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Reconstruction of the Anthropology of Identity 

 

Hylland Eriksen, Thomas and Elisabeth Schober (eds). 2016. Identity Destabilised. Living in an 

Overheated World. London: Pluto Press. ISBN: 978 1 7868 0004 6  

 

Keywords: anthropological history of ideas, anthropology’s historical identity, anthropological 

knowledge production, reconciliation of social and natural science, building an anthropology of 

contemporary identity 

 

This volume consisting of fourteen chapters aims at updating and reconstructing the 

anthropology of identity. The introductory chapter by Eriksen and Schober addresses the need 

for re-establishing the identity concept in a world of accelerated change where forms of 

belonging to places, groups and societies are being challenged in new ways. For example, in the 

context of migration, urbanization, tourism and communication technologies (1). The natural 

scientific term ‘overheating’ represents a central metaphor for depicting the contemporary phase 

of globalization where places may have experienced accelerated change or stagnation with 

unforeseen consequences. This creates friction and tension between and within groups, affecting 

individuals’ self-understanding. Theorizing the world as an overheated space of living, Eriksen 

and Schober contribute to developing a particular grammar to speak about intensified contact 

between contemporary identity formations in various places of the world. In the following 

chapters, this global grammar is put into practice. 

 

In contrast to the friction which may arise between different ‘we-hoods,’ MacClancy, in the 

second chapter, presents three ethnographic examples from Ireland and Spain where transactions 

between separate identifications are characterized by inclusion (24), networking (26) and groups 



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learning to live together (28). Instead of turning the exotic into the familiar, MacClancy’s 

ethnographic findings does the opposite as well as questions a critical aspect of anthropological 

knowledge productions. Essentially, that of the risk that differences are enhanced where few 

exist and the downplaying of equality because research projects focused on difference are 

rewarded with funding (32). Drotbohm, in the third chapter, describes complex relations and 

friction from the view of Cape Verde migrants who intended to make their lives in a nation-state 

different from their country of origin but who were coercively removed by means of statecraft 

and have had to reintegrate involuntarily into their communities of origin (42). The chapter 

clearly shows how processes of identification and reidentification can be challenged in contexts 

of migration. 

 

The fourth chapter focuses on identify formations in the context of urbanization in Majes, Peru 

where everyone presents themselves as strangers. Similar to earlier anthropological research 

findings, Stensrud shows that identities cannot be taken for granted and are negotiated through 

practices and encounters with others. Eriksen, shifting focus from South America to an urban 

space in Australia, describes how continuity is perceived as an anomaly because of the constant 

change and how local identities ‘avoiding fixation and keeping their options open’ (86). The fifth 

chapter raises questions concerning the facility which the informants thought about resettlement, 

given that human identity is so often associated with place (96). Unlike Eriksen, Thorleifsson, in 

the sixth chapter, studied lived experiences of statecrafted migration to Israel. The chapter’s 

focus on lived experiences can, according to Thorleifsson, offer a more nuanced understanding 

of identity dilemmas caused or heightened by accelerated change rather than a static group 

approach (102). It is Thorleifsson’s interpretation that one of the informant’s nostalgia for the 

country of origin as well as belonging and inclusion outside of the nation contains a critique of 

state projects. Kearney, in turn in the seventh chapter, studies the Yanyuwa in Australia who 

were exposed to genocide as a consequence of European colonialism. Kearney represents the 

current condition as an overheated effect of cultural contact gone wrong (118), depicting the 

Yanyuwa strategies to limit the cultural wounding and decelerating effect on Yanyuwa 

identification. Rather than opposing state programs, Kearney produces knowledge for supporting 

state projects developed for saving and rescuing Yanyuwa cultural practices.  



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In the eighth chapter Schober discusses how the Aeta population in Subic Bay, the Philippines 

has been affected by external forces such as colonialism and globalization including how 

anthropologists have played a role in the formation of the Aeta identity. Schober problematizes 

the historical relation between the anthropologist and the local population as well as her own 

contemporary identification. The ninth chapter takes form in the context of the mining industry 

in Marampa, Sierra Leone. Pijpers describes how identity politics can become instrumental in 

struggles for personal benefits at the expense of others. This politics of localness can arise in 

situations that are marked by economic despair and the hope of a better future, resulting in 

practices of inclusion and exclusion. The chapter addresses the need for anthropologists to be 

aware of such situations. 

 

Wimpelmann turns the tables in the tenth chapter by giving an account of conflicts between so 

called traditional elites and contemporary political leaders in Afghanistan through an exploration 

of one extended family in Afghanistan and the family member’s strategies and reflections over 

their diminished position as self-evident community leaders (171). The struggles for status in the 

Afghan society are described in a context of change. Moving on to the eleventh chapter, Banovic 

brings the mustache to the fore as a symbol of overheating effects in Montenegro’s first Pride 

Parade. Previously associated with masculinity, the mustache is now used in struggles for sexual 

minority rights. Banovic studies how certain groups of heterosexual males oppose this political 

use of the mustache and question the new identification with sexual minorities. In the twelfth 

chapter, Martin discusses an identity and loyalty conflict among some English football 

supporters in the context of the football club’s entry into the global economy. The analysis 

emanates from a discussion on an internet forum during the first decade of the millennium where 

football fans express their views on true membership. Martin shows how the contemporary 

economic transformation of football has paved the way for tensions which have become more 

visible today. Rounding off, Neumann reflects in the thirteenth chapter over historical 

monuments as an organization of thoughts and social relations. A few monuments by certain 

peoples are discussed as visual stories of Self and ways of depicting the Other, and Neumann 

finds a change in contemporary Western depictions of the Other (238). Hann closes the book in 

the fourteenth chapter with a reflection on European identities as well as his own identification 

from a nation-state model and argues that the uneven acceleration of globalization often leads to 



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an accentuation of national identity. Ending the chapter on a more optimistic note Hann provides 

an analysis of the Eurovision song contest as a contemporary ritual of inclusion (248). 

 

Summing up, Identity Destabilised: Living in an Overheated World sheds light on a 

reconciliation of the social and natural sciences. ‘Identity’ and ‘living’ constitute classical social 

scientific concepts while ‘destabilized’ and ‘overheated’ taps into natural scientific terminology. 

The reconciliation is directed at updating and constructing an anthropology of contemporary 

identity. However, the outline of figures and tables (vii) as well as the index (252) of places, 

peoples, unfamiliar words and (un)recognized scientists pose as remains from positivistic studies 

where researchers sponsored by colonial powers intended to turn the exotic into the familiar to 

facilitate governance, for instance, by descriptions of fixed and stable identities at places 

represented as remote and timeless. Each chapter in this volume invites the reader to reflect on 

parts of the anthropological knowledge production, i.e., the relation between the anthropologist 

and their informants, the validity of ethnographic material based on fieldwork carried out several 

years before publishing (which raises questions concerning the informants ways of life at 

present), the identification of anthropology with former colonial powers and sometimes with 

post-colonial powers, the application of classical colonial concepts, how anthropological text 

production may contribute to construction of identifications, and the role of truth in knowledge 

productions when practices of particular historical peoples are identified and reproduced. 

Moreover, the volume raises the concerns as to who benefits from the knowledge, the risks of 

viewing the world as a laboratory from a natural scientific perspective and the effects of 

reconciling social and natural sciences. Time will tell how this anthropology of contemporary 

identity may address these issues. 

 

Daniel Cidrelius holds a master’s degree in Social Anthropology from Stockholm University. 

He has explored tourism’s role in the transnational adoptions of Sri Lankan children and 

marginalized voices in the adoption discourse. His research interests include Sri Lanka, 

transnational adoption practices and travel writing. Currently he is studying representations of 

the adoptions from Sri Lanka to Sweden in Swedish newspapers 1970-2020. 

 

 



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© 2021 Daniel Cidrelius 


