What does it take to truly understand another culture?  Professor Unni Wikan, a renowned social anthropologist, has spent nearly six decades finding out – living among communities in Egypt, Indonesia, Oman, Bhutan, and beyond, witnessing firsthand the complexities of human connection, resilience, honor, and shame. 

In this conversation on Villy’s Bookmark, she shares fieldwork lessons about poverty, cultural sensitivity, and the unspoken ways people communicate.  She reflects on how globalization is transforming anthropology and what it’s like to teach across starkly different academic worlds – from Norway to Harvard University and the University of Chicago. 

Wikan also reveals the thinkers and writers who have inspired her writing.  For anyone curious about human behavior, cross-cultural understanding, or the art of teaching, this episode offers an intimate look into a mind that has been bridging worlds since her first fieldwork in Egypt in 1968.