Ethnography of Europe 3102-FEEU

The lecture course will address the issue of the apparent paradox of an anthropology of Europe through the analysis of a number of case studies about problematically European communities, i.e. communities in one way or another at the 'centre' or on the 'periphery' of Europe. More generally, the course will examine the complex theoretical and methodological issues that arise with anthropology's repatriation, that is to say, the turning of a discipline originally concerned with defining Europe's (and the western world's) 'Other' onto Europe itself as an object of knowledge and analysis. The course will start with the discussion of case studies concerned with rural communities at the economic 'margins' of Europe so as to show that these interests reflected the discipline's focus on ideally 'bounded' communities. The course will then move to the analysis of the relationship between such communities and the state of which they are part, and to the examination of nationalism and nationalist movements that did not achieve statehood (the Basques, Bretons and others). Finally, lectures will focus on the idea of 'Europe' in light of the demise of Socialism on the one hand, and of European integration on the other. They will address some of the issues that the creation of the European Union raises, and will explore the ways the idea of 'Europe' itself can be used by different political actors for different ends.