OVERVIEW

The general - historical, archaeological and anthropological - theme of the course is that of the construction of the material world: the relationships between people and things (knowledge, practices, ritual, ceremonial, ...) and between things and things (new materialisms); the processes that produce things; what the study of objects tells us (life cycle and biographies of objects, objects in history, history of objects). The concept of the object will be explored in a broad and wide sense (artefacts, ecofacts, spaces and landscapes).

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course has three objectives: reconstructing the methodological and disciplinary paths that led to the definition of the concept of “history of material culture” as an interdisciplinary area of research; exploring the different ways in which this concept has been variously used in archaeology, history and beyond; proposing a critical investigation on the evolution of the concept of material culture, from the material to the cultural dimension, from production to consumption.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Starting from the concept of the history of material culture as an interdisciplinary area of research that tackles, through different disciplinary and conceptual paths, the study of the production, circulation and consumption of artefacts, the course has three main objectives.

- to build the critical tools to explore different approaches to the historical and archaeological study of the world of objects and the relationships between people and things and between things and things

- to acquire the theoretical-methodological tools to identify, analyse and understand the processes that produce things

- to critically investigate the evolution of the concept of material culture in history, archaeology, anthropology

Students will learn to understand the processes that produce things, through the analysis of objects' economic, social and cultural history (and thus also to use things as indicators and traces of processes). They will also learn a method for critical analysis of historiographical literature and material and written sources, for critical reading of texts or documents and for communicating research results at a scientific level. Upon completion of the course, students will be introduced to the subject of material culture analysis. They will acquire knowledge of historiographical theories, concepts and methods. Students should be able to present and critically discuss the proposed and/or recommended texts for self-study.

PREREQUISITES

There are no particular prerequisites.

The course is aimed at all Master students in the School of Humanities.

TEACHING METHODS

Teaching will be seminar-based: attendance is strongly recommended. The course structure includes reading and discussing texts and documents in class. Didactic visits are also planned.  There will be ongoing tests with written exercises in class and/or at home. Based on the bibliography indicated and other texts that will be proposed during the course, students will have the opportunity to build individual study paths.

Lessons will take place in presence. Attendance, although not compulsory, is recommended. The lecturer, at the specific request of a student (by e-mail), may allow him/her to remotely follow classes via “Teams” platform.

A part of the teaching materials will be available to students through the AulaWeb.

Students with certified DSA, disabilities or other learning disorders will find specific indication to require services, compensative tools or dispensative measures, as well as specific helps in the document available at the following link https://unige.it/disabilita-dsa/modulistica

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course programme focuses on some key contents: the concept of the history of material culture; the biography and life cycles of objects; objects as historical sources and the heritagization of objects and spaces.

Through different texts, the following themes will be explored:

- the different approaches to the historical and historical-archaeological study of the world of objects and the relations between people and things, starting from the discussions that, during the Seventies of the 20th c., led to the affirmation in Italy of the concept of the history of material culture

- a discussion and in-depth study of the processes that produce things, investigating through texts and readings the following themes: the history of objects and objects in history, the biography of objects, life cycles of objects, patrimonialisation of objects (and spaces)

- a critical investigation of the evolution of the concept of material culture in history, archaeology and anthropology, with a particular reference to the increasing weight that things and materiality have in historical, archaeological and anthropological research (materialistic turn, global history of objects, new materialisms).

During the course, and based on in-class discussions, a specific theme may be chosen to be explored in a monographic manner (e.g. uses, re-uses and re-functionalisation: the waste cycle in history; objects in motion: the paths of animals and things; ritualization and patrimonialisation, etc.).

The programme for attending and non-attending students is the same. For non-attending students, a specific path will be created through readings and texts of their choice.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

The course is based on the study of some volumes, integrates with papers. When possible and required, texts will be made available in printed copy or via Aulaweb, where the entire bibliography is available.

The preparation should be completed with further volume, to be chosen within a list.

1. Fundamental texts
- Osvaldo Raggio, Oggetti nella storia. Perché la storiografia è importante (tra storia e archeologia), in "Quaderni storici", 159 (2018), pp. 863-78.
- Arjun Appadurai (a cura di), La vita sociale delle cose. Le merci in una prospettiva culturale, Meltemi, 2016 (v.o. Londra 1988), solo la premessa di Sarah Farray e i saggi di Appadurai e Igor Kopitoff
- Storia della cultura materiale in tempo di COVID-19, a cura di Osvaldo Raggio e Anna Maria Stagno, Firenze, All'Insegna del Giglio, 2020 (in biblioteca e in accesso aperto sul sito dell’editore).
- Giovanni Levi, Il consumo a Venezia. Una fonte contabile, in Prima lezione di metodo storico, a cura di Sergio Luzzato Bari, 2015, pp. 51-68.
- Ian Hodder, Human-thing entanglement: towards an integrated archaeological perspective, «Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute», (N.S.) 17, 2011 pp. 154-177.
- Chris Gosden and Yvonne Marshall, The Cultural Biography of Objects, in Id.  (eds.), The Cultural Biography of Objects, “World Archaeology”, 31-2, 1999, pp. 169-178.

The following themes will be deepened through further papers, that will be made available via Aulaweb or in copy. 
-    History of an history of material culture (editoriali e saggi dalle riviste «Archeologia Medievale», e «Quaderni storici»)
-    Objects in the history, the priority of the relationships in the social microhistory paths  (saggi da Edoardo Grendi, Giovanni Levi, Renata Ago, Chris Wickham, Osvaldo Raggio)
-    Social history of the objects, the cultural biography of things and the perspective of the historical anthropology (Saggi dal volume di A. Appadurai)
-    Global history of things and life cycles of things: between archaeology and anthropology (saggi da Chris Gosden and Yvonne Marshall, Roberta Gilchrist, Paula Finley)
-   The processes that things produce: entanglement and entrapment (o noi trasformiamo gli oggetti e gli oggetti trasformano noi), saggi di Ian Hodder
-    The relationship between things and objects: the possession language (saggi da Osvaldo Raggio e Anna Maria Stagno) e i riti devozionali (saggi da Angelo Torre)
-    Heritagisation as a process (saggi da Laurejane Smith, Tim Ingold, David C. Harvey) e la patrimonializzazione degli spazi (saggi da Massimo Quaini et al. e da Anna Maria Stagno et al.)

The preparation should be completed reading on of the following books, and through the preparation of a written elaborate at choosing
La preparazione va completata con la lettura di almeno uno dei volumi indicati di seguito e con l’approfondimento, attraverso l’elaborato scritto di un tema a scelta
- Arjun Appadurai, La vita sociale delle cose: una prospettiva culturale sulle merci di scambio, Meltemi, 2021 (v.o. 1988).
- Ian Hodder, Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships Between Humans and Things, Wiley-Blackwell, 2014. 
- Renata Ago, Il gusto delle cose. Una storia degli oggetti nella Roma del Seicento, Roma, Donzelli, 2006.
- Raffaella Sarti, Vita di casa. Abitare, mangiare, vestire nell'Europa moderna, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1999.
- Enrica Asquer, La rivoluzione candida. Storia sociale della lavatrice in Italia (1945-1970), Roma, Carocci, 2007.
- Natalie Zemon Davis, Il dono. Vita familiare e relazioni pubbliche nella Francia del Cinquecento, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2002.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Lessons will start during the week of the 21st September 2026

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The course is seminar-based. There will be in-progress exercises on individual case studies and readings that will be discussed and will contribute to the final assessment. The assessment of the written exercises will be part of the final assessment with an oral assessment. Written exercises are valid for the academic year of the course

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The oral examination and the discussion of the in-progress written exercises will verify the achievement of the learning outcomes. The main assessment parameters are the mastery of the topics covered, the quality of the exposition and vocabulary used, both in the oral communication and in the written tests, and the capacity for critical and comparative reasoning.