Thomas Hylland Eriksen

University of Oslo · Department of Social Anthropology

The customary absence of anthropological perspectives in reports and policy recommendations on climate change and diversity loss is again confirmed in the current IPCC report and the recent UN report on biodiversity. This is a severe shortcoming since there is widespread agreement that goals are rarely met in these domains. Anthropology can offer a...

The societies studied in early social and cultural anthropology were by default considered what we would now call sustainable, in that they were assumed to be capable of reproducing themselves indefinitely, changing only incrementally and almost imperceptibly. Change was considered to be caused by exogenous factors such as colonialism. The contrast...

Theories of nationalism emphasise its standardising effects. Ernest Gellner compared the pre-nationalist world to a painting by Kokoschka (a colour extravaganza) and the world of nationalism as one by Modigliani (calm, monochrome surfaces), while Benedict Anderson showed how the standardisation of language through the medium of printing was a condi...

In evolutionary biology, the “Red Queen Effect” refers to a form of inter- or intra-species competition where continuous improvement is necessary in order to survive and thrive, since the other species/individuals evolve. In sport, the same mechanism can be easily observed, and this article explores its implications. It discusses improved training...

This guest editorial asks how anthropologists might position themselves in relation to climate change.

This chapter argues that the historical and contemporary experiences of the Creole world have created a set of possible social and cultural configurations which encompass cosmopolitanism, create conditions for conviviality and expand the project of living together by engaging the arts and music, language and food, as well as transgressing social bo...

Karen Fog Olwig: Global Culture, Island Identity: Continuity and Change in the Afro-Caribbean Community of Nevis Anmeldes af Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Until now, the growing body of work on environmental anthropology has largely ignored the unavoidable impact of global capitalism on the environment and the extent to which capital itself is a key driver of climate change. Climate, Capitalism and Communities focuses explicitly on that nexus, examining the injustices and inequalities - as well as th...

Some of the most complex questions in research on diasporas, transnationalism, and diversity concern the relationship of the social to the cultural, and that between purity and mixing. Is it possible to be socially integrated in a society without being culturally integrated, and vice versa? Is the quest for cultural purity inimical to peaceful coex...

Is it possible to create a community where everyone lives according to their own rhythm, and yet respects the individual rhythms of others? This volume contains new essays which investigate and actualize the concepts that Roland Barthes discussed in his famous 1977 lecture series on "How to Live Together" at the Collège de France. The anthology pre...

Norwegian anthropology has two distinct origins: the largely descriptive German tradition of Volkskunde/Völkerkunde, which flourished in the country from 1850 to World War II; and twentieth‐century Anglophone social anthropology, which came to dominate after the war, largely but not exclusively through the influence of Fredrik Barth. Contemporary N...

Known chiefly for his theory of ethnicity, Fredrik Barth has made several important contributions to anthropology. Beginning as a political anthropologist concerned with the relationship between individual strategies and social form, he reformulated segmentary lineage theory following fieldwork in Swat. He later wrote about ecological adaptations a...

In economic anthropology, consumption can be viewed as one of the three elements that constitute an economic system—production, distribution, and consumption—and is thus a universal activity in human societies. However, the anthropology of consumption has mainly focused on complex, modern societies, where consumption is so diverse and ubiquitous th...

It is a privilege and a pleasure to have the opportunity to comment on this issue’s forum, which is yet another challenging and beautifully written piece on cosmopolitanism and anthropology from Nigel Rapport. Taking his concept of cosmopolitan politesse as a departure point, Rapport here discusses the possibilities of cosmopolitanism as something...

A major theme in contemporary social theory is the questioning and destabilization of boundaries – self/other, culture/nature and gender being the most obvious areas. Not least for this reason, creole identities, ostensibly premised on openness and mixing, deserve renewed attention. Although the term creolization, as borrowed from linguistics, is s...

The 22 July 2011 terrorist attack in Norway, which killed 77 persons, was carried out by a right-wing extremist bent on reducing the influence of Islam in the country, ultimately aiming at a total removal of Muslims from the country. Instead of confronting his version of Norwegian nationalism, shared by a substantial minority of the population (alt...

The book present self leadership theory and research which shows that self leadership is associated with personnel performance. The book present instruments that can be useful when practice self leadership.

The Mauritian paradox Fifty years of development, diversity and democracy Edited by Ramola Ramtohul and Thomas Hylland Eriksen Speaking of Mauritius as an economic miracle has become a cliché, and with good reason: Its development since Independence in 1968 can easily be narrated as a rags-to-riches story. In addition, it is a stable democracy...

Do human beings live in a shared world or in several? The traditional answer from social and cultural anthropology has been that although the physical world is uniform, the world as it is perceived by humans is fundamentally and irreducibly diverse, since human worlds are culturally constructed and cultures are unique and particular in character....

The anthropology of waste, drawing on Mary Douglas’s seminal work as well as later studies of landfills, ragpickers, environmental crises and even social exclusion, is a prism through which to view and understand the crises of neoliberal globalisation. This introduction reviews the literature and identifies some themes in the anthropology of waste,...

This article is a commentary on Joane Nagel’s “Masculinity and nationalism”, which discusses differing cultural conceptualizations of gender and masculinity, critically interrogating essentialist conceptualizations of maleness, and – in the most empirical and engaged section of the article – relates conceptualizations of maleness to war. This comme...

Norwegian anthropologists have taken active part in public discourse about migrant minorities since the 1970s. They have given interviews, written articles and books for the general reader, and have often intervened in ongoing debates on minority rights, migration policy and cultural diversity. This chapter analyses a shift in the general public re...