How can we respect a life nicely lived? Is it a abstract of an individual’s accomplishments—nonetheless huge or small? Or does appreciation of a life nicely lived emerge from one thing much less tangible—a legacy, a hint of knowledge, a memorable phrase, a long-lasting reminiscence? In our up to date tradition of velocity, we don’t normally take inventory of life’s which means till we lose a cherished one or once we face our mortality.
Most readers of Psychology At this time have in all probability not heard of Thomas Hylland Eriksen, a unprecedented Norwegian scholar who died from pancreatic most cancers in November 2024 on the tragically younger age of 62. Though he was taken from us far too early, his comparatively transient time on earth was full of accomplishment. As a younger man, he distinguished himself as an essential scholar. Throughout his profession, he carried out ethnographic analysis in Mauritius, Seychelles, Trinidad, Australia, and Norway. These analysis experiences impressed his work on the social ramifications of globalization, nationalism, identification politics, the tradition of velocity, and the non-public and social affect of local weather change. Eriksen believed that his work, which conveyed appreciable sensible knowledge, ought to be as extensively accessible as attainable, which means that he wrote textbooks, offered public lectures, and revealed evaluations of a variety of books in Norwegian newspapers. He was a real public mental. On the time of his dying, he was a professor on the College of Oslo, a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, an exterior scientific member of the Max Plank Society, and an honorary member of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Though I may write extensively about Thomas Eriksen’s educational work, I desire to deal with the personally impressed dimensions of his pondering. I met Eriksen in January 2020, once we attended the Anthusia Summer time College on the College of Ghana, Legon, a two-week joint Ghanaian-European anthropological workshop for graduate college students. By that point, his sickness had made him frail, and the tropical Ghanaian warmth appeared to gradual him down much more. Even so, he vigorously participated within the debates and educational exchanges with perseverance and dignity. We discovered time to debate social science analysis, social justice practices, public scholarship, memoir writing, and the books we deliberate to jot down. Upon parting, we dedicated ourselves to future exchanges.
In October of 2021, Eriksen despatched me a message that he was… “pondering of writing a non-academic e book tentatively titled “Seven Meanings of Life.” That work resulted in a soulful textual content, Seven Meanings of Life: Threads That Join. It’s a e book brimming with insights concerning the meaningfulness of life, a textual content that demonstrates powerfully how a lot Thomas Eriksen needed to educate us about residing nicely in a turbulent world.
This e book consists of fantastically written chapters about what constitutes the seven meanings of life—relations, shortage, goals, gradual time, the second, steadiness, and severing the threads. Within the first chapter, “Relations,” Eriksen writes about how we domesticate the bonds that create social belief. They’re the threads that assist make human existence significant. Within the e book, Eriksen means that we spend a lot of our time on the earth, cultivating the social threads that join us. Within the second chapter, “Shortage,” he demonstrates how the absence of assets—water, meals, or shelter—will increase our consciousness and appreciation of the fabric features of life on the earth. Within the third chapter, Eriksen addresses the particular which means he related to “Goals.” Drawing from a psychoanalytic perspective, Eriksen means that goals not solely specific our repressed fears and needs however also can reveal a path by way of the trials and tribulations of on a regular basis life. “Sluggish time”, the theme of chapter 4, is a very essential factor for Eriksen, who in his writing critiqued the tradition of velocity in which there’s much less and fewer time for reflection, dialog, or face-to-face social relations (Eriksen 2014). Within the speedy swirl of human relations, nonetheless, “Particular Moments”, the topic of chapter 5, gradual or cease our world. These are sometimes breathtakingly highly effective occasions that compel us to decelerate and absorb the fantastic thing about the world. In chapter six, “Steadiness”, Eriksen means that the search for larger steadiness—concord—may be the technique of therapeutic ourselves and therapeutic the world. Within the e book’s closing chapter, “Severing the Threads” Eriksen confronts the topic of dying, which severs the threads that join us to household, buddies, colleagues, and the world.
The chapters are full of memorable psychological, ethnographic, literary, philosophical, and musical references referring to the seven meanings. However it’s within the final chapter of this glorious e book that the reader grasps the knowledge of a thinker who lived totally, who suffered, and who, maybe in consequence, gazed on life’s which means with a transparent imaginative and prescient and penetrating thought. Considering his mortality, Eriksen wrote:
“You must enable your self to let go when the time is correct, sit again and daydream…The world managed earlier than your beginning and can proceed to take action if you end up gone. Life is intrinsically significant, however there’s a time for the whole lot, together with saying goodbye and permitting the traces and threads you’ve got cultivated to develop and flourish in your absence, connecting your ideas with the Buddha’s, the squirrel to the oak, the crab to the monkfish, and the algorithm to its programmer, and all of them to the whole lot else. Solely then has the circle been accomplished.” (2022)
After studying this e book, I mirrored on the significance of Eriksen’s seven meanings of life. Whereas every particular person should discover her or his personal record of meanings that emerge from their life experiences, the knowledge discovered on this highly effective e book is a place to begin that has common attraction. Having confronted my very own mortality throughout my most cancers journey, Eriksen’s phrases are reflective and therapeutic. I keep in mind the conversations we had in Ghana when Thomas was frail and ailing however nonetheless engaged with life’s essential parts—the artwork of dialog, the extension of generosity, mentoring the following technology, and residing life totally. This quick tribute barely scratches the floor of the life, contribution, thought, and work of Thomas Hylland Eriksen. Whereas he has stated goodbye, his work lives on and continues to assist us to grasp life’s meanings. His existential circle is now full, however his presence stays in smart phrases that chart a path towards residing—and residing nicely—in our turbulent instances.
Relaxation nicely among the many ancestors, pricey Thomas.
