A First Look at Italian Anthropology

There are not many anthropologists in Italy that have websites in English. But some have. And in Italy they is an Open Access anthropology journal Antrocom that will be translated into English in a few months. I was contacted by the Italian Antrocom Press Office and provided with some links - so here a first look at Italian anthropology.

Duccio Canestrini runs Homo Turisticus, a web site dealing with the anthropology of tourism.

From the self description:

(The website) provides an original viewpoint of the touristic "species" and of recreational land uses. Travel myths, holiday rythes and touristic encounters are my personal research field.

Over the last decades it seems that everybody has travelled to just about everywhere. But there’s also something risky in the side effects of global tourism. We can do better. A responsible tourism should protect natural resources, respect different cultures and improve everybody's quality of life.

Although ecotourism and sustainability are new buzz words, and in such risk dying of a dose of media overkill, new representations and new manners in tourism are investigated and largely practiced. Tourism likes and needs innovation. New ideas often come from social sciences.

In English, some articles and videos are available.

Laura Ciaffi is medical anthropologist who focuses on HIV/AIDS. On her website we can read her Cameroon Diary and download three papers about aids and health in Africa.

Cristina Grassen has started blogging on the Anthropology of Innovation.

Alessandro Duranti is Professor of Anthropology at UCLA (Los Angeles). He has put online lots of articles and papers and video clips. He is mainly interested in linguistic and political anthropology.

I was also pointed at these two papers:

Alessandro Cavalli and Fabio Luca Cavazza (2001): Reflections on political culture and the "Italian national character" (published in Daedalus, Summer 2001)

Franco Pelliccioni (1980): "Anthropology in Italy" (published in Human Organization, Journal of the Society for Applied Anthropology)

Earlier today, I've written about another Italian anthropologist Gabriele Marranci who runs the blog Islam, Muslims, and an Anthropologist.

Finally, there is the Italian online anthropology community Anthropos with news, links, forum and lots more - currently only in Italian, though.

There lots of anthropology sites in other languages as well (f.ex. Spanish/Portuguese), maybe a topic for another post?

If know more websites, leave a comment!

SEE ALSO:

World Anthropologies: Working towards a global community of anthropologists

How can we create a more plural anthropological community?

Savage Minds: Is Anthropology Global?