For over two decades the New Melanesian ethnography has extended itself in many useful directions, though rarely, in Africa, has it proved so productive as in this fascinating collection. Working at the analytic crossroads of anthropology, Africa and Melanesia, Cutting and Connecting provides fresh insights into some of todays most pressing anthropological challenges: theorizing relationality, networks, and exchange; the relation between knowledge practices and place; theory and ethnography; the complications of comparison. The book is a major contribution to anthropological scholarship and promises many theoretical returns. · Todd Sanders, author of Beyond Bodies: Rainmaking and Sense Making in Tanzania