The Mediterraneans, The : Trans-border Movements and Diasporas

The Mediterranean world has long been an island for European thought and imagination.

Anthropologically, the focus has been on tradition rather than modernity, on continuity rather than change, on borders rather than transgression.

Today, the focus shifts to the interconnected turbulences of the present that challenge the imagination of a southern Other vis-a-vis a north-western Self and the notion of a homogenous, unanimous culture area.

The emerging dialogue between Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean anthropologists has introduced new perspectives on southern mobilities and modernities across collapsing and (re)constructed borders as they are inserted and created by global, (trans-)national and local cultural processes.

Three issues of the Anthropological Journal on European Cultures are dedicated to "the Mediterraneans" in the plural, thus making space for multiple perspectives on multiple realities.

Yet, the encompassing focus is on the Mediterraneans as the people who are the subjects - and objects - of these perspectives and realities.

The first issue concentrates on transborder movements and diasporas. The forthcoming double issue will address more general, theoretically oriented questions as well as further inquiries into contemporary Mediterranean worlds.