Fredrik Barth (1928–2016)

On 24 January, Fredrik Barth passed away at the age of 87. Barth was an honorary member of EASA, and gave a plenary presentation to the very first EASA conference in Coimbra in 1990, entitled ‘Towards greater naturalism in conceptualizing societies’. The lecture was subsequently published in Adam Kuper, ed.: Conceptualizing Society (Routledge 1992).>

Barth had an exceptionally long and rich career in anthropology, spanning six decades and more than a dozen field sites. His most influential contributions may have been his analysis of political strategy in Swat, his study of pastoral economy and ecology in Iran, and not least, his pathbreaking perspectives on ethnicity in Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (1969). However, Barth's early theoretical work, sometimes spoken of as ‘transactionalism’ (he preferred ‘generative process analysis’), led to lively debates in the 1960s and 1970s, and his later work on knowledge and cosmologies has an enduring value in anthropology.

As founder of the Department of Social Anthropology in Bergen (1961–72) and Professor at the Ethnographic Museum in Oslo (1972–85), Barth was pivotal in developing Norwegian social anthropology. However, his MA was from the University of Chicago, and he held chairs at Emory and Boston Universities after his retirement from the Museum. Barth was one of the most influential European anthropologists of the latter half of the 20th century, while also contributing to trans-Atlantic dialogue throughout his long life in anthropology.

Thomas Hylland Eriksen
President