ITALIAN AND

EUROPEAN
CULTURE
2022/23

1
• ABOUT THIS COURSE
• A NEW SUBJECT?
• LANGUAGE BARRIER
• DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS
• HYBRID CLASSROOM
• TEST

Andrea Sartori
andrea.sartori@polimi.it
INTERACTION
As you probably know, interaction could be quite
difficult in this kind of hybrid teaching.

The solution is: we interact more!

INTRODUCE YOURSELF
Gradually everyone should deliver a short self-
introduction to the class. Who you are, where
you come from, which is your major etc.

And not only they who are attending physically.

 INTRODUCE YOURSELF
Rules:

• consecutive speakers must not be from the

same country.
• be short and effective
• 5-6 students per lectures
• From home: switch your camera on
LET’S START FROM A
DISCUSSION
Culture is a very common term but at the same time it
is an incredibly vague one.

It is associated to a variety of meanings.

Let’s discuss together this term.

CULTURE

• A wide-spreading concept
• A concept with a great variety of
meanings
• These meanings are often
contradictory.
an umbrella term….
A SET OF IDEAS,
BELIEFS, AND WAYS OF
BEHAVING OF A
PARTICULAR
ORGANIZATION OR
GROUP OF PEOPLE
ELITIST It belongs to little
groups of people

POPULAR
It belongs to
everyone
 Tertiary sector
(service sector)

The makers of culture

awareness unawareness

A set of ideas and Behaviour or mental

beliefs habits we are
unaware of
The more you
know the freer
you are.
 Cliché
A phrase or idea that is boring because
people use it a lot and it is no longer
original.

The word “stereotype” has a similar

meaning: «a very firm an simple idea about
what a particular type of person or thing is
like».
 P
O
L
I
RELIGION T

A way to freedom Against freedom

I
C
S
WRITING
MONOTHEISM One god
WARFARE

A
G
R
I
C
U
L
T
U
 future

culture in the making: new

routes for thinking

ready-made culture/ tradition

past
 P
O
L
I
RELIGION T
I
C
NATURE CULTURE
WRITING
S
ANTROPOLOGY
From an anthropological viewpoint, culture is a
crucial element for the development of our species.

A set of information used to cope with the survival

needs, compensating for the lack of instinctual
reaction.
 compared to other animals, humans are born
prematurely, when many of their vital systems are still
underdeveloped. […] This fact has contributed greatly
both to humankind’s extraordinary social abilities and
to its unique social problems. Lone mothers could
hardly forage enough food for their offspring and
themselves with needy children in tow.

Harari Y. N. Sapiens. A brief History of Humankind. Penguin, 2011.

 Raising children required constant help from other
family members and neighbours. It takes a tribe to raise
a human. Evolution thus favoured those capable of
forming strong social ties. In addition, since humans
are born underdeveloped, they can be educated and
socialised to a far greater extent than any other animal.

Harari Y. N. Sapiens. A brief History of Humankind. Penguin, 2011.

 The immense diversity of imagined realities that Sapiens
invented, and the resulting diversity of behaviour patterns,
are the main components of what we call ‘cultures’.

Harari Y. N. Sapiens. A brief History of Humankind. Penguin, 2011.

CULTURE
•On the one hand >>> linked to symbolic thought,
to the capability to imagine and change the
environment

•On the other hand>> length of growing up

considerably longer than other animals. Need for
stronger social ties.
 Until the Cognitive Revolution, the doings of all human species
belonged to the realm of biology, or, if you so prefer, prehistory.
[…] From the Cognitive Revolution onwards, historical
narratives replace biological theories as our primary means of
explaining the development of Homo sapiens. To understand
the rise of Christianity or the French Revolution, it is not
enough to comprehend the interaction of genes, hormones and
organisms. It is necessary to take into account the interaction of
ideas, images and fantasies as well.

Harari Y. N. Sapiens. A brief History of Humankind. Penguin, 2011.

EUROPE
SOME IMPORTANT SOURCES OF
EUROPEAN CULTURE
• Greek philosophy
• Roman law
• Religion: Judaism and Christianity
CHARACTERISTICS OF
EUROPEAN CULTURE

• Individualism
• Subjectivism
• Rationalism
MODERN EUROEPEAN
DEVELOPMENTS
• Science
• Capitalism
• Nation state
• Representative democracy
 MODERN EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS

1 Science
A particular approach to the knowledge of physical and human reality able to
transform nature in order to satisfy human wants. […]
What is distinctive, though, is its more marked capacity to unite abstract theory
and empirical research and, even more importantly, to link scientific discovery,
invention, and technological innovation under the constant pressure of either
war or commercial competition.

Martinelli A. (ed.). Transatlantic divide. Oxford University Press, 2007.

 MODERN EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS

2 Capitalism
The governing principle of capitalism is a constant search for the rational
maximization of individual utility in order to compete successfully on the market.
The efficient combination of the production factors in the industrial firm and the
exchange of goods and services in a self-regulating market slowly expanding
throughout the world have been the two basic institutions of capitalist development.

Martinelli A. (ed.). Transatlantic divide. Oxford University Press, 2007.

 MODERN EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS

3 Nation-state
It is a particular institution resulting from the encounter between a
sovereign, autonomous, centralized political organization, on the one hand, and a
community (real and imagined at the same time) founded on ties of blood, language,
shared tradition, and collective memory, on the other.

Martinelli A. (ed.). Transatlantic divide. Oxford University Press, 2007.

 MODERN EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS

4 Representative democracy
The various forms of parliaments, majority rule in government and the
protection of minority rights, free and periodical elections, the separation of
powers, the free press are all institutional innovations which were born and
developed in the culture of Europe.
From the Greek city states, to the commune of the middle age to the
parliamentary monarchy in modern times, democracy has evolved over time.

Martinelli A. (ed.). Transatlantic divide. Oxford University Press, 2007.

 Indeed, polar opposites characterize almost every core element of
European culture: the Christian faith of universal love has inspired
some of the most intolerant doctrines and bloodiest religious wars in
the heart of twentieth-century Europe, democracy collapsed into
devastating totalitarianism; the free market constantly reproduces
monopoly and oligopoly; the quest for political independence has
degenerated into aggressive nationalism. In other words, there is no
value that Europe has promoted without at the same time promoting
its opposite: faith/reason, tolerance/religious warfare,
democracy/totalitarianism, etc.

Martinelli A. (ed.). Transatlantic divide. Oxford University Press, 2007.

But what does «Europe»
mean?
THE MYTH OF EUROPA
GREEK 2 EURO COIN
Europa was a princess, daughter of the Phoenician king. One day,
she went to the beach with her maids, and saw a white bull that
was very kind and beautiful. As soon as she rode it, it moved
towards the sea, and it kidnapped the princess taking her to the
island of Crete.
Then the bull revealed that he was Zeus, the father and the king of
the gods. He had fallen in love with Europa: so they had three
sons, and one of them, Minos, became the king of Crete.
MYTH An ancient traditional story about gods, heroes, and magic.

ZEUS The father of the ancient Greek Gods.

PHOENICIA
A country in Western Asia (now Lebanon),
on the Mediterranean coast.

CRETE A Mediterranean island where an advanced civilisation

flourished (4TH-2ND millennia b.C.)
 THE MYTH OF EUROPA SUGGESTS THAT
EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION HAD ITS ORIGIN IN
BOTH:

• SOUTH-WEST ASIA
• ANCIENT GREECE
LET’S FOCUS ON SOME DETAILS
to proceed in our journey…

→ → → Phoenicia
The Phoenician civilisation flourished between the
4th and the 1st millennium b. C.
THEY WERE SEA TRADERS AND
COLONIZERS
The Phoenicians invented a 22 letters alphabet, the
ancestor of the Greek and then Roman alphabet.
 THE PHOENICIAN ALPHABET
WAS MADE OF 22 SIGNS,
P
O
EACH OF THEM LI
RELIGION
CORRESPONDING TOT
I ONE
C
SOUND. WRITING S

WARFARE
IT WAS
A VERY USEFUL FOR
G
THEIR
R CUSTOMS OF TRADING
I
ANDCUCOLONIZING.
L
T
U
 THE VERSATILITY OF THE
PHOENICIAN ALPHABET
P
O
WAS
THE REASON FOR ITS
L
I
RELIGION
SUCCESS AMONG OTHER
T
I
C
ANCIENT WRITING
PEOPLE. S
WARFARE

A
G
R
I
C
U
L
T
U
 THE RISE OF WRITING WAS A
P
MAJOR TECHNOLOGICAL
O AND
L
CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENT
RELIGION
I
T
I
C
WRITING STARTED
WRITING
S
IN
WARFARE MESOPOTAMIA REGION

AROUND
A
G
3RD MILLENIUM B.C.
R
I
C
U
L
T
U
 LET’S DISCUSS:
P
O
WHY WAS WRITING SOL
I
RELIGION
IMPORTANT? T
I
C
S
WRITING

WARFARE

A
G
R
I
C
U
L
T
U