The topic of this essay could be described as the liberating potential of marginality. Geographically peripheral, Norwegian anthropology has nonetheless flourished, drawing on a variety of theoretical influences and moulding them into a distinctive “North Sea anthropology”. Specifically, what is analysed is the relationship between Gregory Bateson’s system theory and the influential Norwegian school of ethnicity research. It is argued that early parallels between Bateson’s relational thinking and Norwegian anthropology (especially in the work of Barth and Eidheim) later led to direct influence, making Bateson – himself intellectually marginal in anthropology – a central theorist for generations of Norwegian anthropologists.