This book includes fifteen essays that investigate aspects of interculturality. As such, it focuses on the borderline between social anthropology and intercultural philosophy. The author seeks to make a contribution to intercultural philosophy by formulating with great precision and painful honesty the lessons derived from extensive intercultural experiences as an anthropologist. The volume's culminating section presents an intercultural philosophy revolving on the tenet "Cultures do not exist."

The kaleidoscopic nature of intercultural experiences is reflected in the diversity of these texts. Many belong to a field that could be described as "meta-anthropology," others are more clearly philosophical; occasionally the essays spill over into belles lettres, ancient history, and comparative cultural and religious studies. The ethnographic specifics supporting the arguments are diverse, deriving from various African situations in which the author has conducted participatory field research, in countries including Tunisia, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa.

Wim van Binsbergen is professor of Foundations of Intercultural Philosophy, Philosophical Faculty, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and chair of the theme group on globalization, African Studies Centre, Leiden.