In the best tradition of the rethinking genre of anthropological critiques, John and Jean Comaroff and this volume’s eight contributors brilliantly review the notion of civil society — largely developed and utilized by non-anthropologists – from both theoretical and ethnographically grounded perspectives. Beginning with an expansive introduction to the concept of civil society, or what the editors and others refer to as “the Idea” or abstraction, they lay bare the concept in contexts that have to do as much with the West as Africa. The authors reexamine the concept of civil society, thought to be universally applicable in its scope because of its level of abstraction. They see it, however, as a Western-centric concept that breeds invidious comparisons when applied to Africa. The locations in sub-Saharan Africa vary, and the ethnographic sampling is eclectic, but several themes and approaches run through the essays: the tendency to savage and then salvage the concept of civil society, an awareness of the problems with relativity, and an acceptance of the ambiguities found in studying civil and state relationships…