Knut Christian Myhre
Background and activities
I hold a D.Phil in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford, and have previously held research and teaching positions at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Nordic Africa Institute, and the University of Oslo. I have also been attached to an ERC Advanced Grant project at the University of Bergen.
I currently lead a research project entitled Forms of Ethics, Shapes of Finance: Ethnographic Explorations of the Limits of Contemporary Capital. The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway and centres on the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (better known as the 'oil fund'), which currently is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund.
My previous work was primarily conducted in Tanzania, where I conducted long-term fieldwork in rural areas of Kilimanjaro Region, and in urban environments in Dar es Salaam and its surroundings. This has resulted in publications on a range of topics, such as kinship and marriage, witchcraft, ritual, modes of exchange, forms of knowledge, and cross-cultural comparison.
Courses
- SANT3020 - Theoretical Perspectives
- SANT2024 - Global Inequality
- SANT3021 - Ethnographic Method
- SANT3022 - Project Design
- SANT2023 - Anthropology of Organisations and Sustainability
Scientific, academic and artistic work
Displaying a selection of activities. See all publications in the database
Journal publications
- (2020) COVID-19, Dugnad, and Productive Incompleteness: Volunteer Labour and Crisis Loans in Norway. Social Anthropology. vol. 28 (2).
- (2020) Sovereign wealth and custodial finance in Norway. Anthropology News.
- (2019) Life and its inflections in Kilimanjaro: Becoming and being beyond the metaphoric. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. vol. 9 (2).
- (2019) Tales of a stitched anus: fictions, analytics, and personhood in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. vol. 25 (1).
- (2018) Antropologi på film - refleksjoner rundt tre filmer fra Kilimanjaro. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. vol. 29 (3-4).
- (2015) What the beer shows: Exploring ritual and ontology in Kilimanjaro. American Ethnologist. vol. 42 (1).
- (2014) The Multiple Meanings of Moongo: On the Conceptual Character of Doorways and Backbones in Kilimanjaro. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. vol. 20 (3).
- (2013) Cutting and Connecting: 'Afrinesian' Perspectives on Networks, Relationality, and Exchange. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Anthropology. vol. 57 (3).
- (2013) Membering and Dismembering: The Poetry and Relationality of Animal Bodies in Kilimanjaro. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Anthropology. vol. 57 (3).
- (2012) Koda. ANTropologi som grenseflate, adskillelse og relasjon. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. vol. 23 (3-4).
- (2012) MKUHUMI na Mustakhabali wa Milki ya Kimila. ARDHI NI UHAI.
- (2012) The pitch of ethnography: Language, relations, and the significance of listening. Anthropological Theory. vol. 12 (2).
- (2009) En innledning til Axel Sommerfelts artikkel. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. vol. 20 (4).
- (2009) Etnopolitikk og bruk av historie blant konzoene i Uganda på slutten av kolonitiden. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. vol. 20 (4).
- (2007) Family Resemblances, Practical Interrelations and Material Extensions: Understanding Sexual Prohibitions, Production and Consumption in Kilimanjaro. Africa. vol. 77 (3).
- (2007) Om ritualer og sosiale relasjoner. Refleksjoner rundt et kraftfullt bytte. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. vol. 18 (3-4).
- (2006) Divination and Experience: Explorations of a Chagga Epistemology. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. vol. 12 (2).
- (2006) The Truth of Anthropology: Epistemology, Meaning and Residual Positivism. Anthropology Today. vol. 22 (6).
- (2004) The Bookseller of Kabul and the Anthropologists of Norway. Anthropology Today. vol. 20 (3).
- (1998) The Anthropological Concept of Action and its Problems: A 'New' Approach based on Marcel Mauss and Aristotle. Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford. vol. 29 (2).
Artistic productions
- (2016) Atali's Garden. null
Books
- (2022) Rikdommens språk: tekster om Oljefondet. Cappelen Damm AS. 2022. ISBN 9788202710903.
- (2018) Returning Life: Language, Life Force and History in Kilimanjaro. Berghahn Books. 2018. ISBN 978-1-78533-665-2.
- (2016) Cutting and Connecting: 'Afrinesian' Perspectives on Networks, Relationality, and Exchange. Berghahn Books. 2016. ISBN 978-1-78533-263-0.
Part of book/report
- (2022) Etter Ord. Rikdommens språk: tekster om Oljefondet.
- (2022) Forord. Rikdommens språk: tekster om Oljefondet.
- (2020) Deep Pragmatism. The Mythology in Our Language: Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
- (2020) Financialization and the Norwegian State: Constraints, Contestations, and Custodial Finance in the World's Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund. Financialization - Relational Approaches.
- (2017) The Power of A Severed Arm: Life, Witchcraft, and Christianity in Kilimanjaro. Pentecostalism and Witchcraft: Spiritual Warfare in Africa and Melanesia.
- (2016) Introduction: Cutting and Connecting - 'Afrinesian' Perspectives on Networks, Relationality, and Exchange. Cutting and Connecting: 'Afrinesian' Perspectives on Networks, Relationality, and Exchange.
- (2016) Membering and Dismembering: The Poetry and Relationality of Animal Bodies in Kilimanjaro. Cutting and Connecting: 'Afrinesian' Perspectives on Networks, Relationality, and Exchange.
- (2010) How Climate Change Affects Livelihoods in East Africa. Africa in Uncertain Times.
- (2009) Disease and Disruption: Chagga Witchcraft and Relational Fragility. Dealing with Uncertainty in Contemporary African Lives.