The Climate of Comparison

Authors

• Tom Boellstorff University of California, Irvine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8580-3747

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.173172

Abstract

This essay is based on the 2025 Westermarck Lecture, delivered at the 50th anniversary meetings of the Finnish Anthropological Society. My deepest thanks to the organisers, staff, and participants of that conference, including Sarah Green, Soumhya Venkatesan, and Tuija Pulkkinen. The lecture provided an opportunity to reflect on the conference theme of ‘comparisons’ through my personal, intellectual, and activist biography. In discussions with Green, Pulkkinen, Venkatesan, and others, we decided I would strive to give this essay the tone of the original lecture. I have woven in scholarly citations, but the essay has short sections and no footnotes. I hope its conversational stance captures the generative and generous context of the conference. My thanks to Suvi Rautio for their helpful editorial suggestions.