Matei Candea is Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge; Jo Cook is Lecturer in Anthropology at University College London; Catherine Trundle is Lecturer in Cultural Anthropology at Victoria University of Wellington; Tom Yarrow is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Durham University

Introduction: Matei Candea, Jo Cook, Catherine Trundle and Thomas Yarrow
Part I: Professionalism and expertise
1. Some merits and difficulties of detachment - Maryon MacDonald
2. Virtuous detachments in engineering practice - on the ethics of (not) making a difference - Penny Harvey and Hannah Knox
3. Artisanal affection: detachment in human-animal relations within intensive pig production in Britain - Kim Crowder
4. Comment - Veena Das
Part II: Ritual and religion
5. Engaged disbelief: problematics of detachment in Christianity and in the anthropology of Christianity - Joel Robbins
6. Detachment and ethical regard - James Laidlaw
7. Detachment, difference and separation: Levi-Strauss at the wedding feast - Caroline Humphrey
8. Comment - Michael Carrithers
Part III: Detaching and situating knowledge
9. The capacity for re-description: environments for hyphens - Alberto Corsín Jiménez
10. Test sites: attachments and detachments in community-based ecotourism - Casper Bruun Jensen and Brit Ross Winthereik
11. Learning to experience the truth: the role of detachment in mindfulness-based therapy in Thailand - Joanna Cook
12. Ignorance and the ethics of detachment among Mongolian Tibetan Buddhists in Inner Mongolia, China - Jonathan Mair
13. Comment - Marilyn Strathern
Index