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Papers by Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Early attempts at accounting for cultural variation and human universals, the subject matter of a... more Early attempts at accounting for cultural variation and human universals, the subject matter of anthropology, include ancient Greek geography and history, Renaissance and early modern travelogues, and philosophical treatises from the European Enlightenment. They fell short of being scientific because of inherent bias, lack of theoretical sophistication, and, frequently, poor empirical material. In the nineteenth century, theorists such as Henry Lewis Morgan, Henry Maine, and Edward Tylor developed ambitious evolutionist theories of culture, implying a hierarchical view of cultures. Modern anthropology emerged in the early decades of the twentieth century, when a new generation of scholars, notably Franz Boas, A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Bronislaw Malinowski, and Marcel Mauss, rejected evolutionism replacing it with cultural relativism, also refining research methodologies and methods of comparison. In the decades following World War II, new approaches such as structuralism, cultural ecology, and neo-Marxism appeared, and anthropology grew and diversified, branching into various specializations including psychological and medical anthropology, eventually moving increasingly towards the study of modern phenomena such as nationalism and consumption, yet retaining its commitment to the intensive, fieldwork-based study of social life in local settings.

Current Anthropology, Feb 1, 1991

velopment" on foragers in Tierra del Fuego (Borrero, Stuart), India (Reddy, Sastry), the And... more velopment" on foragers in Tierra del Fuego (Borrero, Stuart), India (Reddy, Sastry), the Andaman Islands (Venkatesan), Australia (Young), and North Alaska (Ahmaogak) and among those affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill (members of the Subsistence Division of Alaska State Fish and Game); and even an exchange of views on the role of foragers within national park reserves (Dean, Pratt, Ridington). Indeed, CHAGS-6 participants made frequent statements in defense of the rights of foraging peoples to control their own lands and resources. Besides scholarly discussion of these issues, several related resolutions were passed: condemning compulsory resettlement schemes in India (Narwada Valley Project) and Botswana (Central Kalahari Game Reserve) and supporting -the autonomy and resource-management knowledge of hunting peoples in the face of threats to these posed by animal-rights and environmental-protection organizations. Although a number of papers were outspoken in their advocacy of the rights of foraging peoples and in their criticisms of political, economic, and ideological domination, there was almost no sign of the revisionist critical-theory approach (and, indeed, none of the prominent proponents of this wing of hunter-gatherer studies, such as Wilmsen (e.g., I983, I989) and Schrire (e.g., I980, I984), were present).7 But the debate over the nature and role of anthropological inquiry in the postcolonial, "postmodern" context was raised quite explicitly in the final paper of the conference, Richard B. Lee's distinguished address. Entitled "Hunter-Gatherer Studies: Is It Art, Science, or Politics?," Lee's paper was a stimulating, intellectually forthright but emotionally complex survey of the "stormy history" of hunter-gatherer studies. Presented immediately after a warm and thoughtful introduction by James Woodburn and the surprise presentation to Lee of an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the host university, the talk was by tums witty, conciliatory, defensive, and trenchant. Its central thesis was that hunter-gatherer studies are divided into "three cultures"-the two (humanistic and scientific) delineated by C. P. Snow and a third that Lee termed "politicaleconomic" and that he argued takes the relation between foragers and the world system as its central problem and starting point. Lee went on to suggest that this third culture has spawned a revisionism that in its more skeptical manifestations "argues that there is no truth, only regimes of truth and power.... Thus ethnographic writing (about foragers or anybody else) has more in common with the historical novel and other works of fiction than it has with a scientific treatise." Warning that this extreme revisionism denies all cultural difference, all authenticity to ethnographic representation and to the Other so represented, Lee suggested that postmodernism is "a peculiar expression of the culture of Late Capitalism ... where the line between what is real and what is not has become dangerously blurred." With massive bombardment from advertising, political propaganda, and the like, we have been forced to develop "a shell of cynicism" to protect our psyches, and this cynicism has now been turned loose as a weapon against any representation of reality whatsoever (including that of aspiring ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples). Lee called for a "middle path" that integrates science and critical reflection, an "empiricism tempered with reflexivity." Like much current work in anthropology, CHAGS-6 was just that, illustrating the vitality and complexity of hunter-gatherer studies a quarter-century after "Man the Hunter. ,8

Anthropology Today, Oct 1, 2011

The Norwegian reactions to the terrorist attack of 22 July surprised many foreign observers: Flow... more The Norwegian reactions to the terrorist attack of 22 July surprised many foreign observers: Flower parades, compassionate speeches by national leaders and calls for more openness and tolerance, rather than resentful cries for revenge and heightened security, predominated. The explanation for this kind of reaction is threefold: First, the terrorist was homegrown and related to dark undercurrents of Norwegian nationalism, thus could not easily be connected to an existing enemy image. Second, Norway was not prepared for a calamity of this order and had no ready scripts to deal with the meaningless massacre. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the small scale of Norwegian society creates bonds of solidarity at a national level which easily can render the entire country, in a situation of crisis, into a metaphoric family, in this case a bereaved family.

Global Networks-a Journal of Transnational Affairs, Apr 1, 2007

Frontiers in political science, Sep 6, 2021

Routledge eBooks, Aug 13, 2020

Social Anthropology, Jun 1, 2023

Social Anthropology, Jun 1, 2023

Routledge eBooks, Aug 13, 2020

Routledge eBooks, May 26, 2020

Routledge eBooks, May 15, 2020

Security Dialogue, Sep 1, 2004

Early attempts at accounting for cultural variation and human universals, the subject matter of a... more Early attempts at accounting for cultural variation and human universals, the subject matter of anthropology, include ancient Greek geography and history, Renaissance and early modern travelogues, and philosophical treatises from the European Enlightenment. They fell short of being scientific because of inherent bias, lack of theoretical sophistication, and, frequently, poor empirical material. In the nineteenth century, theorists such as Henry Lewis Morgan, Henry Maine, and Edward Tylor developed ambitious evolutionist theories of culture, implying a hierarchical view of cultures. Modern anthropology emerged in the early decades of the twentieth century, when a new generation of scholars, notably Franz Boas, A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Bronislaw Malinowski, and Marcel Mauss, rejected evolutionism replacing it with cultural relativism, also refining research methodologies and methods of comparison. In the decades following World War II, new approaches such as structuralism, cultural ecology, and neo-Marxism appeared, and anthropology grew and diversified, branching into various specializations including psychological and medical anthropology, eventually moving increasingly towards the study of modern phenomena such as nationalism and consumption, yet retaining its commitment to the intensive, fieldwork-based study of social life in local settings.

Current Anthropology, Feb 1, 1991

velopment" on foragers in Tierra del Fuego (Borrero, Stuart), India (Reddy, Sastry), the And... more velopment" on foragers in Tierra del Fuego (Borrero, Stuart), India (Reddy, Sastry), the Andaman Islands (Venkatesan), Australia (Young), and North Alaska (Ahmaogak) and among those affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill (members of the Subsistence Division of Alaska State Fish and Game); and even an exchange of views on the role of foragers within national park reserves (Dean, Pratt, Ridington). Indeed, CHAGS-6 participants made frequent statements in defense of the rights of foraging peoples to control their own lands and resources. Besides scholarly discussion of these issues, several related resolutions were passed: condemning compulsory resettlement schemes in India (Narwada Valley Project) and Botswana (Central Kalahari Game Reserve) and supporting -the autonomy and resource-management knowledge of hunting peoples in the face of threats to these posed by animal-rights and environmental-protection organizations. Although a number of papers were outspoken in their advocacy of the rights of foraging peoples and in their criticisms of political, economic, and ideological domination, there was almost no sign of the revisionist critical-theory approach (and, indeed, none of the prominent proponents of this wing of hunter-gatherer studies, such as Wilmsen (e.g., I983, I989) and Schrire (e.g., I980, I984), were present).7 But the debate over the nature and role of anthropological inquiry in the postcolonial, "postmodern" context was raised quite explicitly in the final paper of the conference, Richard B. Lee's distinguished address. Entitled "Hunter-Gatherer Studies: Is It Art, Science, or Politics?," Lee's paper was a stimulating, intellectually forthright but emotionally complex survey of the "stormy history" of hunter-gatherer studies. Presented immediately after a warm and thoughtful introduction by James Woodburn and the surprise presentation to Lee of an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the host university, the talk was by tums witty, conciliatory, defensive, and trenchant. Its central thesis was that hunter-gatherer studies are divided into "three cultures"-the two (humanistic and scientific) delineated by C. P. Snow and a third that Lee termed "politicaleconomic" and that he argued takes the relation between foragers and the world system as its central problem and starting point. Lee went on to suggest that this third culture has spawned a revisionism that in its more skeptical manifestations "argues that there is no truth, only regimes of truth and power.... Thus ethnographic writing (about foragers or anybody else) has more in common with the historical novel and other works of fiction than it has with a scientific treatise." Warning that this extreme revisionism denies all cultural difference, all authenticity to ethnographic representation and to the Other so represented, Lee suggested that postmodernism is "a peculiar expression of the culture of Late Capitalism ... where the line between what is real and what is not has become dangerously blurred." With massive bombardment from advertising, political propaganda, and the like, we have been forced to develop "a shell of cynicism" to protect our psyches, and this cynicism has now been turned loose as a weapon against any representation of reality whatsoever (including that of aspiring ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples). Lee called for a "middle path" that integrates science and critical reflection, an "empiricism tempered with reflexivity." Like much current work in anthropology, CHAGS-6 was just that, illustrating the vitality and complexity of hunter-gatherer studies a quarter-century after "Man the Hunter. ,8

Anthropology Today, Oct 1, 2011

The Norwegian reactions to the terrorist attack of 22 July surprised many foreign observers: Flow... more The Norwegian reactions to the terrorist attack of 22 July surprised many foreign observers: Flower parades, compassionate speeches by national leaders and calls for more openness and tolerance, rather than resentful cries for revenge and heightened security, predominated. The explanation for this kind of reaction is threefold: First, the terrorist was homegrown and related to dark undercurrents of Norwegian nationalism, thus could not easily be connected to an existing enemy image. Second, Norway was not prepared for a calamity of this order and had no ready scripts to deal with the meaningless massacre. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the small scale of Norwegian society creates bonds of solidarity at a national level which easily can render the entire country, in a situation of crisis, into a metaphoric family, in this case a bereaved family.

Global Networks-a Journal of Transnational Affairs, Apr 1, 2007

Frontiers in political science, Sep 6, 2021

Routledge eBooks, Aug 13, 2020

Social Anthropology, Jun 1, 2023

Social Anthropology, Jun 1, 2023

Routledge eBooks, Aug 13, 2020

Routledge eBooks, May 26, 2020

Routledge eBooks, May 15, 2020

Security Dialogue, Sep 1, 2004

Acceleration and cultural change, 2023

From the publisher: This book includes socio-anthropological and anthropo-sociological conversati... more From the publisher: This book includes socio-anthropological and anthropo-sociological conversations between one of the world’s leading anthropologists, Thomas Hyland Eriksen, and a young scholar, using his groundbreaking "overheating" approach. From the pandemic to the spread of nationalism, from the Anthropocene to the Homogenocene, the authors discuss the most urgent issues of current society: e.g., the loss of biological and cultural diversity owing to the forces of globalisation; and the emergence of new forms of diversity through globalisation and migration; the intersectional dimension of climate change; the incredible rising of anger demonstrations around the world and resentful, overheated identities often linked to right-wing nationalism; the way digital devices have changed the meaning of temporality in people's life-worlds; the regulatory and competitive pressures on universities which are a result of many factors in the intersection of globalisation, massification and marketisation; youth's weakened belief in progress connected to changes in the contemporary world, such as growing inequality, political alienation and environmental destruction; recent pathbreaking research and original theory in sociology and anthropology related to the changes in an overheated world; and what post-Coronavirus social life might become. Highly topical, engaging and written in a conversational style, this book is a must-read for social scientists and discerning lay persons who want a fresh perspective on understanding the critical issues of our time.

Kulturelle veikryss, 1994

Denne boken fra 1994 har undertittelen "Essays om kreolisering", og inneholder tekster om Mumbai ... more Denne boken fra 1994 har undertittelen "Essays om kreolisering", og inneholder tekster om Mumbai (Bombay), Brussel, Mauritius, cyberspace og andre steder som destabiliserer, blander, er urene og uten tydelige grenser. Det motsatte av nasjonalisme, med andre ord, en kjærlighetserklæring til den kreolske verden. Her kommer innledningen og kapittelet fra India før hindutva.

Small Places, Large Issues. An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology, 2023

Small Places, Large Issues ' A masterful introduction to the wide range of subjects studied by ... more Small Places, Large Issues

' A masterful introduction to the wide range of subjects studied by anthropologists as well as to the distinctive perspectives they bring to bear on these matters. '-Vered Amit, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, Concordia University '

In almost three decades since it was first published, this book has evolved with its subject, magnificently corroborating its author's thesis, that the best anthropology addresses timeless themes of the human condition through a relentless focus on the contemporary. In a novelty-obsessed age, Eriksen's encyclopaedic tour of comparative anthropology teaches us to build on classical foundations. This is not just another book in the library of anthropology; it is an entire anthropological library in one book. '

Digital Development: Stories of Hope from Health and Social Development, 2022

This book, co-written by Sundeep Sahay, Arunima Mukherjee, Geoff Walsham and Thomas Hylland Eriks... more This book, co-written by Sundeep Sahay, Arunima Mukherjee, Geoff Walsham and Thomas Hylland Eriksen, has two main aims. A key aim of the book is to theorize the relation between ICTs and development (ICT4D) from a social sciences perspective. The research field of ICT4D, having originated in the late 1980s, is relatively nascent. Its evolution, however, has been impressive, with increasing diversity of theoretical approaches adopted, and methods, countries, and domains of applications studied. However, two signal criticisms of the research endure. First, while the field is interested in the relationship between technology and development, the very concept of development has been largely under-theorized; it has focused more on ICTs in developing countries rather than ICTs for development. Arguably, the reason for the concept of development to have been largely under-theorized is because the origin of the ICT4D field of study has been in information systems, which itself comes from the parent of computer science. Second, research tends to promote technology-deterministic assumptions that newer and modern technologies will on their own address developmental challenges. As a result, the focus is predominantly on the supply side (provision of more computers, internet, mobile devices, etc.) rather than on the demand side, which indicates how these digital interventions improve the wellbeing of the people and meet their aspirations, in terms of access to health, education, or other things valuable to them.

Cooling down: Local Responses to Climate Change, 2022

Edited and written by anthropologists, this book aims to show how the discourse about climate cha... more Edited and written by anthropologists, this book aims to show how the discourse about climate change, interpretations, policies and practices, differ regionally. The cases studies, ranging from Bangladesh to Aotearoa New Zealand and the American South-west, are superb, and the book can be read as one long argument against the view that "the world" needs a climate policy. It needs many, and they have to start in local realities.

ISBN: 978-1-80073-189-9 (hardcover), but the whole book can be downloaded for free here or at Berghahn's website.

Conviviality at the crossroads, 2020

Conviviality has lately become a catchword not only in academia but also among political activist... more Conviviality has lately become a catchword not only in academia but also among political activists. This open access book discusses conviviality in relation to the adjoining concepts cosmopolitanism and creolisation. The urgency of today’s global predicament is not only an argument for the revival of all three concepts, but also a reason to bring them into dialogue. Ivan Illich envisioned a post-industrial convivial society of ‘autonomous individuals and primary groups’ (Illich 1973), which resembles present-day manifestations of ‘convivialism’. Paul Gilroy refashioned conviviality as a substitute for cosmopolitanism, denoting an ability to be ‘at ease’ in contexts of diversity (Gilroy 2004). Rather than replacing one concept with the other, the fourteen contributors to this book seek to explore the interconnections – commonalities and differences – between them, suggesting that creolisation is a necessary complement to the already-intertwined concepts of conviviality and cosmopolitanism. Although this volume takes northern Europe as its focus, the contributors take care to put each situation in historical and global contexts in the interests of moving beyond the binary thinking that prevails in terms of methodologies, analytical concepts, and political implementations.

"Boomtown: Runaway Globalisation on the Queensland Coast" is published by Pluto Press, and these ... more "Boomtown: Runaway Globalisation on the Queensland Coast" is published by Pluto Press, and these are the first pages. The book concerns the dilemmas of growth and sustainability with an ethnographic focus on a fast growing, heavily industrialised city on the Pacific seaboard of Australia. Two main topics explored are the implications of fast urban growth in the rich part of the world (the "boomtown" phenomenon) and conflicting knowledge regimes. The latter subject, which concerns whose knowledge to trust, is important in environmental battles, but it is also obviously relevant for the broader, current controversies and debates about climate, immigration, the Twitter president and the Internet cacaphony.

Publisher's blurb: Leading anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen shows how anthropology is a revo... more Publisher's blurb: Leading anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen shows how anthropology is a revolutionary way of thinking about the human world. Perfect for students, but also for those who have never encountered anthropology before, this book explores the key issues in an exciting and innovative way.

Lucid and accessible, What is Anthropology? draws examples from current affairs as well as previous anthropological studies. He looks at the history of anthropology, its unique research methods and some of its central concepts, such as society, culture and translation.

This second edition contains a new introduction, as well as updates throughout. New content includes discussions about Brexit, the rise of the populist Right in Europe, the anthropology of climate change and social media. What is Anthropology? shows in persuasive ways why anthropology is a fundamental intellectual discipline, perhaps more so in the 21st century than ever before.

Overheating: An anthropology of accelerated change, 2016

The world is overheated. Too full and too fast; uneven and unequal. It is the age of the Anthropo... more The world is overheated. Too full and too fast; uneven and unequal. It is the age of the Anthropocene, of humanity’s indelible mark upon the planet. In short, it is globalisation - but not as we know it.

In this groundbreaking book, Thomas Hylland Eriksen breathes new life into the discussion around global modernity, bringing an anthropologist’s approach to bear on the three interrelated crises of environment, economy and identity. He argues that although these crises are global in scope, they are perceived and responded to locally, and that contradictions abound between the standardising forces of information-age global capitalism and the socially embedded nature of people and local practices.

Carefully synthesising the ethnographic and comparative methods of anthropology with macrosocial and historical material, offers an innovative new perspective on issues including energy use, urbanisation, deprivation, human (im)mobility, and the spread of interconnected, wireless information technology.

Suddenly, we seem to live in a time dominated by ‘fake news’, ‘alternative facts’, conspiracy the... more Suddenly, we seem to live in a time dominated by ‘fake news’, ‘alternative facts’, conspiracy theories, scepticism of scientific research, partial accounts parading as ‘the real truth which has hitherto been concealed from us, the people’, revolts against allegedly smug academic elites and distant political elites – a time where YouTube videos claiming research into climate change to be a scam get far more viewers than videos presenting the science of climate change. In this world, where the authority of science and empirical methods is being questioned and where even world leaders may brush aside uncomfortable facts as ‘fake news’, it is increasingly difficult to know whose knowledge to trust. This insight is the starting point of this collection of articles, which has grown out of a workshop organised by the ERC AdvGr project ‘Overheating: The Three Crises of Globalisation’ in Oslo in 2015. We are very pleased to be able to offer these texts as a free e-book, not least considering the fact that its subject-matter is knowledge.
Contributors to the book are Ben Campbell, Elisabeth Schober, Desmond McNeill, Christina Garsten and Thomas Hylland Eriksen. Art direction and technical expertise by Maria Kartveit.

I nesten seks år har Culcom tegnet oppdaterte kart over Norge. Forsknings­prosjektene har ikke va... more I nesten seks år har Culcom tegnet oppdaterte kart over Norge. Forsknings­prosjektene har ikke vaert styrt av en sentral femårsplan, men av en håndfull spørsmål som har sirklet rundt forholdet mellom inkludering og eksklu­dering. Forskere fra fem fakulteter og nærmere 20 fag har så valgt sine presiseringer og avgrensninger, med et nokså ustyrlig mangfold av empiriske funn og analytiske perspektiver som resultat. Merkelig nok har det aldri vært vanskelig å se den indre sammenhengen. Årsaken er at delprosjektene har hatt noe mer felles enn det som går frem av prosjektbeskrivelsen. Nøyaktig hva de har felles, skal jeg ikke gjette på. Men det er et faktum at all god forskning har en eksistensiell dimensjon: Det er noe som står på spill for forskeren, noe det er brennende viktig å finne ut av. En forsker som ikke glemmer at det finnes spørsmål som er viktigere enn andre, blir ikke bare engasjert, men også engasjerende. Når ettertiden skal vurdere Culcoms bidrag til samfunnets selvforståelse, vil evnen til å stille interessante spørsmål formodentlig vaere et viktig krite­rium. I forskning er spørsmålene alltid viktigere enn svarene. Det er nok av spørsmål om det nye Norge som ennå ikke har vært stilt. I grenseflaten mellom endring og kontinuitet oppstår hver dag nyskapninger, friksjoner, åpninger, tilbaketrekning, konflikt og overraskende former for stabilitet. Dette er ikke en sluttrapport, men et glimt fra forskningen og perspektivene Culcom utviklet fra 2004 til 2010.

Viewed as a destructive force or an inevitability of modern society, globalization is the focus o... more Viewed as a destructive force or an inevitability of modern society, globalization is the focus of a multitude of disciplines. A clear understanding of its processes and terminology is imperative for anyone engaging with this ubiquitous topic. Globalization: the Key Concepts offers a comprehensive guide to this cross-disciplinary subject and covers concepts such as: homogenization neo-Liberalism risk knowledge society time-space compression reflexivity. With extensive cross-referencing and suggestions for further reading, this book is an ...