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Studies of thought and modes of reasoning have been central in the history of anthropology from the nineteenth century to the present day.

— Thomas Hylland Eriksen What is Anthropology? (2017)

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More quotes by Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Identification is created both from the inside and the outside, in the encounter between one’s own presentation of self and the perceptions of others.

What is Anthropology? (2017)

The world, as it is perceived by human beings, is to a certain extent shaped by language. However, there is no agreement as to just what the relationship between language and non-linguistic reality is.

What is Anthropology? (2017)

The art of cultural translation consists in oscillating between distance and nearness, between one’s own concepts and the native ones, or – to put it differently – making the exotic familiar and the familiar exotic.

What is Anthropology? (2017)

What characterises anthropological research today more than anything is the recognition of complexity; the world is complex, cultures are complex, communities are complex, and analytical strategies must acknowledge complexity.

What is Anthropology? (2017)

One reason for the increased interest in studies of identity in anthropology may be the fact that issues to do with the nature of groups have become hugely important in politics worldwide in the last decades.

What is Anthropology? (2017)

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

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History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

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If we don’t care about our past we can’t have very much hope for our future.

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I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past, — so good night!

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Hylland Eriksen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.