Gisli Palsson
University of Iceland, Anthropology, Faculty Member
- I am a social anthropologist interested in many issues, especially environmental issues.edit
A new Icelandic-English documentary that I helped to produce is just out. It focuses on the life of the enslaved black Danish-Caribbean Hans Jonathan who escaped to Iceland in 1802.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Aarhus University and the University of Iceland as well as the Norwegian Centre for Advanced Study (CAS), which hosted the research project "Arctic Domestication in the Era of the... more
We acknowledge the financial support of the Aarhus University and the University of Iceland as well as the Norwegian Centre for Advanced Study (CAS), which hosted the research project "Arctic Domestication in the Era of the Anthropocene," led by Marianne Elisabeth Lien, and funded our stay in Oslo during the academic year 2015-16. Also, we thank other colleagues and CAS participants who commented and helped to generate our writing: Marisol de la Cadena, Frida Hastrup, Tim Ingold, Britt Kramvig, Kjersti Larsen, John Law, Andrew Mathews, Knud G. Nustad, Benjamin Orlove, Barbara Prainsack, Hugh Raffles, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, and Helen Verran. Furthermore, we thank the people whom we interviewed and who helped us track the stories of the roaming volcano (porir Olafsson, Pall Einarsson, and Valdimar K. Jonsson) and geosocial salmon (Rachel Johnson and George Whitman). Finally, we greatly appreciate the careful reading and comments by editor Thom van Dooren, Sverker Sorlin, and two anonymous readers.
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Emphasizing concerns with cultural identity, belonging, ancestry, and health, this article discusses the national roots of the science of human variation and differences, focusing on the significance of genomic studies for national... more
Emphasizing concerns with cultural identity, belonging, ancestry, and health, this article discusses the national roots of the science of human variation and differences, focusing on the significance of genomic studies for national projects and the significance of national concerns for genomics. This is illustrated through a discussion of national biobanks, genomic projects, and genealogical databases, while highlighting purposes, limitations, and future scenarios.
Research Interests: Genetics, Anthropology, Genomics, Biology, Epigenetics, and 3 moreMicrobiomes, Biobanks, and Personal Genomics
Research Interests: Anthropology and Man
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Between 1906 and 1918, anthropologist and explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson went on three long expeditions to the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic. He wrote volu- minously about his travels and observations, as did others. Stefansson's fame... more
Between 1906 and 1918, anthropologist and explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson went on three long expeditions to the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic. He wrote volu- minously about his travels and observations, as did others. Stefansson's fame was partly fueled by a series of ...
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In 1987 we organized a workshop to take stock of anthropological research on Iceland. We collected and published papers from that meeting in The Anthropology of Iceland (University of Iowa Press, 1989). This volume proved to be a success;... more
In 1987 we organized a workshop to take stock of anthropological research on Iceland. We collected and published papers from that meeting in The Anthropology of Iceland (University of Iowa Press, 1989). This volume proved to be a success; in the next five years ...
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NEW BOOK ON THE FATE OF THE GREAT AUK (ALCA IMPENNIS), PUBLISHED IN ICELANDIC.
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Modern orthopaedic prosthetics imitate biological organs or their functions, interacting with the body of amputees, and are designed and manufactured corporately. Thus, prosthetics constitute a privileged vantage point to witness the... more
Modern orthopaedic prosthetics imitate biological organs or their functions, interacting with the body of amputees, and are designed and manufactured corporately. Thus, prosthetics constitute a privileged vantage point to witness the intermingling of society and nature, how biosocial relations and institutions are understood, negotiated and constituted. We develop methodologies of apprenticeship with a worldwide corporate leader in the development and manufacture of non-invasive orthopaedics, to explore the biosocial relations, the tropes, and the institutions involved in the research and development of lower limb prosthetics. The ethnography reveals how understandings of biosocial relations are influenced by and simultaneously permeate corporate institutional practices, constituting specific organic tropes, such as the corporate skin. This trope reflects the continuous negotiation of understandings of what the skin is and what it does, of the biosocial relations associated with it, of the history of the company, its products, and how its institutional practices are being shaped by these understandings.
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Page 1. NEW DEPARTURES IN ANTHROPOLOGY Anthropology and the New Genetics Gisli Pdlsson Page 2. ONE Introduction: As deep as life itself Aylmer, resumed Georgiana, solemnly, I know not what may be thecost to bothof usto ridme... more
Page 1. NEW DEPARTURES IN ANTHROPOLOGY Anthropology and the New Genetics Gisli Pdlsson Page 2. ONE Introduction: As deep as life itself Aylmer, resumed Georgiana, solemnly, I know not what may be thecost to bothof usto ridme ofthisfatalbirthmark. ...
Research Interests: Anthropology and Mana
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ABSTRACT A lively debate has taken place in anthropology in recent years on field‐work and its representation in ethnographic accounts. At the same time, historians and cultural critics have dissected the ideology and rhetoric of early... more
ABSTRACT A lively debate has taken place in anthropology in recent years on field‐work and its representation in ethnographic accounts. At the same time, historians and cultural critics have dissected the ideology and rhetoric of early explorations. Here I examine the writings of the anthropologist and explorer Vilhjalmur Stefans‐son (1879–1962) in the light of current debates about textual representation, drawing upon recent discussions of ethnography, gender, and the power relations of early twentieth‐century explorations. Stefansson went on lengthy expeditions into the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic and wrote extensively on his encounters with indigenous groups, I argue that while Stefansson was a perceptive ethnographer and explorer, he was silent in both his publications and his diaries about important aspects pertaining to his fieldwork, in particular the ethnographic contributions of his Inuit companions and his intimate relations with a native woman named Pannigabluk. This silence, I suggest, contradicts the narrative trope Stefansson generally adopted, summed up in his concept of the friendly Arctic’
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... A place apart an anthropological study of the icelandic world. Auteur(s) : HASTRUP Kirsten Date de parution: 07-1998 Langue : ANGLAIS Paperback Etat : Disponible chez l'éditeur (délai de livraison : 12 jours) © Lavoisier 2000 ...
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... A place apart an anthropological study of the icelandic world. Auteur(s) : HASTRUP Kirsten Date de parution: 07-1998 Langue : ANGLAIS Paperback Etat : Disponible chez l'éditeur (délai de livraison : 12 jours) © Lavoisier 2000 ...
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... en Islande. Au cours de deux offres successives sur le marche gris (ventes privees d'actions avant la mise sur le marche et la cotation officielles), des particuliers et institutions islandais ont acquis des parts de... more
... en Islande. Au cours de deux offres successives sur le marche gris (ventes privees d'actions avant la mise sur le marche et la cotation officielles), des particuliers et institutions islandais ont acquis des parts de la societe. Il est ...
... Document details. Title Cattle are companions, goats are gifts: animals and people in Turkana thought. Authors Broch-Due, V.; Pálsson, G. Editor Pálsson, G. Miscellaneous From water to world-making: African models and arid lands. 1990... more
... Document details. Title Cattle are companions, goats are gifts: animals and people in Turkana thought. Authors Broch-Due, V.; Pálsson, G. Editor Pálsson, G. Miscellaneous From water to world-making: African models and arid lands. 1990 pp. ...
Page 1. The Art of Fishing Glsli Palsson University of Iceland ABSTRACTThisartic lefocuseson the placeof fishingsocietiesin anthropological thought, someeariy evolutionary schemes in which fishingoccupies a significant position ...
... reply to Steven L. McNabb. E. Paul Durrenberger 1 ,; Gísli Pálsson 2. Article first published online: 28 OCT 2009. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1985.12.3.02a00120. 1985 American Anthropological Association. Issue. American Ethnologist. Volume 12,... more
... reply to Steven L. McNabb. E. Paul Durrenberger 1 ,; Gísli Pálsson 2. Article first published online: 28 OCT 2009. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1985.12.3.02a00120. 1985 American Anthropological Association. Issue. American Ethnologist. Volume 12, Issue 3, pages 544–545, August 1985. ...
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Title: The birth of the aquarium: the political ecology of Icelandic fishing. Personal Authors: Pálsson, G. Author Affiliation: University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. Editors: Gray, TS Document Title: The politics of fishing. ...... more
Title: The birth of the aquarium: the political ecology of Icelandic fishing. Personal Authors: Pálsson, G. Author Affiliation: University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. Editors: Gray, TS Document Title: The politics of fishing. ... Focusing on Iceland the ecological knowledge of fishers ...
Page 1. 6 THE ICELAND CONTROVERSY: Reflections on the Transnational Market of Civic Virtue 1 GÍSLI PA´LSSON AND PAUL RABINOW A critique is not a matter of saying that things are not right as they are. It is a matter ...
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In this paper I aim to rethink how anthropologists understand Heidegger's claim that human's are 'being-in-the-world' with reference to Tim Ingold's description of lives as lines entangled and... more
In this paper I aim to rethink how anthropologists understand Heidegger's claim that human's are 'being-in-the-world' with reference to Tim Ingold's description of lives as lines entangled and enmeshed in the lines of other lives. I turn to ethnographic accounts from the city of Basra in Iraq to supplement the theoretical picture, and to show its limitations. Following the ethnographic accounts I move to introduce a greater sense of dynamism within the 'meshwork' by drawing attention to how lives are able to fall-out and become disembedded from their entanglements. Thus, by highlighting the contingent nature of our social 'enmeshment' I suggest that entangling and disentangling should be thought of as intimately tied to one another or even as part of the same life-movements.
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... 35 day or the following, depending on the weather. The boat crew untangles the fish from the nets as they are drawn. ... Such loans can be obtained either from individual banks or governmental funds. Often, too, the skipper owns the... more
... 35 day or the following, depending on the weather. The boat crew untangles the fish from the nets as they are drawn. ... Such loans can be obtained either from individual banks or governmental funds. Often, too, the skipper owns the vessel together with 1 or more of his crew. ...