The chapter examines anthropology’s first explicit engagements with Wittgenstein through the rationality debates and British structuralism. It shows how these developments reflected aspects of Wittgenstein’s transitional thinking about context, particularly regarding questions of cultural translation and understanding. The chapter argues that these debates turned on problems of contextual form that continue to animate anthropological theory.

This chapter examines place-identity by finding it first in the pre-Christian schooling and educational practices from the Post-Classic Period (1400--1500 CE), demonstrating their complexity in the realm of the Triple Alliance. It focuses in on two of the most important altepemeh in the Valley of Mexico, Tetzcoco and Tenochtitlan. These and other fifteenth-century Nahua cities featured specialized schools, often if not exclusively run by priestly teachers, that were known as calmecac (‘house of the lineage’, schools for the sons of nobles with an emphasis on military training and religion), telpochcalli (‘youth house’, the schools for commoner boys), cuicacalli (‘song house’ in which ritual practices were emphasized for boys and girls), and ritual learning spaces such as plazas and courtyards associated with temples and other kinds of structures. Significant here are a number of rich studies of formal educational practices, above all as they were pursued in the famous calmecac.

Although the main focus of the dialogue is practical deliberation rather than political and legal theory, it has over time provided stimulus to such theorizing. In this dialogue, the bond between citizen and state is portrayed as one of personal commitment. Strikingly, Plato does not invoke natural law, divine law, Kantian generalizations, or consequentialist theories where he might have done.

This essay examines the oracular responses of the oracle of Dodona portrayed in fifth-century BCE Attic tragedies. This analysis explores the wording of the oracular answers, characterized by extreme conciseness and clarity, and the topic of the queries, on household security, family matters, and final journeys. The evidence from the lead tablets at Dodona corroborates this focus, showing that while the oracle addressed various concerns, a significant number of private queries dealt with family, health, marriage, and travel. Additionally, the responses from Dodona were brief and straightforward, in contrast to the cryptic nature of Apollo’s oracles at Delphi.

This chapter analyses Wittgenstein’s notion of ‘form of life’ as his final model of context. It argues that the deliberate vagueness of this concept represents Wittgenstein’s attempt to avoid the metaphysical commitments involved in previous formal models while still providing tools for understanding context. This strategic formlessness contrasts with how the concept was later interpreted in anthropology.

The unprecedented experience of economic growth, full employment, immigration from all over the world and ever-rising living standards both delighted and shocked independent Ireland in the early twenty-first century. Many Irish businesses achieved global success. In 2004, 10 per cent of people living in Ireland were not born here. Immigration slowed a little after the global crash of 2008 when emigration rose again, and unemployment, but it soon recovered. Swingeing austerity measures and cuts in public services after this made a kind of economic recovery possible, and Ireland by the centenary of the 1916 Rising seemed buoyant once more, with inclusive emphasis on the ‘New Irish’ of all ethnicities. Workers in health care and education however felt the impact of cuts, and in the private sector trade union membership fell. Homelessness rose as house prices and rents soared. Investment in public amenities and green energy, however, were positive developments.

Northern Ireland also saw enhancement of public space but did not experience the same economic boom. Political developments led to the two political extremes, Sinn Fein and Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party, working together. Tensions remained but peace prevailed. In 2016, Northern Ireland’s preference to remain in the European Union was negated by an overall UK vote to leave.

A summing-up of the previous chapters by exploring aspects of Ireland that remain distinctively Irish in the early twenty-first century, involving a discussion of Irish names, landscape and folk beliefs.

An analysis of the main deliberative argument of the dialogue, showing how the speech of the laws provides premises needed for that argument. The argument between Socrates and Crito that one must in no circumstances do wrong needs to be completed by establishing that it is wrong to break an agreement and that an agreement exists beween Socrates and the city, and this is what the speech of the laws provides. The dialogue contains a single main argument, a practical deliberation. Socrates’ determination to follow the argument whereever it leads is thus dramatically illustrated by his willingness to die for this principle (which he construes as the path on which the god leads him).

The missionary encounter between Ireland and Africa is complex and evolving, withongoing reverberations in both societies. The Irish missionary movement in the earlytwentieth century echoed the discourse of British imperialism, and was part of theproject of establishing the Irish as ‘white’.  Irish literature complicates this narrative:missionaries in the work of Brian Friel, Mary Lavin, and John McGahern are figuresof ambivalence and isolation. Nigerian writers such as John Munonye and S. O.Mezu detail this intercultural contact from the African perspective.  The genesis ofcultural diplomacy and trade relationships between Ireland and Africa can be foundin these earlier missionary encounters. Irish NGOs are active in historical missionarylocations, replicating the discourse of the missionaries who came before them.Growing immigration and falling vocations has led to a reversal in the relationshipbetween the countries, whereby African priests come to Ireland to re-evangelize aChurch reeling from clerical abuse scandals.

At the end of the discussion with Crito, Socrates invokes the Corybantic ritual, which does not stand for an irrational or emotional force, as shown by careful consideration of the nature of that ritual. As the dialogue ends, Socrates remains open to new arguments, as always, but Crito has none to offer and time has run out.

Lafcadio Hearn’s translations of poetry and short stories substantiate the first serious Irish exploration of Japanese spirituality. In Japanese thought Hearn found both liberation from repressive aspects of Catholicism and alternate perspectives on concepts such as the soul. Initial interest in Shintō drew Hearn to investigate Zen Buddhism. Yeats also read on Zen Buddhism, but was ambivalent on its concept of emptiness, seemingly repelled by the teachings agains individualism. Irish writers such as Helen Waddell were drawn to the sacredness of place in Japanese thought, while David Burleigh’s work has centred on the haiku, the form that interrogates the relationship between nature and spirit.

Chapter 2 establishes the fundamentals of sustainability, building from the Brundtland Report’s definition of sustainable development through contemporary frameworks like planetary boundaries and doughnut economics. It introduces the Earth-as-endowment metaphor to illustrate humanity’s relationship with planetary resources and explores the Nordic region’s significant contributions to sustainability thinking and practice. The chapter examines how overconsumption threatens Earth’s regenerative capacity and details Nordic innovations in environmental protection, circular economy, and climate policy. It concludes by addressing the challenge of overcoming sustainability denial, particularly in the United States, while highlighting the Nordic region’s pragmatic approach to environmental challenges. Throughout, the chapter emphasizes systems thinking and the interconnected nature of sustainability challenges, establishing theoretical foundations for examining capitalism’s role in advancing sustainable development.