Until now, debates on hybridization have been rather theoretical. This volume takes an empirical look at everyday cultures and lifestyles, religion, medicine and scientific cultures, and the directions of influences. The findings suggest that hybridity and hybridizing have to be conceptualized as processes of constructing identities that are positively denoted. Such processes display multidirectionality and multidimensionality. In our globalized world such a mixture is frequent and inescapable.

Dominique Schirmer and Gernot Saalmann are research fellows at the Institute of...