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Cultural Intimacy in an Age of Terrorism October 2011 – vol 27 – no 5 A darker shade of pale: Cultural every two months print ISSN 0268-540X online ISSN 1467-8322 intimacy in an age of terrorism available online at www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/anth anthropologyat Guest Editorial by Thomas Hylland Eriksen today Aleksandar Bošković 1 NARRATIVE Oslo, 5 August 2011: It was a grim and rainy day as I made my Ratko Mladić: Relativism, myth and Alberto Corsín Jiménez and way to the harbour to catch the local ferry to Nesodden, a com- reality munity which had lost two of its brightest stars – Bano Rashid, Adolfo Estalella 19 18, and Diderik Aamodt Olsen, 19 – in the terrorist attack of Julie McBrien 3 #spanishrevolution 22 July, in which right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik Leaving for work, leaving in fear Lucia Volk 24 detonated a bomb in Oslo, killing eight people, and shot dead Michał Murawski 5 R.I.P. Paul the Octopus 69 more at a Young Labour (AUF) summer camp on the small Inappropriate object: Warsaw and the island of Utøya. On this Friday alone, more than 30 memorial COMMENT Stalin-era Palace of Culture after the services for Utøya victims were taking place across the country, and I had been asked to speak at Diderik’s service. I had met Smolensk disaster Janet Marstine, Elizabeth Greenspan, Michael Pickering, Paul H. Williams him once, this spring, when I gave a talk on nationalism and Stefan Leins 11 minorities to AUF members, and I remembered his sensible and Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh 28 Pricing the revolution: Financial analysts and critical contributions to the subsequent discussion. Diderik Ethics and the 9/11 Museum Complex respond to the Egyptian uprising had a place at the University of Oslo, which he was due to CALENDAR 29 NEWS 30 CLASSIFIED 31 take up in August. At the memorial service, an image emerged Elizabeth Emma Ferry 15 of a caring, intelligent, knowledgeable young man, passionate ‘If the miners had been Mexican…’ The about history and committed to diversity, whose last activity at Chilean mine rescue as Mexican ‘politics Utøya before he was slaughtered had been to fry wafers at an machine’ outdoor stall in a safari hat and a flowery apron. The secular service, which was held in the large community Director of the RAI: David Shankland holder. Authorization to photocopy items for hall (Samfunnshuset) at Nesodden, was unusually well attended, Editor: Gustaaf Houtman internal and personal use is granted by the as were all the services for Utøya victims. I shared some whis- copyright holder for libraries and other users Editorial Consultant: Sean Kingston pered words and a hug with the minister of culture, Anniken registered with their local Reproduction Rights Huitfeldt, a former chair of the AUF, before it began. The event News Editor: Toto Reissland-Burghart Organisation (RRO), e.g. Copyright Clearance Copy-Editor: Katharine Fletcher Center (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, was highly emotionally charged. Even Mayor Christian Holm, Artist Consultant: Sean Weisgerber MA 01923, USA (http://www.copyright.com), who presided over the proceedings, a cheerful man with a grey provided the appropriate fee is paid directly to Design Consultant: Peter Jones, Stuart Russell ponytail testifying to a hippie past, eventually broke down in the RRO. This consent does not extend to other tears. The sense of belonging to a metaphorical family was Production Consultant: Dominique Remars kinds of copying such as copying for general overwhelming, reminding me of Benedict Anderson’s analysis distribution, for advertising or promotional Editorial Panel: Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, of the tomb of the unknown soldier, and how it connects the Candis Callison, Richard Fardon, Alma Gottlieb, purposes, for creating new collective works or abstract nation to personal experience (Anderson 1983). Hugh Gusterson, Ulf Hannerz, Michael Herzfeld, for resale. Special requests should be addressed Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Solomon Katz, Gísli to: [email protected]. The collective shock experienced by Norway as the extent of Pálsson, João de Pina-Cabral, Gustavo Lins Information for subscribers: Six issues of the catastrophe became known quickly gave way to profound Ribeiro, Catherine Lutz, Howard Morphy, John ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY are mailed free of expressions of a compassion shared, it seemed, by the entire Postill, Alexander F. Robertson, Nancy Scheper- charge per annum to Fellows and Members of population. There was almost unanimous consensus that the Hughes, Cris Shore, Michael Wesch the Royal Anthropological Institute (registered country’s leadership – political, religious, and royal – had han- charity no. 246269). Editorial address: Please read Notes to dled the crisis in an empathetic and appropriate way. A few Contributors before making submissions (http:// Rates for 2011: Member: €30, £24, or US$45. days after the attacks, an estimated 200,000 people attended www.therai.org.uk/at/). For online debate Single copy: £9 UK, or $21 overseas plus VAT a memorial event held outside the town hall in Oslo to show see http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate/. where applicable. Visit http://www.therai.org.uk/ their sympathy, to lay red roses for the victims (the red rose is a Submissions to: http://at.edmgr.com. All articles joining. Contact: [email protected]. are peer-reviewed. Editorial correspondence symbol of the Labour Party), and to hear impassioned speeches (except subscriptions, changes of address etc) Institutional subscriptions for 2011: Premium from Prince Haakon Magnus, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg via [email protected]. Postal Institutional: £89 (UK), US$149 (N. America), and others. It was the middle of the Norwegian holiday season, €112 (Europe) and $174 (Rest of the World). address: The Editor, ANTHROPOLOGY and the capital would normally have been deserted, but more TODAY, Royal Anthropological Institute, 50 Prices are exclusive of tax. Asia-Pacific GST, than a third of the city’s population participated in this secular Fitzroy Street, London W1T 5BT, UK. Canadian GST and European VAT will be applied at the appropriate rates. The price ritual, marking the country’s darkest hour and celebrating its Copy dates: 15th of even months includes online access to current and back files ‘unity in diversity’, as Prince Haakon, a liberal man with strong to February 2000. Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 anti-racist views, put it. Visit www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/tax-vat Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and The public displays of compassion and grief that took place 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Delivery terms and legal title: Prices include across Norway in the days and weeks following Breivik’s attacks Blackwell Publishing Ltd is now part of John delivery of print journals to the recipient’s soon caught the attention of the international media. Having Wiley & Sons. address. Delivery terms are Delivered Duty spent the first days contrasting stereotypes of a serene, slightly Unpaid (DDU); the recipient is responsible for Disclaimer: The Publisher, RAI and Editors paying any import duty or taxes. Legal title passes boring Norway with the brutality of the attacks, foreign media cannot be held responsible for errors or 1 to the customer on despatch by our distributors. now began to focus on the Norwegian reactions. Rather than any consequences arising from the use of stirring up aggression and calling for revenge, Norway’s leaders information contained in this journal; the views Periodical ID: ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect (0268-540X) is published bimonthly. US mailing and its public were performing rituals affirming the openness those of the Publisher, the RAI or the Editors, agent: Mercury Airfreight International Inc., 365 and democratic nature of Norwegian society, the compassion neither does the publication of advertisements Blair Road, Avenel, NJ 07001, USA. Periodical and solidarity uniting its population. It was almost as if Norway constitute any endorsement by the Publisher, the postage paid at Rahway NJ. Postmaster: send all had been struck by a tsunami, not a terrorist attack. Journalists RAI or the Editors of the products advertised. address changes to ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, from around the world asked domestic experts like myself for Journal Customer Services, John Wiley & Sons Copyright and photocopying: © 2011 RAI. Inc., 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148-5020, an explanation, usually claiming that in their country, the public All rights reserved. No part of this publication USA. reaction would have been angrier and more vengeful. may be reproduced, stored or transmitted The response would almost certainly have been different if in any form or by any means without prior © RAI 2011. Printed in Singapore by COS Printers the perpetrator had been a militant Muslim group. In the hours permission in writing from the copyright Pe Ltd. after the Oslo explosion, before the shootings at Utøya were Thomas Hylland Eriksen known, it quickly became a form of tacit common knowledge patible with democracy, and that Norway has made a serious is Professor of Social that an Islamist terrorist group was responsible. By late after- mistake in allowing Muslims to settle in the country, is propa- Anthropology, University 2 of Oslo. Recent books in noon, Muslims were already being harassed on the streets of gated in election campaigns, online debates, op-ed articles and English include Engaging Oslo, and some terrorism experts on television were intimating books on contemporary politics. In his ‘manifesto’, largely a cut- anthropology (2006), that the attack bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda operation. and-paste job, Breivik includes 39 articles written by his intel- Globalization: The key Norwegian nationalism has several scripts readily available lectual hero, a blogger known as Fjordman, who has been active concepts (2007) and (co-edited) A world of for responding to foreign invaders and enemies. It is far more on Islamophobic websites for years. Fjordman believes in con- insecurity (2010).
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