View source for Harald Tambs-Lyche

{{short description|Norweign anthropologist}}
{{Infobox academic
| name              = Harald Tambs-Lyche
| birth_name        = <!-- use only if different from full/othernames -->
| birth_date        = {{birth year and age|1946}}<ref>{{cite journal |journal={{ill|Tidsskrift for Samfunnsforskning|no|Tidsskrift for Samfunnsforskning}} |volume=20 |issue=1–4 |year=1979 |page=2 |publisher=[[Universitetsforlaget|Universitetsforlaget AS]] |place=Oslo, Norway |title=Medarbeidere |trans-title=Employees |others=[[Institutt for samfunnsforskning]] [Norwegian Institute for Social Research] |language=no |issn=0040-716X |eissn=1504-291X |quote=HARALD TAMBS-LYCHE, født 1946. Magister i sosialantropologi 1972. Amanuensis ved Institutt for sosialantropologi, Universitetet i Bergen fra 1972.}}</ref>
| birth_place       = 
| citizenship       = 
| occupation        = Anthropologist
| period            = 
| known_for         = 
| title             = 
| boards            = <!--board or similar positions extraneous to main occupation-->
| spouse            = Marine Carrin
| awards            = <!--notable national-level awards only-->
| website           = 
| education         = [[Doctor of Philosophy]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of Bergen]]
| thesis_title      = Power and Devotion: Religion and Society in Saurashtra
| thesis_url        = 
| thesis_year       = 1992
| school_tradition  = 
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| influences        = <!--must be referenced from a third-party source-->
| era               = 
| discipline        = Anthropology
| sub_discipline    = {{br separated entries|Ethnology|Social anthropology}}
| workplaces        = Professor emeritus of ethnology at the [[University of Picardy Jules Verne]]
| doctoral_students = <!--only those with WP articles-->
| notable_students  = 
| main_interests    = {{br separated entries|[[Caste system in India]]|Ethnicity|History of social stratification in India}}
| notable_works     = 
| notable_ideas     = 
| influenced        = <!--must be referenced from a third-party source-->
| footnotes         = 
}}

'''Harald Tambs-Lyche''' (born 1946) is a Norwegian ethnologist and social anthropologist.

Tambs-Lyche earned a doctorate degree from the [[University of Bergen]] in 1992 with a doctoral thesis on the research subject of 'religion and society' in the [[Saurashtra (region)|Saurashtra region]] of India's Gujarat. He worked at the [[University of Bergen]] as a lecturer of social anthropology and retired as a professor of ethnology from the [[University of Picardy Jules Verne]]. His research interests includes the history of social stratification and the caste system in India.

==Family==
Harald Tambs-Lyche is married to Marine Carrin.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Good Country: Individual, Situation, and Society in Saurashtra |edition=illustrated |first=Harald |last=Tambs-Lyche |year=2004 |page=8 |publisher=Manohar |place=New Delhi, India |isbn=978-8173044175 |lccn=2004307843 |oclc=1129582901 |quote=At the other end of the process, I realize how the influence of my wife, Marine Carrin, has changed my way of thinking and writing about my experiences — a process of gradual growth for which I thank her.}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|She is also an anthropologist.<ref>{{cite web |website=University of Groningen |place=Groningen, Netherlands |title=Associate Fellows {{!}} Religion, Culture and Society of Indian "Tribal" (Adivasi) Communities |date=25 April 2014 |url=https://www.rug.nl/research/centre-for-religious-studies/institute-of-indian-studies/research-clusters/adivasi/associate-fellows |access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref>}}

==Education and academic career==
Tambs-Lyche did his master's in 1972 with the thesis titled "London Patidars" and his Ph.D. in 1992 with the thesis titled "Power and Devotion: Religion and Society in Saurashtra" — both from Norway's University of Bergen<ref>{{cite journal |journal=[[New Community]] |volume=7 |issue=1 |year=1978 |pages=19–30 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |title=Ethnic Commitment Versus Structural Reality: South Asian Immigrant Workers in Britain |first1=Dennis |last1=Brooks |first2=Karamjit |last2=Singh |doi=10.1080/1369183X.1978.9975545 |s2cid=143404990 |quote=Harald Tambs-Lyche, 'London Patidars' (Unpublished Magistergrad Thesis, Bergen University 1972)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Ashes of Immortality: Widow-Burning in India |edition=illustrated |section=Notes |first=Catherine |last=Weinberger-Thomas |translator-first1=David Gordon |translator-last1=White |translator1-link=David Gordon White |translator-first2=Jeffrey |translator-last2=Mehlman |translator2-link=Jeffrey Mehlman |year=1999 |page=229 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |place=Chicago, USA |isbn=978-0226885681 |lccn=99037258 |oclc=41674327 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3wPthVcxWGkC&pg=PA229 |quote=Harald Tambs-Lyche, "Power and Devotion. Religion and Society in Saurashtra," 3 vols. (Ph.D. diss., University of Bergen, 1992)}}</ref> — and worked at the university as a lecturer of social anthropology.<ref>{{Cite magazine |magazine=[[Choice Reviews|Choice]] |volume=18 |issue=1–6 |year=1980 |pages=34–52 |publisher=[[Association of College and Research Libraries]] |place=Middletown, Connecticut, USA |title=Memories of Underexposure: Reflections of Women in Films |first=Gregory A. |last=Finnegan |page= |oclc=1554411 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R_Q8AQAAIAAJ&q=%22Harald+Tambs-Lyche+Lecturer+in+Social+Anthropology%2C+University+of+Bergen%22 |quote=Harald Tambs-Lyche Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of Bergen}}</ref> He is a professor emeritus of ethnology at the University of Picardy Jules Verne in [[Amiens]], France.<ref>{{cite book |title=Vulnerability, Marginalization and Culture: Felicitation Volume for Prof. Deepak Kumar Behera |year=2018 |page=xii |publisher=Concept |place=New Delhi, India |editor1-first=Rashmi |editor1-last=Pramanik |editor2-first=Uwe |editor2-last=Skoda |editor3-first=Lidia |editor3-last=Guzy |section=Bio-Note of the Contributors |isbn=978-9386682550 |lccn=2019315572 |oclc=1076804917 |url=https://pure.au.dk/portal/files/165717567/Seeberg_Aarhus.pdf |quote=Dr. Harald Tambs-Lyche is Professor Emeritus of Ethnology at the University of Picardie-Jules Verne, Amiens.}}</ref>

==Research==
Between starting of the 1970s and August 1972, Tambs-Lyche conducted field research on the "life and actions" of [[Gujarat]]i [[Patidars]] living in London who had moved in Britain in the 1960s. He did anatomization of the Patidar's "mercantile ideology" and proffered that it distinguishes these immigrants from the British people and "constitutes the major element in the construction of an ethnic boundary". [[Fredrik Barth]]'s view on the ethnic groups and boundaries and Barth's "idea of 'choice' and of seeing the 'rules' of society as generative, rather than as static and fixed" significantly shaped his study, though in his study, he went over the "idea of constraint" in larger depths than Barth. [[Marcus Banks (anthropologist)|Marcus Banks]] suggests that Tambs-Lyche, along with Sandra Wallman, is amongst the few scholars who have comprehensively worked on the research ideas of Barth.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ethnicity: Anthropological Constructions |orig-year=First published 1996 |year=2003 |pages=100–116 |publisher=Routledge |place=UK |chapter=Ethnicity and Race in Britain — 'Ethnic Groups' in Britain |first=Marcus |last=Banks |isbn=978-1134899609 |lccn=95033348 |oclc=1048250024 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IeO3h7Qd_hkC&pg=PA100}}</ref> He participated as an associate fellow in the project "History and Theory of the Anthropology of India" which was convened by Peter Berger at the [[University of Groningen]] in the Netherlands. At the program, he studied "the implications of Barth’s theories of ethnicity for an urban and modern setting".<ref>{{cite web |website=University of Groningen |place=Groningen, Netherlands |title=History and Theory of the Anthropology of India |date=25 October 2013 |url=https://www.rug.nl/research/centre-for-religious-studies/institute-of-indian-studies/research-clusters/history-theory/ |access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref><ref name=UoG>{{cite web |website=University of Groningen |place=Groningen, Netherlands |title=Associate Fellows {{!}} History and Theory of the Anthropology of India |date=8 April 2021 |url=https://www.rug.nl/research/centre-for-religious-studies/institute-of-indian-studies/research-clusters/history-theory/associate-fellows |access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref>

[[File:India_Saurashtra_locator_map.svg|thumb|150px|right|Saurashtra region in India]]
Tambs-Lyche developed interest in "history and theory of caste" and worked on the subject with a focus on Gujarat's Saurashtra region. He studied "the changing constellations of caste" in the region with regard to the period from 800 CE to the [[British Raj]] and in the present-day society "from an interactional point of view".<ref name=UoG/> He did research on the goddess cult and [[Swaminarayan sect]] in Gujarat and highlighted the socioeconomic changes in the Gujarati society, which according to him, were responsible for the rise in prominence of vegetarian male deities at the expense of the goddess who was associated with "blood and meat". Farhana Ibrahim do not agree with his argument that the increasing tendency towards vegetarianism contributed to the decrease in goddess worship in Gujarat. She reasons that this argument "fails to take into account the fact, that the goddess herself can undergo a transformation" and be "made vegetarian". She gives an example of the [[Ashapura Mata|goddess Ashapura]] who became "vegetarian and non-violent" and is worshipped in Gujarat's [[Kachchh]] region. Ibrahim notes that Ashapura has, however, "lost her status within the earlier context, where she was the guardian goddess of an independent Kachchh".<ref>{{cite book |title=Settlers, Saints and Sovereigns: An Ethnography of State Formation in Western India |series=Critical Asian Studies |first=Farhana |last=Ibrahim |orig-year=First published 2009 |year=2020 |page=135 |publisher=Routledge |place=New Delhi, India |isbn=978-1000083972 |oclc=1203019881 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rOYJEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA135}}</ref>

He studied "the relations caste identity entertains to ethnicity and class in a situation where all three are salient" in a study on Karnataka's [[Gaud Saraswat Brahmins]]. His research on caste highlighted the significance of "conflict, competition and power relations", but because of the influence of [[Louis Dumont]] and [[McKim Marriott]] on him, also placed emphasis on "the presence of a hierarchizing mode of interaction and discourse".<ref name=UoG/>

Tambs-Lyche and Carrin also studied the work of the Scandinavian Christian missionaries among the [[Santals]] at the [[Santhal Parganas]] in India.<ref>{{cite book |title=Contemporary Society: Concept of Tribal Society |series=Contemporary Society: Tribal Studies, Volume 5 |edition=reprint |editor1-first=Georg |editor1-last=Pfeffer |editor2-first=Deepak Kumar |editor2-last=Behera |editor1-link=Georg Pfeffer |year=1997 |pages=139–159 |publisher=Concept |place=New Delhi, India |chapter=The Santal Conception of Time |first=Marine |last=Carrin |isbn=978-8170229834 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NEBLAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Scandinavian+missionaries%22}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Tattoo Histories: Transcultural Perspectives on the Narratives, Practices, and Representations of Tattooing |series=Routledge Studies in Cultural History, Volume 81 |edition=illustrated |editor-first=Sinah Theres |editor-last=Kloß |year=2019 |pages=181–194 |publisher=Routledge |place=New York, USA |article=The Custom of Marking the Body Among the Santals of India |first=Ata |last=Mallick |isbn=978-1000707984 |lccn=2019043359 |oclc=1125292259 |article-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wBTADwAAQBAJ&pg=PA185}}</ref>

==Written work==
===Power, Profit, and Poetry (2000)===
Tambs-Lyche's ''Power, Profit, and Poetry: Traditional Society in Kathiawar, Western India'' is a study of the social changes that took place in Gujarat's [[Kathiawar]] (in the Saurashtra region) from the [[Medieval India#Early medieval period|early medieval period]] to the turn of the 19th century. In the book, Tambs-Lyche provided a study of the changing relationship between three groups in the region — the kings and their agricultural, [[Brahmin]], [[pastoral]] and [[Rajput]] supporters; the merchants; and the [[Charans]] — with the three of them representing power, profit, and poetry, respectively. Assessing Tambs-Lyche's work, [[M. N. Buch|Mahesh Neelkanth Buch]] stated that he explored the subject matter from three angles — anthropological, socio–political, and historical — with an infusion of myth and legend. Buch suggested that though these attributes made his work a scholarly study, he could not do full justice to it by constricting the whole study in only one volume, which, in the opinion of Buch, should have been presented in "several volumes".<ref>{{cite journal |journal=India International Centre Quarterly |volume=27 |number=3, ''Magical Reality Social Realities'' |year=2000 |pages=127–136 |publisher=[[India International Centre]] |place=New Delhi, India |editor1-first=Geeti |editor1-last=Sen |editor2-first=Bela |editor2-last=Butalia |editor3-first=Rachna |editor3-last=Joshi |title=Reviewed Work: Power, Profit and Poetry — Traditional Society in Kathiawar by Harald Tambs-Lyche |first=Mahesh Neelkanth |last=Buch |author-link=M. N. Buch |jstor=23005588 |jstor-access=free}}</ref>

===An Encounter of Peripheries (2008)===
[[File:1907-bengal-sikkim3.jpg|thumb|150px|right|The [[Santal Parganas]] in a 1907 map of the Bengal area]]
''An Encounter of Peripheries: Santals, Missionaries, and Their Changing Worlds, 1867–1900'', coauthored by Tambs-Lyche and Carrin, is a monographic study of the work of two Scandinavian missionaries–turned–[[Evangelism|evangelists]] — Hans Peter Borresen from Denmark and Lara Olaf Skrefsrud from Norway — among the Santals living in India's eastern region at a time when the region was "beyond the direct control of British India".<ref name="SC"/><ref name="CB"/> The authors located the two "within the broader transformations in northern Europe, the Victorian empire in India, colonial Bengal and the Santal communities in the aftermath of the suppressed rising [[Santhal rebellion|''(Hul)'' of 1855–56]]". The monograph argued that the variations in the Victorian evangelism was one of the root causes of the "failure of the Scandinavians to sustain their communitarian vision of a Santal utopia, ruled by puritan values of industry and prosperity".<ref name="SC"/>

[[Jadavpur University]]'s Suchetana Chattopadhyay stated that though the book provided "empirical insights" in the less explored universe of Scandinavian Christian missionaries and the part they played in structuring Santal [[Agency (sociology)|agency]] from the 1860s till the end of the 19th century, in their study, the ethnographic material was given precedence over the historical material by the authors. Chattopadhyay is of the view that, in the monograph, "the ethnographic segments resemble interpolations and do not blend with the historical narratives".<ref name="SC">{{cite journal |journal=[[Economic and Political Weekly]] |volume=44 |number=49 |date=December 5–11, 2009 |pages=26–28 |publisher=Economic and Political Weekly |place=India |title=Reviewed Work: An Encounter of Peripheries: Santals, Missionaries and Their Changing Worlds, 1876–1900 by Marine Carrin, Harald Tambs-Lyche |first=Suchetana |last=Chattopadhyay |jstor=25663857 |jstor-access=free}}</ref>

The authors drew praise from [[Butler University]]'s Chad Bauman for shedding light on the similarities between the Santals and the first Christian missionaries (who worked among the Santals) of the Scandinavian 'Indian Home Mission' (IHM) that was established in 1868 CE. In the opinion of Bauman, there are three problems with the monograph — firstly, the missionaries of the IHM were neither British nor colonialists and scholars agree that the "missionary values and ambitions were often at odds with those of the [British] empire" but a study of their relationship with the British colonialists suggests that they "were a significant part of imperial agency", however, the authors maintained that they "were part of colonial dynamics, but not of the colonial project"; secondly, "it is inordinately focused on the European side of this ostensible encounter"; thirdly, the text has "organizational problems" which leads to "a loss of chronological clarity". Bauman, however, suggested the monograph provides access to the ethnographic and historical material from the IHM archives which numerous researchers might have missed due to "linguistic issues".<ref name="CB">{{cite journal |journal=[[Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies]] |volume=22 |issue=1 |date=January 2009 |via=Butler University, USA |title=Book Review: An Encounter of Peripheries: Santals, Missionaries, and their Changing Worlds, 1867–1900 |first=Chad |last=Bauman |doi=10.7825/2164-6279.1440 |url=https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1440&context=jhcs |doi-access=free}}</ref>

===Transaction and Hierarchy (2017)===
Tambs-Lyche's ''Transaction and Hierarchy: Elements for a Theory of Caste'' is a study of the Indian society and its caste system from historical and sociological perspectives.<ref name="RR"/>

Tambs-Lyche reflected on the previous studies on caste by Adrian C. Mayer, Andre Beteille, [[Frederick George Bailey]], Fredrik Barth, [[Gerald Berreman]], [[Govind Sadashiv Ghurye]], Louis Dumont, McKim Marriott, and [[Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas]]. He praised Dumont for his "effort to formulate a sociological as well as cultural theory of the castes" and criticized him "for having generalized a Brahmano-centric model of the caste system". [[University of Lausanne]]'s Raphaël Rousseleau noted that Tambs-Lyche initially "[distinguished] various forms of kingship" in northern and southern India from the medieval and modern period by drawing on the approach of [[Burton Stein]], and later introduced his personal "historical schematization" as well. Rousseleau also noted that he drew from the works of [[Chris Fuller (academic)|Chris J. Fuller]], Lawrence A. Babb, [[Susan Snow Wadley]], and Gérard Toffin and Véronique Bouillier to "[demonstrate] the contextual and fluid nature of divine classifications" to emphasize "the importance of transactions in the processes of hierarchization of gods and men", thereby making the argument that "rituals and festivals reflect less an underlying harmonious order than they express strategic attempts to create an Integration through Ritual".<ref name="RR">{{cite journal |journal={{ill|South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal|fr|South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal}} |date=11 January 2021 |publisher=Association pour la Recherche sur l'Asie du Sud |place=Paris, France |via=[[OpenEdition Journals]] |title=Harald Tambs-Lyche. Transactions and Hierarchy: Elements for a Theory of Caste |first=Raphaël |last=Rousseleau |doi=10.4000/samaj.7041 |s2cid=252680020 |issn=1960-6060 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/7041|doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Works==
===Books===
*{{cite book |title=Transaction and Hierarchy: Elements for a Theory of Caste |first=Harald |last=Tambs-Lyche |year=2017 |publisher=Routledge |place=London, UK |isbn=978-1351393966 |lccn=2016362561 |oclc=993949230}}
*{{cite book |title=Business Brahmins: The Gauda Saraswat Brahmins of South Kanara |edition=illustrated |first=Harald |last=Tambs-Lyche |year=2011 |publisher=Manohar |place=New Delhi, India |isbn=978-8173049026 |lccn=2011311897 |oclc=755004375}}
*{{cite book |title=An Encounter of Peripheries: Santals, Missionaries, and Their Changing Worlds, 1867–1900 |first1=Harald |last1=Tambs-Lyche |first2=Marine |last2=Carrin |year=2008 |publisher=Manohar |place=New Delhi, India |isbn=978-8173047558 |lccn=2008306403 |oclc=1131583460}}
*{{cite book |title=The Good Country: Individual, Situation, and Society in Saurashtra |edition=illustrated |first=Harald |last=Tambs-Lyche |year=2004 |publisher=Manohar |place=New Delhi, India |isbn=978-8173044175 |lccn=2004307843 |oclc=1129582901}}
*{{cite book |title=Power, Profit, and Poetry: Traditional Society in Kathiawar, Western India |first=Harald |last=Tambs-Lyche |year=1997 |publisher=Manohar |place=New Delhi, India |isbn=978-8173041761 |lccn=97900971 |oclc=36884049}}
*{{cite book |title=London Patidars: A Case Study in Urban Ethnicity |edition=illustrated |first=Harald |last=Tambs-Lyche |year=1980 |publisher=[[Routledge & Kegan Paul]] |place=Boston, USA; London, UK |isbn=978-0710084712 |lccn=80040636 |oclc=1049767731}}

===Selected papers===
*{{cite book |title=Brill's Encyclopedia of the Religions of the Indigenous People of South Asia Online |editor1-first=Marine |editor1-last=Carrin |editor2-first=Michel |editor2-last=Boivin |editor3-first=Gérard |editor3-last=Toffin |editor4-first=Paul |editor4-last=Hockings |editor5-first=Raphaël |editor5-last=Rousseleau |editor6-first=Tanka Bahadur |editor6-last=Subba |editor7-first=Harald |editor7-last=Lambs-Tyche |editor2-link=Michel Boivin |editor4-link=Paul Hockings |editor6-link=Tanka Bahadur Subba |display-editors=4 |year=2021 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |article=Hindu Pastoralists of Western India |first=Harald |last=Tambs-Lyche |doi=10.1163/2665-9093_BERO_COM_032234 |isbn=978-9004355521}}
*{{cite journal |journal=Rivista Degli Studi Orientali |volume=91 |issue=2 |year=2018 |publisher=[[Sapienza University of Rome]] |place=Rome, Italy |title=Historicity, Subalternity and Caste |first=Harald |last=Tambs-Lyche |issn=0392-4866 |eissn=1724-1863}}
*{{cite journal |journal=Irish Journal of Anthropology |volume=19 |issue=2 |year=2016 |pages=14–30 |publisher=Anthropological Association of Ireland |place=Kildare, Ireland |title=Domination by Hegemony, or Force Countered by Resistance? The Indian Caste Order between Scott and Gramsci |first=Harald |last=Tambs-Lyche |issn=1393-8592 |url=http://anthropologyireland.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IJA_19_2_2016.pdf}}
*{{cite web |title=Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: Nordic Schools of Approach |first=Harald |last=Tambs-Lyche |year=2014 |pages=51–73 |publisher=[[Roskilde University]] |place=Roskilde, Denmark |via=[[Open Journal Systems]] |url=http://ojs.ruc.dk/index.php/ocpa/article/view/3605/1787}}
*{{cite journal |journal=[[Social Anthropology (journal)|Social Anthropology]] |volume=11 |issue=1 |year=2003 |pages=23–42 |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |title='You Don't Joke With These Fellows.' Power and Ritual in South Canara, India |first1=Harald |last1=Tambs-Lyche |first2=Marine |last2=Carrin |doi=10.1017/S0964028203000028 |doi-broken-date=30 October 2025 |url=https://www.academia.edu/download/47907018/j.1469-8676.2003.tb00070.x20160809-30002-bobs4n.pdf}}{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
*{{cite journal |journal=[[Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies]] |volume=4 |issue=3 |year=1975 |pages=349–355 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |title=A Comparison of Gujarati Communities in London and the Midlands |first=Harald |last=Tambs-Lyche |doi=10.1080/1369183X.1975.9975385}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

==See also==
*[[Dirk H. A. Kolff]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cite web |website=[[Academia.edu]] |title=Harald Tambs-Lyche |url=https://haraldtambslyche.academia.edu/}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tambs-Lyche, Harald}}

[[Category:1946 births]]
[[Category:University of Bergen alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Bergen]]
[[Category:Norwegian ethnologists]]
[[Category:Social anthropologists]]
[[Category:21st-century anthropologists]]
[[Category:21st-century Norwegian educators]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Picardy Jules Verne]]