“In spite of the lack of clarity in the concept of society, the word is doubtless necessary. In everyday language, words denoting local communities, large-scale society and global society exist, and all refer to actually existing entities, existing at different systemic levels. Humans are integrated in (that is, they participate in and contribute to) several social systems, some operating at a large scale, others at a small scale. When anthropologists delineate their field of study, the level of scale is determined by the issues at hand.”

—  Thomas Hylland Eriksen

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

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Thomas Hylland Eriksen 18
Norwegian social anthropologist and professor 1962

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