“It is the goal of anthropology to establish as detailed a knowledge as possible about human life in its mind-boggling diversity, and to develop a conceptual apparatus that makes it possible to compare life-worlds and societies. This in turn enables us to understand both differences and similarities between the many different ways of being human.”

—  Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Source: What is Anthropology? (2nd ed., 2017), Ch. 1 : Why Anthropology?

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Thomas Hylland Eriksen 18
Norwegian social anthropologist and professor 1962

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