Mediterranean anthropology has proven to be a fertile area for discussing anthropological practice in general, due to the particularly novel way in which academic discourse's object and subject merge in the region. In Anthropology Through the Looking Glass, Michael Herzfeld brings to the fore aspects (above all political) embedded in both Mediterranean and anthropological conceptual frameworks. Taking inspiration from his work, the author sets out to delineate some of the presuppositions, which appear to guide our academic and quotidian practices, starting with certain elements prevalent in analyses centering on the emblematically 'Mediterranean' themes of honor and patronage. The author turns to the works collected in Patrons and Clients in Mediterranean Societies and Honor and Shame - core texts in Mediterranean anthropology - in order to reiterate the risks involved in reducing cultural principles to simplifying formulas of questionable explanatory power, as well as to emphasize the importance of maintaining plurality in both the local elements selected and the perspectives adopted - factors which can work to inhibit simplifications, promoting instead the enrichment of the concepts we produce concerning others and ourselves.