Anthropology is the social science investigating human behaviour according to the influence of the culture. Understanding how people behave, why, and according to values can allow a more comprehensive grasp of hegemonic models of beauty or braveness, perfection, respectability, and so on. Anthropology unfolds what has been called the “cultural glasses” we all wear, indicating the cultural filters shaping our gaze on the world. With our guest speaker, a Cultural Anthropologist & Behavior Analyst, Federica Manfredi, Join us! Let’s all learn and understand how the anthropological approach can help to facilitate home staging activities.
Federica Manfredi started her anthropological activity after a Master Degree in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Turin (2009), developing a militant approach to the research in Switzerland: she worked for the visibility of local farmers, the defence of women and children rights and the prevention of suicides. Upon return to Italy in 2012, she received a post-master degree in Migration and Psychopathology developing a research on meanings associated to death. In 2014 she published her first monograph “I volti celati di Civitavecchia” about the trance experienced by penitents during Holy Friday and, between two kids, she was awarded a grant for her doctoral project on body suspensions in contemporary Europe.
Today Federica is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Social Sciences – University of Lisbon (FCT fellow SFRH/BD/131914/2017). She investigates contemporary body suspensions with co-participated and experimental methodologies that allow to go beyond a logo-centric logic of communication. She is interested in practices involving pain, biohacking, tattoos and altered state of consciousness. From 2017 she is member of the research project Excel-The Pursuit of Excellence, leading experimental dissemination activities through the practice-based workshop series The Hacked Barbie.
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Title: How do we construct home ? An epistemic reflection on cultural anthropology.
Abstract Anthropology is the social science investigating the human behave according to the influence of the culture, meaning the dynamic system of knowledge and constructions that shape the way we are in the world, we think ourselves, and we interact with the others. The understanding of how people behave, why and according to which values, can allow a wider comprehension about hegemonic models of beauty or braveness, perfection, respectability, and so on. Anthropology unfolds what has been called the “cultural glasses” that we all wear, indicating the cultural filters shaping our gaze on the world. Such lens are so embodied to become invisible, “natural” and given for granted. Proposing a reflexive path around the artificial construction of concepts such as home, family and habitative unit, participants will be invited to critically discuss what can be given for granted in the home staging professional activity. Through ethnographical examples, we will focus on the cultural relativity of what we call home and how we think perfection in the real estate business. Participants are invited to actively contribute to the meeting sharing their thoughts and experiences to develop a common occasion of growth. Together we will try to address questions such as:
- Is the meaning of home a shared content?
- Is it possible to consider clients’ needs and expectations as universal?
- How can we apply an anthropological approach to facilitate home staging activities?
- What tools can be provided by the anthropological science in the home staging intervention?
