Fredrick Barth was born on December 22, 1928 in Lepzig, Germany. He was the son of Thomas Fredrik (a professor) and Randi Barth. He received his M.A. from the University of Chicago (1949) and then went on to earn his Ph.D. (1957) at Cambridge University. Barth has been married since 1974 to Unni Wikan, also an anthropologist.
His career started at the University of Bergen as a Professor of Social Anthropology. When the profile of the social sciences at the university was created in 1963, he was part of the committee that was involved in its creation. The foundations that put the university into a central position of the social science research field were partly due to his efforts. The University of Bergen became the center of Social Anthropology in Scandinavia under Dr. Barth and it gained a high ranking in the international community.
In his most famous book, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (1969), he focused on the concern that boundaries are now a replacement for “cultural differences.” He argued that ethnic groups are not groups formed on the basis of a shared culture, but rather the formation of groups on the basis of cultural differences . Barth states “It is the everyday actions, choices, situations and conditions in which each individual finds himself or herself, and with which they choose to identify, which makes a difference in how ethnic groups are made up.” Barth also created a model on how to analyze complex everyday situations by dividing them up by micro, median, and macro levels with each model acting as a feedback mechanism on the other. By connecting the levels he saw how a group has a sense of itself based on it how it interacts with others in the world community.
Some of his works include:
Principles of Social Organization in Southern Kurdistan
Nomads of South Persia
Ethnic Groups and Boundaries
Balinese Worlds (1993)
References
Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, Vol. 11, Gale Research Company, 1984
University of Bergen, http://www.uib.no/info/general/social.html, (2006)
Former link, http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/ponsacs/DOCS/s95barth.htm, (2006)
The Concept of Ethnicity, http://folk.uio.no/geirthe/Status_of_ethnicity.html, (2006)
http://poli.vub.ac.be/publi/crs/eng/0301-04.htm, (2006)
Written By: Eric Deimerly