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Siria, el país de las almas rotas: De la revolución al califato del ISIS
By Javier Espinosa, Mónica G. Prieto. 2016
El estremecedor relato de la guerra civil siria desde dentro, desde primera línea, por los reporteros Javier Espinosa y Mónica…
G. Prieto. Cuando la revolución se extendió por Siria en marzo de 2011, pocos podían esperar que manifestaciones pacíficas fueran reprimidas con bombardeos aéreos, armas químicas y una cuidada estrategia para fomentar el odio sectario que avivó las diferencias religiosas consagrando al país al conflicto civil y haciendo de Siria un tablero de juegos para el mundo. Conscientes de la dimensión del problema, Javier Espinosa y Mónica G. Prieto cubrieron desde los primeros días los entresijos de la tragedia, cruzando ilegalmente fronteras y exponiéndose a la salvaje represión del régimen de El Asad hasta que el extremismo devoró la revolución y el secuestro de uno de ellos, a manos del ISIS, elevó hasta lo insoportable su nivel de implicación. Inquietante y estremecedor, este vibrante relato desenmaraña las complejas dinámicas subyacentes al conflicto civil sirio, exponiendo un tema de total y triste actualidad, contado desde el terreno y desde dentro.This book examines the role of the international community in the handover of the Dutch colony of West Papua/Irian Jaya…
to Indonesia in the 1960s and questions whether or not the West Papuan people ever genuinely exercised the right to self-determination guaranteed to them in the UN-brokered Dutch/Indonesian agreement of 1962. Indonesian, Dutch, US, Soviet, Australian and British involvement is discussed, but particular emphasis is given to the central part played by the United Nations in the implementation of this agreement. As guarantor, the UN temporarily took over the territory's administration from the Dutch before transferring control to Indonesia in 1963. After five years of Indonesian rule, a UN team returned to West Papua to monitor and endorse a controversial act of self-determination that resulted in a unanimous vote by 1022 Papuan 'representatives' to reject independence. Despite this, the issue is still very much alive today as a crisis-hit Indonesia faces continued armed rebellion and growing calls for freedom in West Papua.Re-enchanting Modernity: Ritual Economy and Society in Wenzhou, China
By Mayfair Yang. 2020
In Re-enchanting Modernity Mayfair Yang examines the resurgence of religious and ritual life after decades of enforced secularization in the…
coastal area of Wenzhou, China. Drawing on twenty-five years of ethnographic fieldwork, Yang shows how the local practices of popular religion, Daoism, and Buddhism are based in community-oriented grassroots organizations that create spaces for relative local autonomy and self-governance. Central to Wenzhou's religious civil society is what Yang calls a "ritual economy," in which an ethos of generosity is expressed through donations to temples, clerics, ritual events, and charities in exchange for spiritual gain. With these investments in transcendent realms, Yang adopts Georges Bataille's notion of "ritual expenditures" to challenge the idea that rural Wenzhou's economic development can be described in terms of Max Weber's notion of a "Protestant Ethic". Instead, Yang suggests that Wenzhou's ritual economy forges an alternate path to capitalist modernity.Projecting the Nation: History and Ideology on the Israeli Screen
By Eran Kaplan. 2020
Projecting the Nation: History and Ideology on the Israeli Screen is a wide-ranging history of over seven decades of Israeli…
cinema. The only book in English to offer this type of historical scope was Ella Shohat’s Israeli Cinema: East West and the Politics of Representation from 1989. Since 1989, however, Israeli cinema and Israeli society have undergone some crucial transformations and, moreover, Shohat’s book offered a single framework through which to judge Israeli cinema: a critique of orientalism. Projecting the Nation contends that Israeli cinema offers much richer historical and ideological perspectives that expose the complexity of the Israeli project. By analyzing Israeli films which address such issues as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Ashkenazi-Mizrahi divide, the kibbutz and urban life, the rise of religion in Israeli public life and more, the book explores the way cinema has represented and also shaped our understanding of the history of modern Israel as it evolved from a collectivist society to a society where individualism and adherence to local identities is the dominant ideology.In the decades following the introduction of Communist Party rule in Shanghai in 1949, the city's economy, infrastructure and links…
with the world all atrophied. However, the past decade has seen far-reaching economic reforms implemented to recreate Shanghai as a cosmopolitan, world financial and trade centre. This book focuses on the lives of local residents and their perceptions of their changing city, and presents an evocative series of ethnographic perspectives of the city's shifting sociological landscape in this period of transition.Women and the Family in Chinese History (Asia's Transformations/Critical Asian Scholarship)
By Patricia Ebrey. 2002
This is a collection of essays by one of the leading scholars of Chinese history, Patricia Buckley. In the essays…
she has selected for this fascinating volume, Professor Ebrey explores features of the Chinese family, gender and kinship systems as practices and ideas intimately connected to history and therefore subject to change over time. The essays cover topics ranging from dowries and the sale of women into forced concubinary, to the excesses of the imperial harem, excruciating pain of footbinding, and Confucian ideas of womanly virtue.Patricia Ebrey places these sociological analyses of women within the family in an historical context, analysing the development of the wider kinship system. Her work provides an overview of the early modern period, with a specific focus on the Song period (920-1276), a time of marked social and cultural change, and considered to be the beginning of the modern period in Chinese history.With its wide-ranging examination of issues relating to women and the family, this book will be essential reading to scholars of Chinese history and gender studies.Collective Goods: Collective Futures in East and Southeast Asia
By Sally Sargeson. 2002
This edited collection explores issues surrounding the provision of collective goods within the context of post-crisis East and Southeast Asia.…
It includes case studies on Korea, Indonesia, China, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore among others.North Korea under Communism: Report of an Envoy to Paradise
By Cornell Erik. 2002
After the collapse of the Soviet world, North Korea alone has continued on the rigid communist way, in spite of…
its economic consequences leading the state beyond ruin to famine. What are the reasons behind this peculiar choice of direction? Why did the leaders in Pyongyang pursue a policy abandoned not only by the Soviet Union, but also by China and Vietnam? The author of this book spent three years as head of the embassy of Sweden in Pyongyang. Until a few years ago, it was the only Western embassy in North Korea. His unique experiences are related with descriptions of day-to-day life and with analyses of economic, political and ideological conditions. A picture is drawn of a society and a political order that defy both human nature and common sense.Emerging Lesbian Voices from Japan
By Sharon Chalmers. 2002
Lesbian Sexuality has remained largely ignored in Japan despite increasing exposure of disadvantaged minority groups, including gay men. This book…
is the first comprehensive academic exploration of contemporary lesbian sexuality in Japanese society. The author employs an interdisciplinary approach and this book will be of great value to those working or interested in the areas of Japanese, lesbian and gender studies as well as Japanese history, anthropology and cultural studies.ASEAN's Diplomatic and Security Culture: Origins, Development and Prospects
By Jurgen Haacke. 2002
Member states of ASEAN - the Association of South-East Asian Nations - have developed a distinctive approach to political and…
security co-operation, which builds on the principles of sovereign equality, non-intervention and non-interference, quiet diplomacy, mutual respect, and the principle of not involving ASEAN in mediating bilateral disputes among the membership.This book examines the origins of ASEAN's diplomatic and security culture and analyses how over time its key principles have been practised and contested as ASEAN states have responded to regional conflicts as well as challenges posed by the major regional powers, ASEAN's enlargement, and the Asian financial crisis. The book goes on to assess whether ASEAN's diplomatic and security culture is likely to remain salient as the political, economic and security context in which regional leaderships operate is undergoing further change.One of the greatest dilemmas facing Muslims today is the fact that Muslim culture is often seemingly incompatible with the…
culture of the modern Western world, and the features associated with it - technological progress, consumerism, and new electronic communication, all of which have the potential for a homogenizing effect on any culture. This book explores many key aspects of the globalisation process, discussing how Muslim countries are coping with globalisation, as well as considering how the West is responding to Islam.Semi-Civilized: The Moro Village at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (NIU Southeast Asian Series)
By Michael C. Hawkins. 2020
Semi-Civilized offers a concise, revealing, and analytically penetrating view of a critical period in Philippine history. Michael C. Hawkins examines…
Moro (Filipino Muslim) contributions to the Philippine exhibit at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, providing insight into this fascinating and previously overlooked historical episode. By reviving and contextualizing Moro participation in the exposition, Hawkins challenges the typical manifestations of empire drawn from the fair and delivers a nuanced and textured vision of the nature of American imperial discourse. In Semi-Civilized Hawkins argues that the Moro display provided a distinctive liminal space in the dialectical relationship between civilization and savagery at the fair. The Moros offered a transcultural bridge. Through their official yet nondescript designation as "semi-civilized," they undermined and mediated the various binaries structuring the exposition. As Hawkins demonstrates, this mediation represented an unexpectedly welcomed challenge to the binary logic and discomfort of the display. As Semi-Civilized shows, the Moro display was collaborative, and the Moros exercised unexpected agency by negotiating how the display was both structured and interpreted by the public. Fairgoers were actively seeking an extraordinary experience. Exhibit organizers framed it, but ultimately the Moros provided it. And therein lay a tremendous amount of power.The Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975: Vietnamese Perspectives on Nation Building
By Tuong Vu, Sean Fear. 2020
Through the voices of senior officials, teachers, soldiers, journalists, and artists, The Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975, presents us with an…
interpretation of "South Vietnam" as a passionately imagined nation in the minds of ordinary Vietnamese, rather than merely as an expeditious political construct of the United States government.The moving and honest memoirs collected, translated, and edited here by Tuong Vu and Sean Fear describe the experiences of war, politics, and everyday life for people from many walks of life during the fraught years of Vietnam's Second Republic, leading up to and encompassing what Americans generally call the "Vietnam War." The voices gift the reader a sense of the authors' experiences in the Republic and their ideas about the nation during that time. The light and careful editing hand of Vu and Fear reveals that far from a Cold War proxy struggle, the conflict in Vietnam featured a true ideological divide between the communist North and the non-communist South.Fifty Years in the Karen Revolution in Burma: The Soldier and the Teacher
By Ralph, Sheera. 2020
Fifty Years in the Karen Revolution in Burma is about commitment to an ideal, individual survival and the universality of…
the human experience. A memoir of two tenacious souls, it sheds light on why Burma/Myanmar's decades-long pursuit for a peaceful and democratic future has been elusive. Simply put, the aspirations of Burma's ethnic nationalities for self-determination within a genuine federal union runs counter to the idea of a unitary state orchestrated and run by the dominant majority Burmans, or Bamar.This seemingly intractable dilemma of opposing visions for Burma is personified in the story of Saw Ralph and Naw Sheera, two prominent ethnic Karen leaders who lived—and eventually left—"the Longest War," leaving the reader with insights on the cultural, social, and political challenges facing other non-Burman ethnic nationalities.Fifty Years in the Karen Revolution in Burma is also about the ordinariness and universality of the challenges increasingly faced by diaspora communities around the world today. Saw Ralph and Naw Sheera's day to day lives—how they fell in love, married, had children—while trying to survive in a precarious war zone—and how they had to adapt to their new lives as refugees and immigrants in Australia will resound with many.Transformations on the Bengal Frontier: Jalpaiguri 1765-1948 (Soas Studies On South Asia Ser.)
By Subhajyoti Ray. 2002
An analysis of the socio-economic changes brought about by colonial rule in a frontier area of Bengal, Jalpaiguri. Challenging long…
established debates focused around the powers of dominant groups over a settled peasantry, this book broadens our perspective on the 18th century, promoting a deeper understanding of the change-over from the pre-colonial to the colonial era.Japan - A State Strategy for the Twenty-First Century
By Yasuhiro Nakasone. 2002
In this important, thought-provoking, and wide-ranging study, Yasuhiro Nakasone, one of the most highly regarded former prime ministers of Japan,…
considers what should be Japan's strategic direction in the twenty-first century. Japan is often accused of lacking a vision, being slow to respond to changing circumstances, and then only responding reluctantly, with piecemeal changes. Nakasone, broadly agreeing with this view, considers why things should be so, and goes on to put forward a vision for Japan for the twenty-first century. He emphasises in particular the need for radical change in economic policy, education, defence and science and technology policy, and argues for amendments to the constitution.The Arabian Seas is a magisterial work on the world political economy (trade, war, power) that explores the intersect of…
the worlds of Islam (including South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and East Africa) and the European world-economy (particularly the seafaring Portuguese, Dutch, and British) on the eve of the modern world system. It is likely to become a classic in its field and one of the pillars of the emerging literature in recent years that has begun to recast our understanding of the "early modern history" of Asia and the world economy, underlining the early and long predominance of Asia in the world economy and showing the long and deep ties between European and Asian economic and military interactions. This work centrally addresses current debates on the nature of the early modern world system and the relative strengths of East and West. There are no competitors for this book, but it may be compared with Braudel's masterful studies of the Mediterranean in the sense that it does for the Arabian Seas (Indian Ocean World) spanning South Asia, the Middle East, and the East African Coast and beyond what Braudel did for the Mediterranean.From bell ringing to fireworks, gongs to cannon salutes, a dazzling variety of sounds and soundscapes marked the China encountered…
by the West around 1800. These sounds were gathered by diplomats, trade officials, missionaries, and other travelers and transmitted back to Europe, where they were reconstructed in the imaginations of writers, philosophers, and music historians such as Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, and Charles Burney. Thomas Irvine gathers these stories in Listening to China, exploring how the sonic encounter with China shaped perceptions of Europe’s own musical development. Through these stories, Irvine not only investigates how the Sino-Western encounter sounded, but also traces the West’s shifting response to China. As the trading relationships between China and the West broke down, travelers and music theorists abandoned the vision of shared musical approaches, focusing instead on China’s noisiness and sonic disorder and finding less to like in its music. At the same time, Irvine reconsiders the idea of a specifically Western music history, revealing that it was comparison with China, the great “other,” that helped this idea emerge. Ultimately, Irvine draws attention to the ways Western ears were implicated in the colonial and imperial project in China, as well as to China’s importance to the construction of musical knowledge during and after the European Enlightenment. Timely and original, Listening to China is a must-read for music scholars and historians of China alike.From bell ringing to fireworks, gongs to cannon salutes, a dazzling variety of sounds and soundscapes marked the China encountered…
by the West around 1800. These sounds were gathered by diplomats, trade officials, missionaries, and other travelers and transmitted back to Europe, where they were reconstructed in the imaginations of writers, philosophers, and music historians such as Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, and Charles Burney. Thomas Irvine gathers these stories in Listening to China, exploring how the sonic encounter with China shaped perceptions of Europe’s own musical development. Through these stories, Irvine not only investigates how the Sino-Western encounter sounded, but also traces the West’s shifting response to China. As the trading relationships between China and the West broke down, travelers and music theorists abandoned the vision of shared musical approaches, focusing instead on China’s noisiness and sonic disorder and finding less to like in its music. At the same time, Irvine reconsiders the idea of a specifically Western music history, revealing that it was comparison with China, the great “other,” that helped this idea emerge. Ultimately, Irvine draws attention to the ways Western ears were implicated in the colonial and imperial project in China, as well as to China’s importance to the construction of musical knowledge during and after the European Enlightenment. Timely and original, Listening to China is a must-read for music scholars and historians of China alike.A Kabuki Reader: History and Performance
By Samuel L. Leiter. 2002
Unique in any Western language, this is an invaluable resource for the study of one of the world's great theatrical…
forms. It includes essays by established experts on Kabuki as well as younger scholars now entering the field, and provides a comprehensive survey of the history of Kabuki; how it is written, produced, staged, and performed; and its place in world theater. Compiled by the editor of the influential Asian Theater Journal, the book covers four essential areas - history, performance, theaters, and plays - and includes a translation of one Kabuki play as an illustration of Kabuki techniques.