Iain Walker

Iain Walker is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany, where he works in the Department of Anthropology of Economic Experimentation. He also serves as chief editor of MoLab (The Mobility Lab).

His primary ethnographic focus spans nearly thirty years of fieldwork in the Comoro Islands, particularly on Ngazidja and more recently on Mayotte, with secondary research on the Hadrami diaspora across the western Indian Ocean littoral from the Gulf states to Madagascar.

• Theoretical Focus: Identity formation (both diasporic and locally emplaced)
• Current Research: Conflicts between Maorais and Wandzuani on Mayotte, intra-Comorian relationships on Ndzuani and Ngazidja
• Key Concepts: Mimesis, ritual economies, hierarchies, land tenure, age systems

Walker's research examines how shared identities persist across dispersed communities, sometimes more imagined than real, and how these identities generate physical, social and conceptual conflicts. His work emphasizes anthropology's role in facilitating public dialogue on matters of shared concern across the Comorian archipelago.

His notable publication Islands in a Cosmopolitan Sea: A History of the Comoros (2019) represents a significant contribution to Indian Ocean studies. Walker argues that anthropologists collectively contribute to public debates across the Comorian islands, disseminating knowledge while encouraging civic engagement with local concerns.