You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
This landmark study of Zengbu, a Cantonese community, is the first comprehensive analysis of a rural Chinese society by foreign anthropologists since the Revolution in 1949. Jack and Sulamith Potter examine the revolutionary experiences of Zengbu's peasant villagers and document the rapid changeover from Maoist to post-Maoist China. In particular, they seek to explain the persistence of the deep structure of Chinese culture through thirty years of revolutionary praxis. The authors assess the continuities and changes in rural China, moving from the traditional social organization and cultural life of the pre-revolutionary period through the series of large-scale efforts to implement planned social change which characterized Maoism - land reform, collectivization, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. They examine in detail late Maoist society in 1979-80 and go on to describe and analyse the extraordinary changes of the post-Mao years, during which Zengbu was decollectivized, and traditional customs and religious practices reappeared.
Social and cultural anthropology monograph on women-centred family social structure and organization in a northern Thailand village - following a literature survey on previous research and theoretical suppositions, presents results of a field study on housing and living conditions, division of labour and occupational structure, Buddhism religious practice, clan relationships and the role of spirits in family life. Bibliography pp. 125 to 127, diagrams, maps and photographs.
None
This book explores how specific emotions shaped Americans' perceptions of, and responses to, the sectional conflict over slavery in the United States.
Andrew Wedemen argues that China succeeded in moving from a Maoist command economy to a market economy because the central government failed to prevent local governments from forcing prices to market levels. Having partially decontrolled the economy in the early 1980s, economic reformers baulked at price reform, opting instead for a hybrid system wherein commodities had two prices, one fixed and one floating. Depressed fixed prices led to 'resource wars', as localities battled each other for control over undervalued commodities while inflated consumer goods prices fuelled a headlong investment boom that saturated markets and led to the erection of import barriers. Although local rent seeking and protectionism appeared to carve up the economy, in reality they had not only pushed prices to market levels and cleared the way for sweeping reforms in the 1980s, they had also pushed China past the 'pitfalls' of reform that entrapped other socialist economies.
This unique and groundbreaking book seeks to re-focus gender debate onto the issue of daughter discrimination - a phenomenon still hidden and unacknowledged across the world. It asks the controversial question of why millions of girls do not appear to be surviving to adulthood in contemporary Asia. In the first major study available of this emotive and sensitive issue, Elisabeth Croll investigates the extent of discrimination against female children in Asia and shifts the focus of attention firmly from son-preference to daughter-discrimination. This book brings together demographic data and anthropological field studies to reveal the multiple ways in which girls are disadvantaged, from excessive child mortality to the withholding of health care and education on the basis of gender. Focusing especially on China and India, the book reveals the surprising coincidence of increasing daughter discrimination with rising economic development, declining fertility and the generally improved status of women in East and South Asia. Essential reading for all those interested in gender in contemporary society.
A space common to all peoples, the kitchen embodies the cultural history of domestic life: how people around the world acquire, prepare, cook, serve, eat, preserve, and store food; what foods we eat and why and when; what utensils, cutlery, decorations, furnishings, and appliances we create and use; what work, play, chores, services, and celebrations we perform. The history of the kitchen reflects human ingenuity solving problems posed by daily necessity and the human desire for social comfort and continuity. Kitchen history also tells us much about our interaction with others and with other cultures as well. From the history of beer, cooking stones, ergonomics, medieval kitchens, Roman cook...
John King Fairbank was the West's doyen on China, and this book is the full and final expression of his lifelong engagement with this vast ancient civilization. The distinguished historian Merle Goldman brings the book up to date and provides an epilogue discussing the changes in contemporary China that will shape the nation in the years to come.
This work explores the tension in East Asia between the trend towards a convergence of legal practices in the direction of a universal model and a reassertion of local cultural practices. The trend towards convergence arises in part from 'globalisation', from 'rule of law programs' promulgated by institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank, and from widespread migration in the region, whilst the opposing trend arises in part from moves to resist such 'globalisation'. This book explores a wide range of issues related to this key problem, covering China in particular, where resolving differences in conceptions about the rule of law is a key issue as China begins to integrate itself into the World Trade Organisation regime.
The annual is a venue of publication for sociological studies of Chinese societies and the Chinese all over the world. The main focus is on social transformations in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the mainland, Singapore and Chinese overseas.