Anthropology, it is often argued, is an art of translation. Recently, however, social theorists have raised serious doubts about the translator's enterprise. Over the last few years the human social and ecological habitat has seen spectacular developments.

Gisli Palsson is Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Iceland

Introduction - beyond boundaries, Mediations in the global ecumene, Doves, hawks, and anthropology - the Israeli debate on Middle Eastern settlement proposals, Foreign myths and sagas in Japan - the academics and the cartoonist, The anthropologist as shaman - interpreting recent political events in Armenia, Household words - attention, agency, and the ethnography of fishing, Acting cool and being safe - the definition of skill in a Swedish railway yard, Interpreting and explaining cultural representations, Beyond the words - the power of resonance, The art of translation in a continuous world.