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
1985–1989 | Study of Ethnology/Anthropology, Philosophy, Cath. Theology at the Universities of Münster and Cologne |
1989 | M.Sc. (with distinction) in Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of London |
1994 | Ph.D. in Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of London |
2004 | Habilitation in Ethnology, University of Cologne |
Academic positions
1992-1994 | PhD student, Cognitive Anthropology Research Group, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen |
1994-1995 | Lecturer, London School of Economics and Political Science |
1995-2000 | Postdoctoral Researcher in the project “Informal social institutions” (SPP „Humanity and global environmental change“, University of Cologne) |
1998 | Visiting Professor, Graduate School for Africa & Asian Studies, Kyoto University |
2000-2002 | Senior Researcher in the project „Property Relations“, MPI for Anthropological Research, Halle |
2002-2006 | Assistant Professor (Wissenschaftl. Assistent) Institut für Ethnologie, University of Heidelberg |
2003-2006 | Senior Researcher in the project „Documentation of endangered languages“, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen |
2006 | Visiting Professor CRC “Ritual Dynamics”, University of Heidelberg |
2006-2008 | Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology, Durham University, England |
2008-2013 | Professor for Anthropology, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Netherlands |
seit 2013 | Professor Anthropology of Africa, Institut für Afrikanistik und Ägyptologie, University of Cologne |
Additional evidence of qualification
2011-2012 | Resident Fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) in Bielfeld, Research Group “Cultural Constitution of Causal Cognition” |
2016-2017 | Resident Fellow at the International Kolleg Morphomata, Universität zu Köln |
2021-2022 | Visiting Fellow at the Department “Anthropology of Economic Experimentation" Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale |
since 2013 | Spokesperson of the Competence Area IV “Cultures and Societies in Transition”, Universität zu Köln |
since 2021 | Elected 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. http://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 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.
- 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 https://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 https://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. http://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. http://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:
- Kira Eghbal-Azar · Affordances, Appropriation and Experience at Museum Exhibitions: From (Eye) Movement Patterns to Exhibition Visit Scripts · 2010-2016
- Dörte Weig · Motility and Relational Mobility of the Baka in North-Eastern Gabon · 2010-2013
- 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
- Fabienne Brauckmann · The Bayso and Haro of the Abbaya Lake in the Ethiopian Rift Valley · laufend
- Charlie Goodwin · Loss of cultural knowledge among Namibian San · laufend
- Enid Guene · An ethnohistorical study of Dorobo groups in Kenya · laufend
- Martin Solich · Multi-Agent Simulation of Hunter-Gatherer Mobility · laufend
- Joachim Knab · Clashes of temporalities in nature-conservation : The case of the Salambala Conservancy in Namibia · laufend
- Tanja Theißen · Von Jagenden und Gejagten. Die Jagd in Deutschland als kulturelle Praxis · laufend
- Stephan Henn · Agent-based modelling and anthropology · laufend
- Sina Pfister · Relating to nature – Making sense of natural hazards and the environment in Constitución, Chile · laufend
Recent Third-Party Funding
2002-2008 | DOBES Programme VW-Stiftung Project “=Akhoe Hai//om: A documentation of language and cultural practices“ |
2009-2021 | SFB/CRC 806 “Our Way to Europe”, Project “Anthropological Models: A Recon-struction of the First African Frontier” |
2013-2015 | Cultural Models of Nature Across Cultures, National Science Foundation Grant BCS-1330637 (in conjunction with Northern Illinois University) |
seit 2018 | SFB/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"