This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the extensive summaries and paraphrases of books 1 and 5 of Agatharchides’ lost work On the Erythraian Sea (written c.145 BC) that were made by Diodoros (book 3), Strabo (book 16), and especially Photios (Bibliotheke, codices 213 and 250). Additional testimonia and fragments are arranged as five extracts. The chapter introduction reviews Agatharchides’ career, his writings, and his scholarly milieux in Alexandria and later (probably) Athens, and upholds the view that On the Erythraian Sea was a self-contained work, not part of a larger whole. The geographical and ethnographic material in this work–a historical work–is distinctive for being based on information from Ptolemaic commanders and explorers, and remarkable for its sympathy with some of the Ptolemies’ oppressed subjects. Agatharchides’ depiction of these peoples implies an evolutionary scheme of development–from hunter-gatherers to pastoralists to farmers–such as Dikaiarchos (Chapter 9 of this volume) had suggested in his philosophical works. The surviving summaries include remarkable passages on elephant-hunting and the sufferings of gold-miners; but Agatharchides’ work was more often accessed through its reworking by Artemidoros (Chapter 18) than read in its own right. A new map highlights the principal places and peoples mentioned by Agatharchides in East Africa and Arabia.

This chapter aims to provide a survey of the recent and emerging conversations between theology (and more specifically moral theology or Christian ethics) and social anthropology (and more specifically the anthropology of morality). These conversations are presented as starting from two sides, as being a matter of theology attending to anthropology, and of anthropology engaging with theology. Banner’s The Ethics of Everyday Life is taken as providing an indication of the nature and promise of the first conversation for enriching theology’s social intelligence and its self-understanding (illustrated in particular by a discussion the Alder Hey scandal and of reproductive surrogacy), and Robbins’s Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life is taken as indicating the potential for the second, namely that beyond religious life providing material for ethnography, theological ideas and concepts may contribute to anthropological theory, even in relation to such central categories as the gift. The chapter closes with a consideration of some future directions which these conversations may take.

The gibbons (family Hylobatidae) represent one of world’s most threatened group of taxa. In theory they are an attractive group for interdisciplinary research but are often unconsciously overlooked. We conducted a systematic review in Web of Science and Google Scholar between January 1900 and February 2020 using PRISMA guidelines and strict search criteria to investigate (1) the number of mixed-method biosocial studies published on gibbons; (2) focus species and countries; (3) social analytical approaches used; and (4) the success of this approach in elucidating conservation issues. Only 31 mixed-method biosocial studies have been published on gibbons, 56 per cent on Nomascus species but none on Symphalangus. China and Vietnam were the most popular study locations. Optimistically, 68 per cent of publications were led by gibbon-range country researchers, but only 48 per cent of studies represented international collaborations; 81 per cent of studies addressed a conservation-related topic, highlighting the potential efficacy of using this approach in primate conservation research. However, few studies provided details of data collection methods, methods of analysis and sample sizes, and only one study used an anthropological analytical approach. We therefore encourage further cross-disciplinary international collaborations to better our understanding of human–gibbon relations on a deeper, more contextual level.

The Introduction discusses the place of gift giving in the historiography of medieval Europe. It explores how gift giving has been studied by social anthropologists and the influence this has exercised on medieval historiography. Discussing recent interventions in the study of medieval ritualised communication, such as Philippe Buc’s The Dangers of Ritual, the Introduction argues that we need to pay far more attention to the explicitly formulated ‘native theories’ of gift giving available to medieval audiences, some of the most influential of which were those transmitted in classical literature and philosophy.

The conclusion summarises the findings of this volume regarding the influence of classical ideas on the writing and performance of gift giving in the central Middle Ages. Based on this, it argues that research into medieval gift giving needs to take account of the influence classical models exercised on medieval conceptions of generosity.

Danish energy policy has reached a phase where the effects of the paradigmatic change from stored fossil fuels to very large shares of fluctuating renewable energy requires fundamentally new technical, political and economic solutions. Two archetypal technical scenarios are the locally and regionally integrated Smart Energy System scenario and a centralized export/import transmission line scenario. In analyzing the competition between these scenarios we applied a social anthropological method of GOING CLOSE to the situation of the actors and the ecological, technological and institutional context. We concluded that a smart energy scenario that can integrate large amounts of fluctuating wind power is optimal, but that the transmission line scenario has the politically strongest supporters and consequently, an advantage for being implemented. With respect to institutional factors, our conclusion is that if a country should be able to change its path against the will of politically strong actors, it is a must to have innovative democracy where the parliament, educational institutions and other institutions are independent of these political actors. In the present phase of the transition to 100% renewable energy we recommend concrete and specific institutional changes both at the EU and national levels.

In this chapter, we discuss the evolution of the field of ‘ethics of nuclear energy’, regarding its past, present and future. We will first review the history of this field in the previous four decades, focusing on new and emerging challenges of nuclear energy production and waste disposal, in light of several important developments. Four of the most pressing ethical challenges will be further reviewed in the chapter. First, what is a morally ‘acceptable’ nuclear energy production method, if we consider the existing and possible new technologies? Second, provided a new tendency to consider nuclear waste disposal with several countries, what would be the new ethical and governance challenges of these multinational collaborations? Third, how should we deal with the (safety) challenges of the new geographic distribution of nuclear energy, tilting towards emerging economies with less experience with nuclear technology? Fourth, nuclear energy projects engender highly emotional controversies. Neither ignoring the emotions of the public nor taking them as a reason to prohibit or restrict a technology – we call them technocratic populist pitfalls respectively – seem to be able to guide responsible policy making.