ABSTRACT
This essay concerns three major issues in the anthropology of cosmopolitanism. First, it traces the genealogy of a debate in anthropology that stressed cosmopolitan travel and cultural encounters. As it developed, contributors to this debate increasingly highlighted an anthropological interest in non-western, vernacular or ‘rooted’ forms of cosmopolitanism. Second, the chapter poses the question whether social anthropology as a discipline can be regarded as intrinsically cosmopolitan and if so, in what sense? Finally, reflecting back on both topics, I argue for the need to recuperate the work of an earlier generation of modernist anthropologists, by disclosing their interest in the permeability of boundaries and movement across them.
