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Anthropology of complex societies
Study of the dynamics and characteristics of “complex” societies aiming at a discussion of wider anthropological issues regarding both “traditional” and “modern” societies. The analysis focuses on political, family, religion, artistic, scientific, transgression networks, mostly within modern Western culture and urban contexts. Anthropology of art and material culture
Study of objects and ritual practices in their expressive, plastic and sound dimension, as well as the processes attributing them value. It includes the morphological, functional, esthetic and pragmatic study of objects and performances in both ethnographic and museographic contexts. Anthropology of science
Study of scientific knowledge, its regimes and contexts of production. Examination of the socio-historical construction of different scientific knowledges from an ethnographical approach. Linking anthropology with epistemology and philosophy of sciences. Exploring the relations between scientific and traditional knowledge. Political anthropology
Aims at understanding the processes of production of power differentials in collectivities of various scales and natures, either symbolic or arising from interdependent social networks. Two main axes are contemplated: i) Processes of unification, identity production, centralization and collectivization with regard to communities and political associations (parties, cities, nations, states); (ii) Processes leading to the establishment of practices of sociability, such as professional words with their own rules and values Economic anthropology
This line of research stands at the hinge between the anthropology of sciences (economics, statistics and more recently neurosciences, amongst others) and everyday economic ideas and practices. The aim is to understand ethnographically, historically and comparatively the meanings of categories used to think and act upon the word as “economic”, or to act and think “economically” through human relations. Issues relating to exchange and the meanings of money, such as monetary practices, credit, development, entrepreneurship, international remittances, are approached in various social contexts, from the transactions in popular neighborhoods to the technological and sociological dynamics of the transnational financial market. Following the traditions of economic anthropology, the idea is to observe these universes, mostly, with relations to other domains of social life, like religion, the family and forms of regulation. |
Anthropology and linguistics
Linguistic documentation, description and analysis with emphasis upon indigenous languages (LI); reanalysis of data; typology and diachrony. Contributions to morphologic, syntactic and phonetic theories. Relationships between language, speech, thought and society; discourse and verbal arts; writing, translations, medias and new technologies. Dialogue and differentiation between contemporary linguistics and anthropology. Anthropology of religion
Study of the conceptualizations, practices, representations, experiences and rituals putting in motion different ideas of the sacred and its relationships with social life in various levels of human existence. Exploration of the meaning of the category of religion in different historical and sociocultural contexts. Anthropology of peasantry and working classes
Study of social universes conceived of as agrarian or industrial (without excluding processes of de-peasantryzation, de-proletarization and other new social positions within business and services), keeping in mind issues emerging from the anthropological tradition such as family, kinship and domesticity; exchange and obligations; community and class, classifications; differentiations and inequalities of power; politics; identities; rituals; performances; symbolic and expressive forms; social memory; sociabilities and moralities. Anthropology of minorities
Study of the relationships of dominations involving groups or individuals understood as being of antagonism to a “majority” and, as such, having a different access to political, economic and education opportunities and social mobility. It envisages studies of relationships and groups identified on the basis of their belonging according to national, racial, religious, ethnic, cultural and gender criteria. Anthropology of indigenous people and traditional populations
Study of indigenous, afro-American and other traditional populations of the American continent (community peasants, extractivists, riverines, fishermen). Analysis of non-state forms of sociopolitical organization; ecology and economy of non-capitalist formations. Cosmological conceptualizations and practices of meaning amongst autochthonous and afro-American societies of the Americas. Anthropology of ritual
Study of the actions, relationships, symbols and images defined as “ritual”, including traditional rituals (feasts, festivals, spectacles), forms of ritualization and differentiation between ritual action and everyday action. Anthropological theory
Aims at critically rethinking anthropology´s different traditions, schools and strands; including the study of path breaking works, both classical and recent, and the investigation of the production and the producers of anthropological knowledge in their social and historical contexts. |
