“All cultural translation necessitates some interpretation and simplification. No sane reader would be able to make sense of a text which consisted exclusively of directly translated, unmediated quotations from informants. Compression and editing are therefore necessary elements of cultural translation. Moreover, no matter how outstanding an anthropologist is, as a fieldworker, as a writer and as an analyst, the text always represents a selection, and it will always to a greater or lesser extent be marked by the subjectivity of the translator.”

— Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Source: What is Anthropology? (2nd ed., 2017), Ch. 2 : Key Concepts

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Thomas Hylland Eriksen 18

Norwegian social anthropologist and professor 1962

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Thomas Hylland Eriksen 18

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