This article explores the way that "received ideas" about space and place have shaped, and continue to shape, the common sense of the anthropological task. Specifically, we want to inquire how the renewed interest in postmodern and feminist theory about space theorization (revealed in notions such as vigilance, panopticism, simulacrum, deterritorialization, postmodern hyperspace, frontiers and marginality), has forced us to revaluate key anthropological analytical concepts such as "culture" and "cultural difference".