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Prof. Dr. Thomas Widlok

Professor of the cultural anthropology of Africa

E-mail: thomas.widlok[at]uni-koeln.de
Phone: +49 (0)221 470 4741
Secretary: +49 (0)221 470 3504
Fax: +49 (0)221 470 5158

Office hours: Tuesday 16:00-17:00 (after prior arrangement by email)

Recent Publications

  • 2024. Foreword. In: Palgrave Handbook of Violence in Africa (ed. by Obert Bernard Mlambo and Ezra Chitando). Cham: Palgrave, pp. v-vi
  • 2024. "Seasonality and schismogenesis: Doing seasons and doing difference after ‘dawn’" Hunter Gatherer Research Volume 8, Number 3-4 https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2022.5
  • 2024.“The cultural, linguistic and cognitive relativity of time concepts” In: Anthropological Linguistics: Perspectives from Africa (ed. by N. Nassenstein, A. Mitchell and A. Hollington). Leiden: Benjamins, pp. 30-48.
  • 2024. Eight arguments why biodiversity is important to safeguard food security. Plants, People, Planet, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10492 [co-published with Dannenberg, P., Braun, B., Greiner, C., Follmann, A., Haug, M., Semedi Hargo Yuwono, P., Stetter, M.& Kopriva, S.]
  • 2023. „Hide and Seek a Share: The Ethics of Sharing Between Presence and Distance“. Ethnoscripts 25 (1).  https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/ethnoscripts/article/view/2176.

Most Relevant Research Topics

  • Comparative ethnography of hunter-gatherers
  • Social practices of sharing and (re-)distribution
  • Anthropological approaches to time and place
Qualifications
1985–1989Study of Ethnology/Anthropology, Philosophy, Cath. Theology at the Universities of Münster and Cologne
1989M.Sc. (with distinction) in Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of London
1994Ph.D. in Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of London
2004Habilitation in Ethnology, University of Cologne
Academic positions
1992-1994PhD student, Cognitive Anthropology Research Group, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
1994-1995Lecturer, London School of Economics and Political Science
1995-2000Postdoctoral Researcher in the project “Informal social institutions” (SPP „Humanity and global environmental change“, University of Cologne)
1998Visiting Professor, Graduate School for Africa & Asian Studies, Kyoto University
2000-2002Senior Researcher in the project „Property Relations“, MPI for Anthropological Research, Halle
2002-2006Assistant Professor (Wissenschaftl. Assistent) Institut für Ethnologie, University of Heidelberg
2003-2006Senior Researcher in the project „Documentation of endangered languages“, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
2006Visiting Professor  CRC “Ritual Dynamics”, University of Heidelberg
2006-2008Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology, Durham University, England
2008-2013Professor for Anthropology, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Netherlands
seit 2013Professor Anthropology of Africa, Institut für Afrikanistik und Ägyptologie, University of Cologne
Additional evidence of qualification
2011-2012Resident Fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) in Bielfeld, Research Group “Cultural Constitution of Causal Cognition”
2016-2017Resident Fellow at the International Kolleg Morphomata, Universität zu Köln
2021-2022Visiting Fellow at the Department “Anthropology of Economic Experimentation" Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale
since 2013Spokesperson of the Competence Area IV “Cultures and Societies in Transition”, Universität zu Köln
since 2021Elected Member of the Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste
Fields of Research
  • Economic Anthropology
  • Anthropology of Rituals
  • Theory of Practice and Virtue Ethics
  • Cultural Diversity and Universality of  Space, Time, and Causality
  • Comparative Hunter-Gatherer Research
Publications

Books

  • 2022. "Scale Matters. The Quality of Quantity in Human Culture and Sociality". Bielefeld: transcript. [Edited with D. Cruz)
  • 2022. "Ethnologie als angewandte Wissenschaft. Das Zusammenspiel von Theorie und Praxis". Berlin: Reimer [Edited with R. Hardenberg and J. Platenkamp]
  • 2019. “The situationality of human-animal relationships.” Bielefeld: transcript. [Edited with T. Breyer]
  • 2017. “Anthropology and the economy of sharing.” London: Routledge.
  • 2017. “Wir Staatsmenschen. Das Feld, die Stadt und der Staat in der Kulturanthropologie Afrikas.“ Kölner Ethnologische Beiträge 46. Köln.
  • 2015. “Ethnicity as a Political Resource. Conceptualizations across Disciplines, Regions, and Periods”. Bielefeld: transcript [Edited with the member of the UoC Forum Ethnicity as a Political Resource]
  • 2009. “Van veraf naar dichtbij: The standing of the antipodes in a flat world.” Nijmegen: Radboud University Nijmegen. webdoc.ubn.ru.nl/mono/w/widlok_t/van_venad.pdf
  • 2005. "Property and Equality. Vol. 1 Ritualisation, Sharing and Egalitarianism." New York: Berghahn. [Edited with W. Tadesse].
  • 2005. "Property and Equality. Vol. 2 Encapsulation, Commercialisation and Discrimination." New York: Berghahn. [Edited with W. Tadesse].
  • 2004. "Needs and virtues. An anthropological exploration of the relationship between morality and necessity" Habilitationsschrift, Universität zu Köln.
  • 2001. "Symbolic Categories and Ritual Practices in Hunter-Gatherer Experiences" African Studies Monographs. Kyoto: Center for African Area Studies. [Edited with K. Sugawara].
  • 1999. "Living on Mangetti. Hai//om 'Bushmen' autonomy and Namibian independence." Oxford: Oxford University.

Articles and book chapters
(selected, last 5 years only)

  • (submitted) with Elena Kerdikoshvili and Fabienne Thuis, How things connect people. Debating access to ethnographic collections
  • (submitted) Lateral universalism in a decolonizing world. Palgrave Handbook of Decolonising Knowledge in Africa
  • (submitted) "Technologie, Kulturtechniken und soziale Praktiken"
  • (accepted) with Knab, Joachim, Alice Mitchell, Sabrina Msangi Introduction: Generating the future. Special Issue of the Nordic Journal of African Studies.
  • (accepted) Differences of age without distinctions of authority: Marking juniority and seniority in a Khoisan language. Special Issue of the Nordic Journal of African Studies.
  •  (accepted) "Upscaling sharing" Anthropological Theory
  • 2024. Foreword. In: Palgrave Handbook of Violence in Africa (ed. by Obert Bernard Mlambo and Ezra Chitando). Cham: Palgrave, pp. v-vi
  • 2024. "Seasonality and schismogenesis: Doing seasons and doing difference after ‘dawn’" Hunter Gatherer Research Volume 8, Number 3-4 doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2022.5
  • 2024.“The cultural, linguistic and cognitive relativity of time concepts” In: Anthropological Linguistics: Perspectives from Africa (ed. by N. Nassenstein, A. Mitchell and A. Hollington). Leiden: Benjamins, pp. 30-48.
  • 2024. Eight arguments why biodiversity is important to safeguard food security. Plants, People, Planet, 1–7. doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10492 [co-published with Dannenberg, P., Braun, B., Greiner, C., Follmann, A., Haug, M., Semedi Hargo Yuwono, P., Stetter, M.& Kopriva, S.]
  • 2023. „Hide and Seek a Share: The Ethics of Sharing Between Presence and Distance“. Ethnoscripts 25 (1).
  •  https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/ethnoscripts/article/view/2176.
  • 2023. Obituary of James Woodburn. Hunter Gatherer Research 6/1-2: 1-5 [with Jerome Lewis]
  • 2023. Obituary of Alan Barnard. Anthropology Today 29/3:26 [with Akira Takada]
  • 2023. Emancipation and Encroachment. In: T. van Meijl and F. Wijsen (eds.). Engaged Scholarship and Emancipation. Nijmegen: Radboud Univ. Press, 123-30.
  • 2022. Review of "The Dawn of Everything". Sociologus 72/1: 79–81.
  • 2022. Upscaling forager mobility and broadening forager relations. In: Th. Widlok and D. Cruz (eds.) Scale Matters. The Quality of Quantity in Human Culture and Sociality". Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 59-78. [co-authored with St. Henn]
  • 2022. Introduction: Why scale matters In: Th. Widlok and D. Cruz (eds.)  Scale Matters. The Quality of Quantity in Human Culture and Sociality". Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 7-18.
  • 2022. “Framing the future of national parks” In: C. Greiner, S. van Wolputte and M. Bollig (eds). African Futures Leiden: Brill, pp. 141-154. [with Fenny Nakanyete]
  • 2022. Näher dran oder mit genügend Abstand? Ethnologie in die Praxis getrieben. In: R. Hardenberg, J. Platenkamp, Th. Widlok (eds.) "Ethnologie als angewandte Wissenschaft. Das Zusammenspiel von Theorie und Praxis". Berlin: Reimer, 45-60.
  • 2022. When secondary is primary: on Halbzeug and other objects of continual re-evaluation. In: H.P. Hahn, A. Klöckner and D. Wicke (eds), The Transformation and Genesis of 'Values in Things'. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 251-265.
  • 2022. "Imaginierte Körper und verkörperte Imagination: Diskussionen in der Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie" In: J. Schick and N. Engelhardt (eds.) Erfinden, Schöpfen, Machen: Körpertechniken und Imaginationstechniken. Bielefeld: transcript, 315-30.
  • 2022. "Approaching foreign milieus: Experiences from a joint seminar with police and ethnography" In: T Bierschenk et al. (eds) Policing Differences: Perspectives from Europe [co-authored with Gisela Caldas].
  • 2021. Why the idea of African Time keeps on ticking. Conversation  theconversation.com/why-the-idea-of-african-time-keeps-on-ticking-169791 [with J. Knab]
  • 2021. “#African Time Making the Future legible” [co-authored with J. Knab and Ch. Van der Wulp] African Studies 80 (3-4): 397 - 415.
  • 2021. "Original Power Pointing: Towards a Political Ethnography of the Deictic Field". Ethnos doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2021.1981971
  • 2021. “Economic thought, ritual and religion” In: P. Stewart and A. Strathern (eds.) Palgrave Handbook of Anthropological Ritual Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, 77-94.
  • 2021. Hunter-gatherer mobility. In: Th. Litt, J. Richter; F. Schäbitz (eds.), The Journey of Modern Humans from Africa to Europe. Stuttgart: Schweizerbart, pp. 41-51
  • 2021. "Sharing" Encyclopedia of Anthropology. doi.org/10.29164/21sharing
  • 2020. "Who is poor and what is poverty anyway?" In: R. Bussmann and T. Helms (eds.) Poverty and Inequality in Early Civilizations. Bonn: Habelt, pp. 119-127.
  • 2020. "Zur Bedeutung der Sprache für die ethnologische Feldforschung" In: B. Beer and A. König (eds) Methoden ethnologischer Feldforschung. Berlin: Reimer, 77-90.
  • 2020. "Sharing, Presence and the Built Environment. Built environment". Special Issue on Space-Sharing Practices in the City. Built Environment 46/1: 28-39.
  • 2020. "Hunting and gathering" Encyclopedia of Anthropology. doi.org/10.29164/20hunt
  • 2019. "Extending and limiting selves: a processual theory of sharing." In: Noa Lavi and David Friesem (eds) Towards a Broader View of Hunter-Gatherer Sharing. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
  • 2019. "Die Praxis des Teilens". Paideuma 65:157-172.
  • 2019. "Deling som en alternativ okonomisk aktivitet". In: Anders Hansen and Susanne Hojlund, Cecil Pallesen, Mikkel Rytter (eds) Hvad vi deler. Antropologiske perspektiver pa deling, pp. 33-53 Aarhus: Universitetsforlag.
  • 2019. "Sharing as an alternative economic activity". In: Russel Belk, Giana Eckhardt and Fleura Bardhi, Handbook of the Sharing Economy. London: Edward Elgar, 27-37
  • 2019. "Size matters: Upscaling and downscaling images in Africa (and elsewhere)". Morphomata Yearbook. Competing Perspectives: Figures of Image Control, Günter Blamberger and Dietrich Boschung (eds). Paderborn: Brill/Fink, pp. 339-353.
  • 2019. "The world as garden, laid in value chains". Environmental History. Special Issue. Environmental History 24/4: 665–735.
  • 2019. "Domesticating categories of the wild environment: Eliciting cultural models of nature". In: G. Bennardo (ed.) Cultural Models of Nature. NYC: Routledge, 219-22
  • 2019. "Human-lion relations". In: Thiemo Breyer und Thomas Widlok (eds) The situationality of human-animal relations. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 203-219
  • 2019. "Anders teilen – anders Wirtschaften?" In: Braun, Karl, Claus-Marco Dieterich, Johannes Moser und Christian Schönholz (eds) "Wirtschaften. Kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven" Marburg: MAKUFEE, pp. 36-54.
  • 2019. "L’incertitude morale et L’immédiateté éthique". In: Monica Heintz and Isabelle Rivoal (eds) Morale et cognition. À l’èpreuve du terrain. Colloque de Cerisy. Paris: Presses universitaires de Paris Nanterre, pp. 101-24.

A more comprehensive list of publications is available at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4427-413X

PhD supervision

last 5 years:

  1. Kira Eghbal-Azar · Affordances, Appropriation and Experience at Museum Exhibitions: From (Eye) Movement Patterns to Exhibition Visit Scripts · 2010-2016
  2. Dörte Weig · Motility and Relational Mobility of the Baka in North-Eastern Gabon · 2010-2013
  3. Willem Jacobus Smit · The Violent Revival of Ukuthwala: Understanding the Re-Emergence and Transformation of a Marriage Custom in post-1996 South Africa · 2012-2017
  4. Fabienne Brauckmann · The Bayso and Haro of the Abbaya Lake in the Ethiopian Rift Valley · laufend
  5. Charlie Goodwin · Loss of cultural knowledge among Namibian San · laufend
  6. Enid Guene · An ethnohistorical study of Dorobo groups in Kenya · laufend
  7. Martin Solich · Multi-Agent Simulation of Hunter-Gatherer Mobility · laufend
  8. Joachim Knab · Clashes of temporalities in nature-conservation : The case of the Salambala Conservancy in Namibia · laufend
  9. Tanja Theißen · Von Jagenden und Gejagten. Die Jagd in Deutschland als kulturelle Praxis · laufend
  10. Stephan Henn · Agent-based modelling and anthropology · laufend
  11. Sina Pfister · Relating to nature – Making sense of natural hazards and the environment in Constitución, Chile · laufend
Recent Third-Party Funding
2002-2008DOBES Programme VW-Stiftung Project “=Akhoe Hai//om: A documentation of language and cultural practices“
2009-2021SFB/CRC 806 “Our Way to Europe”, Project “Anthropological Models: A Recon-struction of the First African Frontier”
2013-2015Cultural Models of Nature Across Cultures, National Science Foundation Grant BCS-1330637 (in conjunction with Northern Illinois University)
seit 2018SFB/CRC 228 “Future Rural Africa” Project “Temporal Frames of Refernce in Land Conversions”
Current Projects

Since 2018. "Temporal Frames of Refernce in Land Conversions", Project of SFB/CRC 228 "Future Rural Africa"

2009-2021. "Anthropological Models: A Recon-struction of the First African Frontier", Project of SFB/CRC 806 "Our Way to Europe"