Abstract As a reaction to the postcolonial invention of the Mediterranean in the Anglo-American anthropology of the 1960’s and 1970’s and following Edward Said’s ›Orientalism‹, ›Mediterraneanism‹ serves as a concept for exploring the ›southern perspective‹ of scientists from the North. While initially, in the present article, the term was intended to be used in order to capture the intercultural perspective of literature on the South, this was precluded by epistemological and practical reasons. The article discusses these issues by critically examining the background and foundations of the notion in question, by comparing its different conceptualisations depending on the discipline and provenance of their authors, and by analysing the possibilities of its application in Intercultural Studies.
Anglo-American Modernity and the Mediterranean
