GLOBAL ASIAN STUDIES 2: ANTHROPOLOGY

This course introduces students to the anthropological study of East Asia, with particular focus on Japan, China, and Korea.
Through a seminar-based and interdisciplinary approach, the course provides conceptual tools to understand social practices, moral values, forms of authority, and processes of identity formation, avoiding essentialist or culturalist interpretations.

Matthew Engelke’s How to Think Like an Anthropologist serves as the theoretical backbone of the course and is placed in dialogue with articles and ethnographic studies focusing on Asian contexts.

The course is designed for students from different disciplinary backgrounds (philosophy, languages, economics) and emphasizes critical discussion, analysis of concrete cases, and methodological reflection.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

- understand and use key concepts in social and cultural anthropology;
- apply these concepts to empirical cases related to East Asia;
- distinguish between cultural discourses, social practices, and power relations;
- develop critical and comparative analyses of social phenomena;
- reflect on the methods and limits of anthropological research.

No prior training in anthropology is required.
A solid ability to read and critically engage with academic texts is recommended.

1. Introduction

- What it means to “think like an anthropologist”
- Anthropology, comparison, and defamiliarization
- East Asia as a conceptual laboratory

2. Culture

- Culture as practice and as discourse
- Critique of cultural essentialism
- National culture and homogeneity (Japan)

3. Civilization

- Civilization, modernity, and social order
- Public morality and governance (China)
- Civilization as a political technology

4. Values

- Morality, relationships, and social obligations
- Moral vocabularies and everyday practices
- Values, gift exchange, and reciprocity (China and Japan)

5. Blood

- Kinship, descent, and belonging
- Blood as metaphor and as ideology
- Nation, family, and “purity” (Korea and Japan)

6. Identity

- Identity, gender, and work
- The production of modern subjectivities
- Majorities, minorities, and the nation

7. Authority

- Authority, power, and legitimacy
- State, governance, and everyday discipline
- Non-state forms of authority (religion, moral economy)

8. Synthesis and conclusion

- Comparative discussion
- Presentation of final projects

Main textbook

Engelke, M., How to Think Like an Anthropologist.

Additional readings
Articles and book chapters on Japan, China, and Korea will be provided by the instructor and made available through the university platform.

Midterm assessment (30%): Anthropological fieldwork sheet (1200–1500 words) to be presented in class

Students prepare an analytical sheet focused on:

- a concrete social object related to Japan, China, or Korea;
- one anthropological concept drawn from Engelke’s text.

This assignment is preparatory and serves as the empirical and conceptual basis for the final exam.

Final assessment (40%): Individual written paper (2000–2500 words)

A critical application of an anthropological concept to an East Asian case, including methodological and comparative reflection.

Participation (30%)

- attendance;
- contribution to class discussions;
- short reading memos/take-home assignments for class discussion.

written and oral

Midterm assessment (30%)

Final assessment (40%)

Participation (30%)

The course is seminar-based and includes:

- collective discussion of assigned readings;
- short conceptual analysis exercises;
- oral presentations;
- progressive written assignments.

Active participation is considered an integral part of the learning process.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development