science

Johannes Falkenberg

Johannes Falkenberg is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Johannes Falkenberg rather than just read about it. In short: Johannes Falkenberg (1 April 1911, in Oslo – 3 June 2004, in Oslo) was a Norwegian social anthropologist. Biography Falkenberg was linked to the University of Oslo's ethnographic museum for most of his life; he was a curator in ethnography since 1953, and in 1962 was chief curator.

Key takeaways

Johannes Falkenberg belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Johannes Falkenberg to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Johannes Falkenberg from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Johannes Falkenberg (1 April 1911, in Oslo – 3 June 2004, in Oslo) was a Norwegian social anthropologist.

Biography Falkenberg was linked to the University of Oslo's ethnographic museum for most of his life; he was a curator in ethnography since 1953, and in 1962 was chief curator. Falkenberg studied at the University of Oslo and took "Geography with ethnographic" under Ole Solberg. He travelled to inner Laksefjord in 1938, where he examined Sami settlements. That resulted in the dissertation "Settlements along the inner Laksefjord in Finnmark" (1941). As a reserve officer, he was captured in Germany, which, because of another prisoner from the Australian outback, resulted in a fascination with the indigenous people. As a result, Falkenberg decided that he wanted to do research among the natives in Australia. He became a curator at the ethnographic museum at his homecoming in 1945 and wrote the book Et steinalderfolk i vår tid in 1948. Falkenberg then chose the Murinbata people in Port Keats in North Australia for his field research in 1950. This resulted in the publication of the book Kin and Totem. Group Relations of Australian Aborigines in the Port Keats District (Oslo University Press; 1962). The anthropologist Rodney Needham describes this work in a contemporary review for American Anthropologist as an "entirely splendid piece of ethnography, a masterly monograph which must immediately be ranked with the classics of Australian anthropology". Warren Shapiro later calls this book "one of the two best ethnographies...on Aboriginal Australia" of its time. The study was quoted from by Claude Lévi-Strauss. His later books include The Affinal Relationship System: A New Approach to Kinship and Marriage among the Australian Aborigines at Port Keats (with his wife Aslaug Falkenberg; University of Oslo; 1981). Shapiro notes that the Falkenbergs fall into the tradition of "discursive ethnographers"; he considers this book provides a large amount of data, but criticises their approach as naive and at times "unnecessarily anecdotal and insufficiently formalised".

References

Further reading Storm, Dikka (2019). The role of museum institutions in relation to research on Sámi culture, history, and society in Norway until the post World War II years. Journal Nordic Museology/Nordisk Museologi (3): 61–76

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Johannes Falkenberg

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Johannes Falkenberg claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Johannes Falkenberg before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Johannes Falkenberg ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Johannes Falkenberg

In research: Johannes Falkenberg appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Johannes Falkenberg in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Johannes Falkenberg is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1911 births, 2004 deaths, Academics from Oslo, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Johannes Falkenberg outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Johannes Falkenberg in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Johannes Falkenberg means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Johannes Falkenberg out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Johannes Falkenberg in simple terms?

Johannes Falkenberg (1 April 1911, in Oslo – 3 June 2004, in Oslo) was a Norwegian social anthropologist. Biography Falkenberg was linked to the University of Oslo's ethnographic museum for most of his life; he was a curator in ethnography since 1953, and in 1962 was chief curator.

Why does Johannes Falkenberg matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Johannes Falkenberg?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Johannes Falkenberg.