Nicholas J. Allen is Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Oxford. He has published on the Himalayas, kinship theory, the Durkheimian School and Indo-European Comparativism. His books include Categories and Classifications (2000) and Marcel Mauss: A Centenary Tribute (1998).

Hilary Callan has been Director of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland since 2000. Her research and publications include work on biological and social anthropology, occupational cultures, and gender, including Ethology and Society (1970)and The Incorporated Wife (edited with Shirley Ardener, 1984).

Wendy James was until recently Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford, and is now Emeritus Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. She has carried out ethnographic research in North East Africa, and her books include War and Survival in Sudan's Frontierlands: Voices from the Blue Nile (2007) and The Ceremonial Animal: A New Portrait of Anthropology (2003).

Robin Dunbar is Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, and specializes in primate behaviour. He is co-director of the British Academy's Centenary Research Project ('From Lucy to Language: The Archaeology of the Social Brain'). He is the author or co-author of numerous books, including The Human Story (2004) and Evolutionary Psychology: A Beginner's Guide (2005).