Question regarding local and global variables

[buran]

It just stood out to me why one type of object (integer, list) is referred to differently inside and outside a function.

First of all, int and list are different types. There is difference because lists are mutable. Same will apply to other mutable objects like dict.
However, when it comes to assignment, it's not different (your first snippet). You must make distinction when you assign to name c and when you change element INSIDE mutable object (i.e. c[0])