RUPTURE AND CONTINUITY Reflections on the Relationship between Synchrony and Diachrony in Ethnology, in Memoriam Bjarne Stoklund

Abstract

In this article, Professor Emeritus Bjarne Stoklund’s research spanning more than sixty years is revisited. Trained in the historical-geographical method, Stoklund saw it as his task to mediate between this approach and new trends after 1971. The article pursues three lines: 1) the change of focus from relatively isolated cultural traits to a broader cultural history, 2) the introduction of an ecological perspective focused on functioning totalities, and 3) the transformation of “relic areas” to areas seen within a world system. The revisit to Bjarne Stoklund’s publications also addresses his revisit and revitalisation of his own earlier research. His efforts to address the question of continuity and transformation have made lasting impressions in Danish ethnology in terms of an interest in cultural history and long term processes.