural critique.

Content

 

Topic 1. Introduction

  • The anthropological method and ethnographic techniques
  • Unity and diversity
  • Compare: how and why. Ethnocentrism, universalism, relativism.

Topic 2. Socio-political classifications and the construction of the other

  • Racism

  • Cultural fundamentalism

  • Exoticism, orientalism

  • Gender

  • Castes

Topic 3. Kinship systems

  • Kinship terminologies

  • Affiliation and alliance

  • Construction of the person: embryology, body, fluids, food

  • Forms of marriage, dowry and bride price

  • Family forms: monogamy, polygyny, polyandry, group marriage, Joint family

Topic 4. Economic systems

  • Adaptation strategies: hunting-gathering, horticulture, agriculture, pastoralism

  • Modes of production

  • Debt bondage

  • Distribution: market, redistribution, reciprocity

Topic 5. Political systems

  • Political structures

  • Authority and power

  • Inequalities

  • Resistance and agency

  • Anti-caste movements

  • Tribes and indigenous struggles

Topic 6. Religiosity and belief systems

  • Ritual and rites of passage

  • Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Parsis.

  • Ontologies

  • Possession and shamanism


Methodology

Teaching methodology:

- Master classes 

- Viewing and discussion of ethnographic documentaries.

- Guidelines for the autonomous search of information.

- Preparation of essays and text comments on bibliographic and/or audiovisual material (individual or group).

Training Activities:

- Theoretical classes and discussion sessions oriented to audio-visual and written documents.

- Presentation and discussion of ethnographic cases and explanation of key concepts.

- Comprehensive reading and discussion of texts, and analysis of audio-visual products

- Individual study and discussion in a team prior to the presentation of work.

- Elaboration of essays.

- Individual study and examination.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Debates on Audiovisual and texts 10 0.4 2, 4, 13, 14
Master classes 40 1.6 17, 2, 4, 3, 15, 13, 14, 5, 19, 18
Type: Supervised      
Individual and collective tutorials 15 0.6 4, 3, 13, 14
Type: Autonomous      
Preparation and presentation of essays 30 1.2 2, 4, 3, 13, 14, 19, 18
Study and personal work 50 2 17, 15, 13, 14, 5, 18

Assessment

EVALUATION (continuous or unique)

- To be evaluable, the student must have handed in at least 60% of the tests. Students will obtain a “Not assessed/Not submitted” unless they have submitted a minimum of 60% of the assessment items.

- In order to pass the course, it is necessary to obtain a minimum grade of 5.

- In order to participate in re-assessment, the teacher requires the student to have obtained a minimum final grade of 3,5.

 

(a). CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT

25%

Individual work

25%

Group work

50%

Theoretical exam

- On carrying out each evaluation activity, teacher will inform students (on Campus Virtual) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.

- Activities excluded from re-assessment: group work. 

 

(b). UNIQUE ASSESSMENT

25%

Individual synthesis

25%

Individual essay

50%

Theoretical exam

 

- The student must deliver all the tests on the same day, when indicated by the teacher.
- In no case will the level of the tests be lower than the continuous assessment.

 

 PLAGIARISM: 

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the Student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.


Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Group work on synthesis of readings 25% 1.5 0.06 8, 2, 3, 6, 13, 14, 18, 7
Individual work 25% 1.5 0.06 1, 17, 2, 4, 3, 6, 15, 10, 13, 11, 12, 14, 16, 5, 9, 19, 18
Theoretical exams 50% 2 0.08 17, 2, 4, 3, 10, 13, 11, 14, 19, 18

Bibliography

BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY ON SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Bonte, Pierre, Izard, Michel. 1996 [1991]. Diccionario de Etnología y Antropología, Madrid, Akal.

Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi, Cavalli-Sforza, Francesco. 1994. ¿Qui som? Història de la diversitat humana, Barcelona, Institut Català d’Estudis Mediterranis.

Friedman, Jonathan. 2001. Identidad cultural y proceso global, Buenos Aires, Amorrortu.

Gledhill, John. 2000 [1999]. El poder y sus disfraces. Perspectivas antropológicas de la política, Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra.

González, Aurora, San Román, Teresa, Grau, Jorge. 2003. Las relaciones de parentesco, Bellaterra, Publicacions d’Antropologia Cultural-UAB.

Kottak, Conrad Phillip. 2003 [2002]. Introducción a la antropología cultural. Espejo para la humanidad, Madrid, McGraw-Hill.

Lewellen, Ted. C. 1994. Antropología política, Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra.

Molina, José Luis, Valenzuela, Hugo. 2007. Invitación a la antropología económica, Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra.

Morris, Brian. 1995. Introducción al estudio antropológico de la religión, Barcelona, Paidós.

San Román, Teresa. 1996. Los muros de la separación. Ensayo sobre alterofobia y filantropía, Madrid, Tecnos.

 

Ethnographic approach to cultural diversity. INDIA

Banerjee, Ishita, 2008, “¿Existe un sistema de castas?”, Estudios de Asia y Africa, Vol. XLIII nº2, p.325-381

Benei, Véronique (2006). “La Producción De La Madre-India en La Escuela: Reconceptualización del género y de los espacios públicos y privados”. Revista Colombiana de Antropología, 42, p.55–97.

Bindi, Serena, 2018, “Fantasmas e inflamaciones: reflexiones sobre las interpelaciones terapéuticas a la religión en India”, Salud colectiva 14(2), p.179-192. 

Cantón Álvarez, José Antonio. 2016. “Opio y Colonialismo: Reflexiones Sobre El Papel Del Opio En La Penetración Colonial Europea En Asia y China / Opium and Colonialism: Reflecting on the Role of Opium in the European Colonial Penetration of Asia and China.” Estudios de Asia y África 51 (2): 391–412.

Daniel, E. Valentine, 1987, Fluid Signs: Being a Person the Tamil Way, Berkeley: University of California Press. 

Das, Veena, 1985, « Paradigms of Body Symbolism : An Analysis of Selected Themes in Hindu Culture », in Burghart, R. and Cantlie, A. (ed.), Indian Religion, London: Curzon, and New York: St Martin’s Press, p.180-207. 

Dube, Saurabh. (2012). “Consideraciones sobre los conceptos de nación y colonia en la independencia de la India”. Procesos: Revista Ecuatoriana de Historia, 35, 99–122.

Guha, Ranajit, 2019 (1987), Dominación sin hegemonía. Historia y poder en la India colonial. Madrid: Traficantes de Sueños. 

Khandelwal, Ajay. 1997. “Mujeres, Familia y Movilidad Social Transgeneracional. Tres Historias de Vida de Mujeres de Jaipur, India.” Historia, Antropología y Fuentes Orales, no. 17 (January): p. 23–31.

Moreno Leguizamón, Carlos J. (2006). “Salud-Enfermedad y Cuerpo-Mente En La Medicina Ayurvédica de La India y En La Biomedicina Contemporánea.” Antípoda: Revista de Antropología y Arqueología, nº3 (January) p.91–121.

Nanda, Serena, 2003, “Hijra y Sadhin. Ni hombre ni mujer en la India”, in José Antonio Nieto (Ed.), Antropología de la sexualidad y diversidad cultural. Madrid: Talasa, p.261-274

Obadia, Lionel. «Biomedicina versus medicinas tradicionales una aproximación no culturalista al pluralismo médico en el Himalaya (Nepal)». Quaderns de l’Institut Català d’Antropologia, [en línia], 2006, Núm. 22, p. 117-137. 

Pániker, Agustín, 2005, Índika. Una descolonización intelectual. Barcelona: Kairos

Pániker, Agustín, 2014, La sociedad de castas. Religión y política en la India, Barcelona: Kairos

Picherit, David. 2014. “La Servidumbre Por Deuda EnEl Ámbito Rural Del Sur de La India / Debt-Bondage in Rural South India.” Desacatos, no. 44: 83–102.

Saus Moreno, Judith (2007). “La sustentabilitat de les plantes medicinals a les muntanyes de Karandamalai, Tamil Nadu-India”. Perifèria 

Sen, Amartya, 2007, India contemporánea, Gedisa

Sen, Amartya, 2018, India en construcción. Economia, sociedad y cultura. Madrid: Clave Intelectual

Shiva, Vandana, 1992, “Women's Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation”, India International Centre Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 1/2, Indigenous vision: Peoples of India attitudes to the environment (spring-summer 1992), pp. 205-214

Shiva, Vandana and Leyens, Germán, 2002, “Exportación a toda costa: La receta de libre comercio de Oxfam para el Tercer Mundo”, Mientras Tanto, No. 84 (Otoño 2002), pp. 119-126


Van den Bogaert, Alice, 2018, “Continuidad interior, discontinuidad corporal: la humanidad fragmentada en el Himalaya indio”, en Ventura, M. y Mateo Dieste, J.L. (eds.), La humanidad como categoría. Un viaje antropológico, Barcelona: Editorial Bellaterra.

Van den Bogaert, Alice, 2017, “Los fluidos y el concepto de impureza: género y castas en el Himalaya indio”, Revista Ankulegi nº21 (Antropología de las materialidades).

Van den Bogaert, Alice,2016, “Cuerpos abiertos, cuerpos cerrados. Cuerpo social y contaminación simbólica en el valle del Jalori, Himachal Pradesh (India)”, in Martí, J. y Porzio, L. (eds.), Cuerpos y agencia en la arena social, Madrid: CSIC.

Vélez, Víctor. 2018. “La Marca-País. Reflexiones Sobre La Obsesión Por Rentabilizar La Cultura.” Indialogs: Spanish Journal of India Studies, vol.5 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Bodies / Cuerpos), págs.107-115

Yalman, Nur, 1963, “On the Purity of Women in the Castes of Ceylon and malabar”, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol.93, nº 1, p.25-58. 


Software

Word processor (Word type).