The peoples of the world are now facing economic integration and social interaction on a wider scale than ever before. But has this produced a greater sense of common reason, or shared world citizenship? Contemporary global communication, itself celebrating diversity, has paradoxically stimulated local commitments to exclusive ethnic, cultural and religious identity. The chapters in this book explore the ways in which anthropology can throw light on these diverging new 'certainties', often possessive of place, bodily substance or cultural heritage and often claiming divine justification.