Krotz (2018) argues that the interest in different societies and therefore, the variety of forms of

organizing human life are shared by, what seem to be distinctive forms of knowledge, anthropology

and utopia. According to him, the category of alterity is what brings them closer and makes them

complement each other. This paper looks into the similarities between the dystopian literary genre and

cultural anthropology. It does so, by looking at some of the contemporary problems that cultural

anthropology treatsand the themes of dystopian literature. The origins of the dystopian novel go back to

around 1880s, marked by the strong intervention of sciences in human life. Most of these dystopian

novels, talk about the perils of technology, technocracy and its controlling power. It is interesting to

analyze then, that much of the contemporary problems that anthropology deals with in the 21st century,

fall within the realm of dystopian literature. The rising trend of new dystopian novels can offer

foundations for a vision, whereby dystopian literature can serve as a warehouse of topics from which

social anthropology can borrow in its active engagement with contemporary global issues and the new

human condition. Comparing the motives of dystopian literature, its questioning of the moral and

human aspects of war, science, violence, technology, etc, with the most recent issues that contemporary

cultural anthropology deals with will be the primary focus of this paper. The aim to show the strengths

of this interdisciplinarity for a critical grasp of the contemporary human condition, underpins this work.