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Ethnographic Approach to Cultural Diversity

Code: 107234 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
1500086 Social and Cultural Anthropology FB 1

Contact

Name:
Josep Lluis Mateo Dieste
Email:
joseplluis.mateo@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites.


Objectives and Contextualisation

Ethnographic approach to cultural diversity. Maghreb

Professor. Josep Lluís Mateo Dieste

CONTEXTUALIZATION AND TRAINING OBJECTIVES OF THE SUBJECT:

This is a first year course that develops the basic training to study Social and Cultural Anthropology and that corresponds to the basic subject 'basic concepts and fields of Anthropology'. Introduction to the classic fields of Anthropology (economics, politics, kinship, religion) through specific ethnographic cases and a monograph, in order to provide a holistic approach to cultural diversity and to contrast with our sociocultural context and with other ethnographic examples.

TRAINING OBJECTIVES:

Students will have to recognize and identify the complex and changing reality of the Maghreb populations, from the recent past to the current social situation, marked by processes of modernization, globalization and diaspora, and will receive the tools to deconstruct stereotypes on the otherness and its political uses. Students should be able to detect and analyze the central socio-cultural dimensions as well as the main changes and continuities of Maghreb societies in their main fields: economic and ecological, political and social organization, kinship relations, and symbolic, religious and ritual varieties. From here, ethnographic case studies will be presented, especially in the northern area of Morocco, and tools will be offered to analyze this area from a dynamic point of view, considering the conflict over power, the construction of gender and community inequalities and the impact of modernization processes (colonization, urbanization, emigration), in order to be able to interpret contemporary phenomena.


Learning Outcomes

  1. CM07 (Competence) Apply knowledge of cultural variability and its genesis to overcome ethnocentric projections in the understanding of social and cultural phenomena.
  2. CM10 (Competence) Use an appropriate specific vocabulary in the transmission of basic anthropological information.
  3. KM08 (Knowledge) Recognise social and cultural diversity theoretically and on the basis of specific cases.
  4. KM09 (Knowledge) Identify the cultural character of conceptualisations and practices, as well as the various institutional systems that govern societies.
  5. SM12 (Skill) Analyse ethnographical examples of cultural diversity.

Content

1. Introduction

- Ethnocentrism and otherness.

- Diversities: ethnicity, religion, class.

- Doing Ethnography in the Maghreb.

2. Economic relations and social organization

- Agricultural and livestock systems in transition.

- Exchange forms

- The informal economy of the border

3. Power, kinship and social organization

- The power of genealogy: state and tribe

- Patrons and clients

- Powers and counterpowers

4. Kinship and gender relations

- Dimensions of kinship

- Marriage and alliance

- Notions of person and gender

5. Islam, text and popular religion

- Religion, magic and symbolic systems

- Popular Islam

- Revitalization movements


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Discussions on audiovisuals and texts 10 0.4 CM07, CM10
Master classes 40 1.6 KM08, KM09, SM12
Type: Supervised      
Individual and collective tutorials 15 0.6 CM07, CM10
Type: Autonomous      
Preparation and presentation of essays 35 1.4 CM07, CM10, KM08, KM09, SM12
Study and personal work 50 2 CM07, CM10, KM08, SM12

Teaching methodology:

  • Master classes with the support of the new information and communication technologies (NTIC).
  • Viewing and discussion of ethnographic documentaries.
  • Guidelines for the autonomous search of information.
  • Preparation of essays and text comments on bibliographic and 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.
  • Ethnographic observation in small groups.
  • 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.

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.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Delivery of essays 40 0 0 CM07, CM10, KM08, KM09, SM12
Presentations and participation 20 0 0 CM10, SM12
Theoretical exam 40 0 0 CM10, KM08, KM09, SM12

EVALUATION (continuous or unique)

At the beginning of the course, a schedule will be provided with the calendar of assessment activities and the instructions for the exercises. Consult Moodle regularly to extend / update the information in this guide and for the general functioning of the course.

- Students will obtain a "Not assessed/Not submitted" course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% 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.

- Activities excluded from re-assessment: non-presence during a visit, practice or presentation cannot be recovered.

- 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.

A. Continuous evaluation

40%     Delivery of essays

___________________________________________

20%     Presentations and participation

___________________________________________

40%     Theoretical exams

___________________________________________

 

B. Unique assessment

40%     Individual work

___________________________________________

20%     Essays-commentaries

___________________________________________

40%     Theoretical exam

___________________________________________

-The student must deliver all the tests on the same day, on the date indicated in the calendar.

- The same recuperation system will be applied as for the continuous evaluation.

- Review of the qualification follows the same procedure as for the continuous evaluation.


Bibliography

BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY ON SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

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

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

Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1976 [1937]. Brujería, magia y oráculos entre los Azande, Barcelona, Anagrama.

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.

Harris, Marvin. 1998 [1978]. Introducción a la antropología general, Madrid, Alianza Editorial.

Harris, Marvin. 2003. El desarrollo de la teoría antropológica. Una historia de las teorías de la cultura, Madrid, Siglo XXI.

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. 2023. Los muros de la separación. Ensayo sobre alterofobia y filantropía. Bellaterra, Departament d’Antropologia Social i Cultural, Servei de Publicacions dela Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

 

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE MAGHREB

(*Recommended general reference work)

 

Aixelá, Yolanda. 2000. Mujeres en Marruecos. Un análisis desde el parentesco y el género. Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra.

Bennani-Chraïbi, Mounia; Fillieuele, Olivier (eds.). 2004. Resistencia y protesta en las sociedades musulmanas. Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra.

Berque, Jacques. 1953. “Qu’est-ce qu’une “tribu” nord-africaine?”, Éventail d’histoire vivante: Hommage à Lucien Febvre offert par l’amitié d’historiens, Paris, Armand Colin, vol. I., pp. 261-271.

––1978. Structures sociales du Haut-Atlas, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France (1955).

Bonte, Pierre; Conte, Édouard; Hamès, Constant; Ould Cheikh, Abdel Wedoud. 1991. Al-Ansâb. La quête des origines. Anthropologie historique de la société tribale arabe, Paris, Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.

Bonte, Pierre (ed.). 1994. Épouser au plus proche. Inceste, prohibition et stratégies matrimoniales autour de la Méditerranée, Paris, Ed. de l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. El sentido práctico. Madrid, Taurus [1980].

––2006. Sociología de Argelia y Tres estudios de etnología cabilia. Madrid, CIS.

Brett, Michael; Fentress, Elizabeth. 1996. The Berbers. Oxford, Cambridge, Blackwell.

Caro Baroja, Julio. 1990. Estudios saharianos, Madrid, Júcar Universidad [1955].

Crawford, David; Newcomb, Rachel (eds.). 2013. Encountering Morocco: fieldwork and cultural understanding. Bloomington, Indiana University Press.

Chaker, Salem (dir.). 1987. “Berbères. Une identité en construction”, monogràfic Revue de l'Occident Musulman et de la Méditerranée, 44.

Davis, John. 1977. Antropología de las sociedades mediterráneas. Barcelona, Editorial Anagrama.

*Eickelman, Dale F. 2003. Antropología del mundo islámico. Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra [2002].

Feliu, Laura; Mateo Dieste, Josep Lluís; Izquierdo Brichs, Ferran (eds.). 2018. Un siglo de movilización social en Marruecos, Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra.

Gellner, Ernest. 1986. La sociedad musulmana. México, Fondo de Cultura Económica [1981].

Gellner, E.; Micaud C. (eds.). 1972. Arabs and Berbers From Tribe to Nation in North Africa. Duckworth.

Geertz, Clifford; Geertz, Hildred; Rosen, Lawrence. 1979. Meaning and Order in Moroccan Society: Three Essays in Cultural Analysis, New York, Cambridge University Press.

González Turmo, Isabel. 2001. La antropología social de los pueblos del Mediterráneo. Granada, Editorial Comares.

Hammoudi, Abdellah. 2007. Maestro y discípulo. Fundamentos culturales del autoritarismo en las sociedades árabes. Barcelona, Anthropos.

Lacoste, Camille; Yves Lacoste. 2004. Maghreb, peuples et civilisations. Paris, La Découverte [1995].

Lacoste-Dujardin, Camille. 1993. Las madres contra las mujeres. Patriarcado y maternidad en el mundo árabe, Madrid, Cátedra.

López García, Bernabé; Berriane, Mohamed (dir.). 2004. Atlas de la emigración marroquí en España, Madrid, Taller de Estudios Internacionales Mediterráneos - Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales - UAM Ediciones.

Mateo Dieste, Josep Lluís. 2010. Salud y ritual en Marruecos. Concepciones del cuerpo y prácticas de curación, Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra.

––2017. Moros vienen. Historia y política de un estereotipo, Melilla, Instituto de las Culturas.

––2021. Recordando a las tatas. Mujeres domésticas y esclavitud en Tetuán (siglos XIX-XX). Granada, Comares.

Moreras Palenzuela, J. (coord.), Alonso Cabré, M.; Ghali Bada, K.; López Bargados, A.; Solé Arraràs, A. 2017. Diàspores i rituals. El cicle festiu dels musulmans de Catalunya, Temes d’Etnologia de Catalunya, núm. 28, Barcelona, Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de Cultura.

Moreras, Jordi. 2024. Morts sense terra, cossos sense repòs. Història de la gestió funerària entre els marroquins a Catalunya. Manresa, Bellaterra Edicions.

Ramírez, Ángeles; López García, Bernabé (eds.). 2002. Antropología y antropólogos en Marruecos. Homenaje a David M. Hart. Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra.

Roque, Maria-Àngels (ed.). 1996. Las culturas del Magreb. Antropología, historia y sociedad. Barcelona, Institut Català de la Mediterrània.

Rosander, Eva Evers. 2004. Mujeres en la frontera. Tradición e identidad musulmanas en Ceuta. Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra.

Valensi, Lucette. 1986. “La tour de babel: Groupes et relations ethniques au Moyen-Orient et en Afrique du Nord”, Annales ESC, nº4, pp. 817-838.


Software

Word processor (Word type).


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed