Geir Thomas Hylland Eriksen (6 February 1962 – 27 November 2024) was a Norwegian anthropologist known for his scholarly and popular writing on globalization, culture, identity, ethnicity, and nationalism.

[1] He has previously served as the President of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (2015–2016),[2] as well as the Editor of Samtiden (1993–2001), Norsk antropologisk tidsskrift (1993–1997), the Journal of Peace Research, and Ethnos.

[3] Hylland Eriksen was among the most prolific and highly cited anthropologists of his generation, and was recognized for his remarkable success in bringing an anthropological perspective to a broader, non-academic audience.

[4][5][6][7][8] In Norway, Hylland Eriksen was a well-known public intellectual whose advocacy of diversity and cultural pluralism earned both praise and scorn.

[9] Right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, cited Eriksen critically in his manifesto[10] and during his 2012 trial.

In 1992, Hylland Eriksen was approached by Universitetsforlaget, a Norwegian academic publisher, about writing an introductory textbook for social anthropology students.

[18] The result, which appeared in 1993, was Små steder, store spørsmål—a text that in various languages (in English, Small Places, Large Issues) and through many editions has become one of the world's most widely-used introductions to anthropology.

Written at the invitation of Richard Ashby Wilson, series editor at Pluto Press, the book has, like Small Places, Large Issues, passed through various editions and found a broad readership.

[21] During that time, CULCOM would bring together 120 people from five of the University of Oslo's faculties, and lead directly to the completion of 9 PhDs and 42 MAs, as well as several books and academic journal articles.

[24] Focusing on environmental, economic, and cultural crises, Hylland Eriksen and his team conducted ethnographic fieldwork in various countries, including Australia, Peru, the Philippines, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Canada, the United Kingdom, Hungary, and Norway.