ABSTRACT
The idea of ‘returning’ to the Mediterranean dates back to the earliest attempts to formulate a distinct anthropology of the region. Why is this? Certain approaches to the Mediterranean are durable for good reasons; familiarity with them can help us avoid the unwitting recursion of stereotypical frames without simply dismissing important work done in the past or implying that new work is unrelated to older approaches. Contemporary forms of mobility (of people, information, and commodities) are reshaping the Mediterranean, necessitating alternative, multi-scalar approaches to hospitality, honour, patronage, religious pluralism, European boundary-making and other well-established topics. Attention to mobility requires new modes of analysis, and the essays in this issue are especially good at showing the connections between cultural processes that unfold in different locations, at different scales, and with different audiences in mind. Returning to the Mediterranean on these terms might take us places that are genuinely new to anthropology.
