Paper short abstract:

This paper reports on a German research project on the popularisation of anthropology. The paper delves into the differentiated audiences nowadays and discusses the public understanding of cultures as 'containers'. Popularising anthropology is related to ethical issues of public anthropology.

Paper long abstract:

This paper reports results of recent German research project on the popularization of themes of cultural resp. social anthropology resp. of "ethnic issues". Books as well as journals and visual media were analyzed. What´s hot and what´s not hot for laypersons? The paper delves into the question of the very differentiated audiences nowadays. Some of the overarching themes and issues of interest are summarized and analyzed. It also discusses the gap between deterritorialized and deconstructed scientific notions of culture and the public understanding of cultures as "containers". Furthermore, the potentials and limits of popularizig anthropology are related to debates about public anthropology and to recent issues of the ethics of anthropological teaching and research.