Bernhard Helander (1958–2001) was an

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

and well known scholar on

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

. He published on Somali pastoralism, politics and power, poverty, Somali medicine, kinship, Somali sociability and modes of communication, as well as contemporary political processes, welfare, development and peace in Somalia. Before his death, Helander was a lecturer in

cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

. He started his research in Somalia in 1982 and rose to become one of the world's major experts on Somali culture and society. He served in the early 1990s in the UN thinkthank headed by ambassador

Mohamed Sahnoun Mohamed Sahnoun ( ar, محمد سحنون ) (8 April 1931 – 20 September 2018) was an Algerian diplomat who served as ambassador of Algeria to Germany, France, the United States and Morocco as well as permanent representative of Algeria to the ...

. He ed-ited the Somalia News Update, an Internet newsletter, which in the 1990s was very influential in disseminating knowledge and forming opinion on current affairs in Somali. During these years he also served in the UN think tank on Somalia.

Publications

Helander, Bernhard (2003): The slaughtered camel. Coping with fictitious descent among the Hubeer of Southern Somalia. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Uppsala studies in cultural anthropology). (91-554-5736-3) Helander, Bernhard (1999): Somalia. In: Westerlund, David; Svanberg, Ingvar (Hg.): Islam outside the Arab world. Richmond Surrey: Curzon, S. 39–55. Helander, Bernhard (1997): Clanship, Kinship and community Among the Rahanweyn. In: Adam, Hussein Mohamed; Ford, Richard B. (Hg.): Mending Rips in the Sky. Options for Somali Communities in the 21st Century: Red Sea Press .

Sources

*https://web.archive.org/web/20110616100919/http://www.somaliawatch.org/archivedec01/020103101.htm *Turton, D. (2003). The Politician, the Priest and the Anthropologist: living beyond conflict in Southwestern Ethiopia. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, 68(1), 5-26. {{DEFAULTSORT:Helander, Bernhard 2001 deaths 1958 births Swedish anthropologists 20th-century anthropologists