Course description
For as long as humans have been aware of the fact, that beyond the boundaries of one’s own society, people differ in language, customs, behavior, and beliefs, this difference has intrigued us. However, the reactions to this cultural other were not always friendly. In the best cases, the encounter aroused at least interest and curiosity, albeit not yet empathic understanding and the wish to see the world through the eyes of the other.
The first accounts of foreign cultures from writers and philosophers of antiquity read like pure fiction: Pliny the Elder (23–79 A.D.), in his Naturalis historia, tells of humans without heads or with dogs’ heads, and humans who had ears long enough to wrap themselves in.
Long before social anthropology was established as a discipline, encounters with people from different cultural backgrounds had led to reports, texts, and travelogues that in their own era sold as bestsellers. The idea of the cultural other as strange and monstrous, as cannibal and savage, alongside detailed observations and descriptions of diverse cultural habits and customs, characterizes the reports and diaries of the first travelers: scholars, traders, soldiers, and conquerors who traveled the Silk Road, or invaded the African or Australian continents or the New World in the course of colonization. These imaginaries had found their way into the medieval Christian concept of the cultures of Asia, Africa, or the Americas, and later helped to legitimize the colonization endeavor.
In this course, we will trace the history of the fascination with, and perception of, the cultural other from the writers of antiquity to Columbus “discovering” the New World, and from the diaries and travelogues of conquerors and missionaries to the first conceptualization of foreign cultures in the works of early social anthropologists and writers. Through texts that convey an indigenous viewpoint, or directly are written by indigenous authors, we will learn that history is not a constant but reflects power relations: depending on whose history we read, the interpretation of the political and social consequences of the clash of cultures will be different.
With the systematization of methods in anthropological investigation and the emergence of the aim to gain a deep understanding of the cultural other, social anthropology in the 20 and 21st centuries has taken a great step forward. Not only has the cultural other been freed from the attribution to foreign cultures, and can thus be found right inside one’s own society, but the way anthropologists write about others has also been analyzed and revised. The crisis of representation in social anthropology has led to new forms of thinking and speaking about other cultures.
As VIU courses usually have a high degree of diversity among students—with students coming from different academic traditions and countries—we will consider this circumstance as an advantage and make it useful in the seminar sessions. Throughout the course we will generate a polyphony of voices about ourselves and about others.

Learning outcomes
- students get an overview of the history of the perception and conceptualization of the cultural other from an European as well as from an indigenous point of view, including specific questions and theoretical framework.
- as students will read text of most diverse authors, and periods, they will learn how to deal with a large variety of texts, analyze and contextualize them
- students learn to critically examine different approaches towards the cultural other
- students get an introduction into the history of Social Anthropology
- students are trained in research, presentation in class and gain eloquence to speak

Course requirements
- the course is a seminar. Each session is organized around readings that must be completed before class. Students have to be prepared to discuss the texts and physically bring them to class (either on paper or on screen) so that we can re-read certain passages.
- prepare one oral presentation (alone or in group) accompanied by power point presentations, based on readings and research.
- write one final essay. The essay must include bibliographical references and notes. The topic can be chosen in agreement with the professor and has to be based on one of the seminar topics.

Detailed information about the course, guidelines and articles will be available during the semester in the e-learning platform, which students will be asked to consult regularly.

Syllabus
- Introduction, get to know each other, brainstorming, own ideas
- Cultural diversity in the seminar & reflections on the concept of culture
- The world as construction. Reflecting on categories and hypothesis
José Luis Borges: 1964. The Analytical Language of John Wilkins in: Other Inquisitions (1937-1952) Austin, Univ. of Texas
- Monsters and other bizarre humans
- Pliny the Elder. 77AD. The Natural History /Geography, Ethnography, Anthropology) from Nuremberg Chronicle 1493
- Between fiction and description - reports by travellers from the Middle Ages
L.F. Benedetto, Aldo Ricci, Sir E.D. Ross. 2014. The travels of Marco Polo. Abingdon 2014
Jenni Kuuliala, Jussi Rantala. 2020. Travel, pilgrimage and social interaction from antiquity to the Middle Ages
- Where the cannibals live.
Hans Staden. 1874. The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse, in A.D. 1547-1555. Among the Wild Tribes of Eastern Brazil (translated by Albert Tootal 1874).
- Who’s history? – The clash of imaginaries in the conquest of the Americas
Tzvetan Todorov. 2002. The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other
(La conquete de L’Amérique: La question de l’autre, 1982, Editions du Seuil)
Townsend, Camilla.2006. Malintzin’s choices. An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico. Albuqerque: Univ of N.Y.
Adorno, Rolena. 2000. Guaman Poma: Writing and Resistance in Colonial Peru. Austin, Univ of
Texas
- First steps in an scientific approach to the cultural other
Bronislaw Malinowski. 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Dutton, N.Y. 1922
Frank Hamilton Cushing, Jesse Green. 1981. Zuñi. Univ. of Nebraska Press
- The embodiment of culture - walking, swimming, eating
Marcel Mauss. 1979. The Techniques of the Body in: Sociology and Psychology (Les Téchniques du Corps in: Sociologie é Anthropologie Paris, 1936)
- The question of universals
Laura Bohannan. 1966. Shakespeare in the bush. Natural History 75.pp28-33
- Towards an interpretation of the cultural other
Clifford Geertz. 1973. Deep Play. Some Notes on the Balinese Cockfight In: The Interpretation of Culture. Selected Essays. N.Y.Basic Books
- Questioning the representation of the cultural other
Clifford, James.1986. Writing Culture: the Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley, Univ. of California Press.
- Orientalism and Gender
Abu-Lughod, Lila.1993.Writing Woman`s Worlds: Bedouin Stories. Berkeley, Univ. of California Press
- Polyphony of voices. Me and you. Diversity as capital

Evaluation
- 30% attendance and participation
- 30% oral presentation in class
- 40% written final essay

Online Modus
For all students who aren’t able to come to Venice and also in case the entire course has to be held online, the following modes of participation will apply:
- presentations must be created with zoom (filmed) or Power Point/Audio and uploaded in our shared virtual platform.
- texts have to been discussed in virtual peer discussion groups previous to our zoom-conferences. Students must send me a short written report on their discussions
- throughout the semester there will be small scale research challenges, that might be carried out in one’s own country (city, surrounding) and might also be carried out via online chats

Evaluation in case of online participation or in case the entire course will be held online
- 30% participation (short written reports on text discussions and research experiences)
- 30% presentation in virtual format
- 40% final written essay

Bibliography
Abu-Lughod, Lila.1993.Writing Woman`s Worlds: Bedouin Stories. Berkeley, Univ. of California Press
Adorno, Rolena. 2000. Guaman Poma: Writing and Resistance in Colonial Peru. Austin, Univ of Texas
Bohannan, Laura. 1966. Shakespeare in the bush. Natural History 75:pp 28-33
Borges, José Luis. 1964. The Analytical Language of John Wilkins in: Other Inquisitions (1937-1952) Austin, Univ. of Texas
(El idioma analítico de John Wilkins in: Otras Inquisiciones 1937-1952) publicado 1952, Buenos Aires: Sur.
Clifford, James.1986. Writing Culture: the Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley, Univ. of California Press.
Green, Jesse and Cushing, Frank H. 1978. Zuñi: Selected Writings of Frank Hamilton Cushing. Lincoln, Univ. of Nebraska Press.
Guaman Poma, Felipe. Approx. 1616. The First New Chronicle and Good Government (translated by Roland Hamilton, Austin. Univ. of Texas 2009)
Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Dutton, N.Y. 1922
Mauss, Marcel. 1979. The Techniques of the Body in: Sociology and Psychology (Les Téchniques du Corps in: Sociologie é Anthropologie Paris, 1936)
Pink, Sarah 2009. Doing Sensory Ethnography. London, Sage Publishers
Pliny the Elder. 77AD. The Natural History /Geography, Ethnography, Anthropology) from Nuremberg Chronicle 1493
Staden, Hans. 1874. The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse, in A.D. 1547-1555. Among the Wild Tribes of Eastern Brazil (translated by Albert Tootal 1874).
Townsend, Camilla.2006. Malintzin’s choices. An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico. Albuqerque: Univ of N.Y.
Todorov, Tzvetan. 2002. The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other (La conquete de L’Amérique: La question de l’autre, 1982, Editions du Seuil)