Jennifer Hamer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520269316
- eISBN:
- 9780520950177
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520269316.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
Urban poverty, along with all of its poignant manifestations, is moving from city centers to working-class and industrial suburbs in contemporary America, and nowhere is this more evident than in ...
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Urban poverty, along with all of its poignant manifestations, is moving from city centers to working-class and industrial suburbs in contemporary America, and nowhere is this more evident than in East St. Louis, Illinois. Once a thriving manufacturing and transportation center, East St. Louis is now known for its unemployment, crime, and collapsing infrastructure. This book takes us into the lives of East St. Louis's predominantly African American residents to find out what has happened since industry abandoned the city, and jobs, quality schools, and city services disappeared, leaving people isolated and imperiled. It introduces men who search for meaning and opportunity in dead-end jobs, women who often take on caretaking responsibilities until well into old age, and parents who have the impossible task of protecting their children in this dangerous, and literally toxic, environment. Illustrated with historical and contemporary photographs showing how the city has changed over time, the book, full of stories of courage and fortitude, offers a vision of the transformed circumstances of life in one American suburb.Less
Urban poverty, along with all of its poignant manifestations, is moving from city centers to working-class and industrial suburbs in contemporary America, and nowhere is this more evident than in East St. Louis, Illinois. Once a thriving manufacturing and transportation center, East St. Louis is now known for its unemployment, crime, and collapsing infrastructure. This book takes us into the lives of East St. Louis's predominantly African American residents to find out what has happened since industry abandoned the city, and jobs, quality schools, and city services disappeared, leaving people isolated and imperiled. It introduces men who search for meaning and opportunity in dead-end jobs, women who often take on caretaking responsibilities until well into old age, and parents who have the impossible task of protecting their children in this dangerous, and literally toxic, environment. Illustrated with historical and contemporary photographs showing how the city has changed over time, the book, full of stories of courage and fortitude, offers a vision of the transformed circumstances of life in one American suburb.
Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520241800
- eISBN:
- 9780520931091
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520241800.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
In this age of globalization, the eighteenth-century priest and abolitionist Henri Grégoire has often been called a man ahead of his time. An icon of anti-racism, a hero to people from Ho Chi Minh to ...
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In this age of globalization, the eighteenth-century priest and abolitionist Henri Grégoire has often been called a man ahead of his time. An icon of anti-racism, a hero to people from Ho Chi Minh to French Jews, Grégoire has been particularly celebrated since 1989, when the French government placed him in the Pantheon as a model of ideals of universalism and human rights. In this biography, based on newly discovered and previously overlooked material, we gain access to the full complexity of Grégoire's intellectual and political universe as well as the compelling nature of his persona. His life offers an extraordinary vantage from which to view large issues in European and world history in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and provides provocative insights into many of the prevailing tensions, ideals, and paradoxes of the twenty-first century. Focusing on Grégoire's idea of “regeneration,” that people could literally be made anew, the book argues that revolutionary universalism was more complicated than it appeared. Tracing the French Revolution's long-term legacy, it suggests that while it spread concepts of equality and liberation throughout the world, its ideals also helped to justify colonialism and conquest.Less
In this age of globalization, the eighteenth-century priest and abolitionist Henri Grégoire has often been called a man ahead of his time. An icon of anti-racism, a hero to people from Ho Chi Minh to French Jews, Grégoire has been particularly celebrated since 1989, when the French government placed him in the Pantheon as a model of ideals of universalism and human rights. In this biography, based on newly discovered and previously overlooked material, we gain access to the full complexity of Grégoire's intellectual and political universe as well as the compelling nature of his persona. His life offers an extraordinary vantage from which to view large issues in European and world history in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and provides provocative insights into many of the prevailing tensions, ideals, and paradoxes of the twenty-first century. Focusing on Grégoire's idea of “regeneration,” that people could literally be made anew, the book argues that revolutionary universalism was more complicated than it appeared. Tracing the French Revolution's long-term legacy, it suggests that while it spread concepts of equality and liberation throughout the world, its ideals also helped to justify colonialism and conquest.
Travis Vogan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520292956
- eISBN:
- 9780520966260
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520292956.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
The American Broadcasting Company division ABC Sports is behind some of network sports television’s most significant practices, personalities, and moments. It created the weekend anthology Wide World ...
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The American Broadcasting Company division ABC Sports is behind some of network sports television’s most significant practices, personalities, and moments. It created the weekend anthology Wide World of Sports, transformed professional football into a prime-time spectacle with Monday Night Football, and fashioned the Olympics into a mega media event. ABC Sports helped to turn Muhammad Ali, the sportscaster Howard Cosell, and the daredevil Evel Knievel into stars and captured now-iconic instances that include Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s raised fist protest at the 1968 Olympics, the terrorist attacks at the 1972 Munich Games, Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs’s 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match, the U.S. hockey team’s 1980 “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union, and the 1999 Women’s World Cup final. Beyond sport, it revolutionized television news and altered the medium’s racial and gender politics. This book offers a cultural and institutional history of ABC Sports from its beginnings to its 2006 rebranding as “ESPN on ABC.” It uses the storied division to examine network sports television’s development in the United States; the aesthetic, cultural, political, and industrial practices that mark it; and the changes it endured, along with the new sports media environment it spawned.Less
The American Broadcasting Company division ABC Sports is behind some of network sports television’s most significant practices, personalities, and moments. It created the weekend anthology Wide World of Sports, transformed professional football into a prime-time spectacle with Monday Night Football, and fashioned the Olympics into a mega media event. ABC Sports helped to turn Muhammad Ali, the sportscaster Howard Cosell, and the daredevil Evel Knievel into stars and captured now-iconic instances that include Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s raised fist protest at the 1968 Olympics, the terrorist attacks at the 1972 Munich Games, Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs’s 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match, the U.S. hockey team’s 1980 “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union, and the 1999 Women’s World Cup final. Beyond sport, it revolutionized television news and altered the medium’s racial and gender politics. This book offers a cultural and institutional history of ABC Sports from its beginnings to its 2006 rebranding as “ESPN on ABC.” It uses the storied division to examine network sports television’s development in the United States; the aesthetic, cultural, political, and industrial practices that mark it; and the changes it endured, along with the new sports media environment it spawned.
Leland Donald
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520206168
- eISBN:
- 9780520918115
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520206168.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This investigation of slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America contributes to our understanding of the aboriginal cultures of this area, and shows that Northwest Coast servitude, relatively ...
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This investigation of slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America contributes to our understanding of the aboriginal cultures of this area, and shows that Northwest Coast servitude, relatively neglected by researchers in the past, fits an appropriate cross-cultural definition of slavery. Arguing that slaves and slavery were central to these hunting-fishing-gathering societies, the book points out how important slaves were to the Northwest Coast economies for their labor and for their value as major items of exchange. Slavery also played a major role in more famous and frequently analyzed Northwest Coast cultural forms such as the potlatch and the spectacular art style and ritual systems of elite groups. The book includes detailed chapters on who owned slaves and the relations between masters and slaves; how slaves were procured; transactions in slaves; the nature, use, and value of slave labor; and the role of slaves in rituals. In addition to analyzing all the available data, ethnographic and historic, on slavery in traditional Northwest Coast cultures, it compares the status of Northwest Coast slaves with that of war captives in other parts of traditional Native North America.Less
This investigation of slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America contributes to our understanding of the aboriginal cultures of this area, and shows that Northwest Coast servitude, relatively neglected by researchers in the past, fits an appropriate cross-cultural definition of slavery. Arguing that slaves and slavery were central to these hunting-fishing-gathering societies, the book points out how important slaves were to the Northwest Coast economies for their labor and for their value as major items of exchange. Slavery also played a major role in more famous and frequently analyzed Northwest Coast cultural forms such as the potlatch and the spectacular art style and ritual systems of elite groups. The book includes detailed chapters on who owned slaves and the relations between masters and slaves; how slaves were procured; transactions in slaves; the nature, use, and value of slave labor; and the role of slaves in rituals. In addition to analyzing all the available data, ethnographic and historic, on slavery in traditional Northwest Coast cultures, it compares the status of Northwest Coast slaves with that of war captives in other parts of traditional Native North America.
Takie Sugiyama Lebra
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520076006
- eISBN:
- 9780520911796
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520076006.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This book provides an ethnographic study of the modern Japanese aristocracy. Established as a class at the beginning of the Meiji period, the kazoku ranked directly below the emperor and his family. ...
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This book provides an ethnographic study of the modern Japanese aristocracy. Established as a class at the beginning of the Meiji period, the kazoku ranked directly below the emperor and his family. Officially dissolved in 1947, this group of social elites is still generally perceived as nobility. The author of this book gained entry into this tightly knit circle and conducted more than one hundred interviews with its members. The text weaves together a reconstructive ethnography from their life histories to create an intimate portrait of a remote and archaic world. As the book explores the culture of the kazoku, it places each subject in its historical context, and analyzes the evolution of status boundaries and the indispensable role played by outsiders. But the book is not simply about the elite, but about commoners and how each stratum mirrors the other. Revealing previously unobserved complexities in Japanese society, it also sheds light on the universal problem of social stratification.Less
This book provides an ethnographic study of the modern Japanese aristocracy. Established as a class at the beginning of the Meiji period, the kazoku ranked directly below the emperor and his family. Officially dissolved in 1947, this group of social elites is still generally perceived as nobility. The author of this book gained entry into this tightly knit circle and conducted more than one hundred interviews with its members. The text weaves together a reconstructive ethnography from their life histories to create an intimate portrait of a remote and archaic world. As the book explores the culture of the kazoku, it places each subject in its historical context, and analyzes the evolution of status boundaries and the indispensable role played by outsiders. But the book is not simply about the elite, but about commoners and how each stratum mirrors the other. Revealing previously unobserved complexities in Japanese society, it also sheds light on the universal problem of social stratification.
Ana Elizabeth Rosas
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780520282667
- eISBN:
- 9780520958654
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520282667.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
Embracing the Spirit/Abrazando El Espíritu is an interdisciplinary investigation of the underestimated emotional, physical, and financial exploitation framing the U.S. and Mexican governments’ ...
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Embracing the Spirit/Abrazando El Espíritu is an interdisciplinary investigation of the underestimated emotional, physical, and financial exploitation framing the U.S. and Mexican governments’ conceptualization and implementation of the binational mid-twentieth-century guest-worker program most commonly known as the Bracero Program in the United States and Mexico. The oral life histories, correspondence, photographs, songs of love, and writing of Mexican children, women, and men—bracero families recruited to participate and sustain this contract labor program—renders a history that reveals these governments’ overdependence on these families’ spirited confrontation of a most inhumane family situation at the margins of U.S. and Mexican society. Being separated from each other across the U.S.-Mexico border for indefinite periods of time—without adequate information, protections, resources, rights, wages, or guarantees of ever seeing each other again—paved the way for these children, women, and men becoming daringly honest, invested, and ingenious in their pursuit of a humane and just family life that often transcended state-manufactured conceptualizations of borders and contract labor. Indeed, the bracero family experience is at heart a history about the hard truths of Mexican immigrant family separation.Less
Embracing the Spirit/Abrazando El Espíritu is an interdisciplinary investigation of the underestimated emotional, physical, and financial exploitation framing the U.S. and Mexican governments’ conceptualization and implementation of the binational mid-twentieth-century guest-worker program most commonly known as the Bracero Program in the United States and Mexico. The oral life histories, correspondence, photographs, songs of love, and writing of Mexican children, women, and men—bracero families recruited to participate and sustain this contract labor program—renders a history that reveals these governments’ overdependence on these families’ spirited confrontation of a most inhumane family situation at the margins of U.S. and Mexican society. Being separated from each other across the U.S.-Mexico border for indefinite periods of time—without adequate information, protections, resources, rights, wages, or guarantees of ever seeing each other again—paved the way for these children, women, and men becoming daringly honest, invested, and ingenious in their pursuit of a humane and just family life that often transcended state-manufactured conceptualizations of borders and contract labor. Indeed, the bracero family experience is at heart a history about the hard truths of Mexican immigrant family separation.
Arved Ashby
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520264793
- eISBN:
- 9780520945692
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520264793.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Performing Practice/Studies
Recordings are now the primary way we hear classical music, especially the more abstract styles of “absolute” instrumental music. This book argues that recording technology has transformed our ...
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Recordings are now the primary way we hear classical music, especially the more abstract styles of “absolute” instrumental music. This book argues that recording technology has transformed our understanding of art music. Contesting the laments of nostalgic critics, the author sees recordings as socially progressive and instruments of a musical vernacular, but also finds that recording and absolute music actually involve similar notions of removing sound from context. He takes stock of technology's impact on classical music, addressing the questions at the heart of the issue. This study reveals how mechanical reproduction has transformed classical musical culture and the very act of listening, breaking down aesthetic and generational barriers and mixing classical music into the soundtrack of everyday life.Less
Recordings are now the primary way we hear classical music, especially the more abstract styles of “absolute” instrumental music. This book argues that recording technology has transformed our understanding of art music. Contesting the laments of nostalgic critics, the author sees recordings as socially progressive and instruments of a musical vernacular, but also finds that recording and absolute music actually involve similar notions of removing sound from context. He takes stock of technology's impact on classical music, addressing the questions at the heart of the issue. This study reveals how mechanical reproduction has transformed classical musical culture and the very act of listening, breaking down aesthetic and generational barriers and mixing classical music into the soundtrack of everyday life.
Walter S. DeKeseredy, Molly Dragiewicz, and Martin D. Schwartz
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520285743
- eISBN:
- 9780520961159
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520285743.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This book provides scholars, students, practitioners, and policy makers with a comprehensive review of the most up-to-date social scientific literature on lethal and nonlethal forms of male-to-female ...
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This book provides scholars, students, practitioners, and policy makers with a comprehensive review of the most up-to-date social scientific literature on lethal and nonlethal forms of male-to-female violence during and after separation and divorce. Special attention is devoted to reviewing theoretical perspectives on the topic and the ways in which various technologies are used by men to hurt the women who want to leave them, have begun to emotionally separate, are trying to leave them, in the process of leaving them, or who have left them. This book also provides solutions that cover a broad range of approaches: legal and criminal justice reforms; social services; economic policies; feminist men’s efforts; and new electronic technologies. Throughout the book are the voices of women who have experienced much pain and suffering, as well as the voices of abusive men. These narratives are derived from extensive research done over the past thirty years by the three authors.Less
This book provides scholars, students, practitioners, and policy makers with a comprehensive review of the most up-to-date social scientific literature on lethal and nonlethal forms of male-to-female violence during and after separation and divorce. Special attention is devoted to reviewing theoretical perspectives on the topic and the ways in which various technologies are used by men to hurt the women who want to leave them, have begun to emotionally separate, are trying to leave them, in the process of leaving them, or who have left them. This book also provides solutions that cover a broad range of approaches: legal and criminal justice reforms; social services; economic policies; feminist men’s efforts; and new electronic technologies. Throughout the book are the voices of women who have experienced much pain and suffering, as well as the voices of abusive men. These narratives are derived from extensive research done over the past thirty years by the three authors.
Helena Hansen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520298033
- eISBN:
- 9780520970168
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520298033.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
How are spiritual power and self-transformation cultivated in street ministries? This book provides an in-depth analysis of Pentecostal ministries in Puerto Rico that were founded and run by ...
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How are spiritual power and self-transformation cultivated in street ministries? This book provides an in-depth analysis of Pentecostal ministries in Puerto Rico that were founded and run by self-identified “ex-addicts,” ministries that are also widespread in poor Black and Latino neighborhoods in the U.S. mainland. The book melds cultural anthropology and psychiatry. Through the stories of ministry converts, the book examines key elements of Pentecostalism: mysticism, ascetic practice, and the idea of other-worldliness. It then reconstructs the ministries' strategies of spiritual victory over addiction: transformation techniques to build spiritual strength and authority through pain and discipline; cultivation of alternative masculinities based on male converts' reclamation of domestic space; and radical rupture from a post-industrial “culture of disposability.” By contrasting the ministries' logic of addiction with that of biomedicine, the book rethinks roads to recovery, discovering unexpected convergences with biomedicine while revealing the allure of street corner ministries.Less
How are spiritual power and self-transformation cultivated in street ministries? This book provides an in-depth analysis of Pentecostal ministries in Puerto Rico that were founded and run by self-identified “ex-addicts,” ministries that are also widespread in poor Black and Latino neighborhoods in the U.S. mainland. The book melds cultural anthropology and psychiatry. Through the stories of ministry converts, the book examines key elements of Pentecostalism: mysticism, ascetic practice, and the idea of other-worldliness. It then reconstructs the ministries' strategies of spiritual victory over addiction: transformation techniques to build spiritual strength and authority through pain and discipline; cultivation of alternative masculinities based on male converts' reclamation of domestic space; and radical rupture from a post-industrial “culture of disposability.” By contrasting the ministries' logic of addiction with that of biomedicine, the book rethinks roads to recovery, discovering unexpected convergences with biomedicine while revealing the allure of street corner ministries.
Yagyong Chong
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520260917
- eISBN:
- 9780520947702
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520260917.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This is an English translation of one of Korea’s most celebrated historical works, a pre-modern classic so well known to Koreans that it has inspired contemporary literature and television. Written ...
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This is an English translation of one of Korea’s most celebrated historical works, a pre-modern classic so well known to Koreans that it has inspired contemporary literature and television. Written in 1821 by Chong Yagyong (Tasan), Admonitions on Governing the People (Mongmin simsŏ) is a detailed manual for district magistrates on how to govern better. In encyclopedic fashion, Here Chong Yagyong addresses the administration, social and economic life, criminal justice, the military, and the Confucian ritual system. He provides examples of past corrupt officials and discusses topics of the day such as famine relief and social welfare. A general call for overhauling the Korean ruling system, the book also makes the radical proposition that the purpose of government is to serve the interests of the people. This translation opens a new window on early-nineteenth century Korea and makes available to a wide audience a work whose main concerns simultaneously transcend national and cultural boundaries.Less
This is an English translation of one of Korea’s most celebrated historical works, a pre-modern classic so well known to Koreans that it has inspired contemporary literature and television. Written in 1821 by Chong Yagyong (Tasan), Admonitions on Governing the People (Mongmin simsŏ) is a detailed manual for district magistrates on how to govern better. In encyclopedic fashion, Here Chong Yagyong addresses the administration, social and economic life, criminal justice, the military, and the Confucian ritual system. He provides examples of past corrupt officials and discusses topics of the day such as famine relief and social welfare. A general call for overhauling the Korean ruling system, the book also makes the radical proposition that the purpose of government is to serve the interests of the people. This translation opens a new window on early-nineteenth century Korea and makes available to a wide audience a work whose main concerns simultaneously transcend national and cultural boundaries.
James McKinnon
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520221987
- eISBN:
- 9780520924338
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520221987.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
In his final accomplishment of a distinguished career, the author considers the musical practices of the early Church in this examination of the history of Christian chant from the years ad 200 to ...
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In his final accomplishment of a distinguished career, the author considers the musical practices of the early Church in this examination of the history of Christian chant from the years ad 200 to 800. The result is a book that is certain to have an impact on musicology, religious studies, and history.Less
In his final accomplishment of a distinguished career, the author considers the musical practices of the early Church in this examination of the history of Christian chant from the years ad 200 to 800. The result is a book that is certain to have an impact on musicology, religious studies, and history.
Daniel Gold
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520236134
- eISBN:
- 9780520929517
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520236134.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This book addresses a fundamental dilemma in religious studies. Exploring the tension between humanistic and social scientific approaches to thinking and writing about religion, the author develops a ...
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This book addresses a fundamental dilemma in religious studies. Exploring the tension between humanistic and social scientific approaches to thinking and writing about religion, the author develops a line of argument that begins with the aesthetics of academic writing in the field. He shows that successful writers on religion employ characteristic aesthetic strategies in communicating their visions of human truths, and examines these strategies with regard to epistemology and to the study of religion as a collective endeavor. The author looks at whether a peculiarly expressive genre of writing on religion began at a specific moment in history and, if so, what this might suggest about the cultural significance about religio-historical practice.Less
This book addresses a fundamental dilemma in religious studies. Exploring the tension between humanistic and social scientific approaches to thinking and writing about religion, the author develops a line of argument that begins with the aesthetics of academic writing in the field. He shows that successful writers on religion employ characteristic aesthetic strategies in communicating their visions of human truths, and examines these strategies with regard to epistemology and to the study of religion as a collective endeavor. The author looks at whether a peculiarly expressive genre of writing on religion began at a specific moment in history and, if so, what this might suggest about the cultural significance about religio-historical practice.
Alan Tansman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520245051
- eISBN:
- 9780520943490
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520245051.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This wide-ranging study of Japanese cultural expression reveals how a particular, often seemingly innocent aesthetic sensibility—present in novels, essays, popular songs, film, and political ...
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This wide-ranging study of Japanese cultural expression reveals how a particular, often seemingly innocent aesthetic sensibility—present in novels, essays, popular songs, film, and political writings—helped create an “aesthetic of fascism” in the years leading up to World War II. Evoking beautiful moments of violence, both real and imagined, these works did not lead to fascism in any instrumental sense. Yet, the book suggests, they expressed and inspired spiritual longings quenchable only through acts in the real world. The book traces this lineage of aesthetic fascism from its beginnings in the 1920s through its flowering in the 1930s to its afterlife in postwar Japan.Less
This wide-ranging study of Japanese cultural expression reveals how a particular, often seemingly innocent aesthetic sensibility—present in novels, essays, popular songs, film, and political writings—helped create an “aesthetic of fascism” in the years leading up to World War II. Evoking beautiful moments of violence, both real and imagined, these works did not lead to fascism in any instrumental sense. Yet, the book suggests, they expressed and inspired spiritual longings quenchable only through acts in the real world. The book traces this lineage of aesthetic fascism from its beginnings in the 1920s through its flowering in the 1930s to its afterlife in postwar Japan.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520213968
- eISBN:
- 9780520924444
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520213968.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Religion
The evolution of American spirituality over the past fifty years is the subject of this book. The book uses in-depth interviews and a broad range of resource materials to show how Americans, from ...
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The evolution of American spirituality over the past fifty years is the subject of this book. The book uses in-depth interviews and a broad range of resource materials to show how Americans, from teenagers to senior citizens, define their spiritual journeys. The findings are a telling reflection of the changes in beliefs and lifestyles that have occurred throughout the United States in recent decades. The book reconstructs the social and cultural reasons for an emphasis on a spirituality of dwelling (houses of worship, denominations, neighborhoods) during the 1950s. Then, in the 1960s, a spirituality of seeking began to emerge, leading individuals to go beyond established religious institutions. In subsequent chapters, the book examines attempts to reassert spiritual discipline, encounters with the sacred (such as angels and near-death experiences), and the development of the “inner self.” The final chapter discusses a spirituality of practice, an alternative for people who are uncomfortable within a single religious community and who want more than a spirituality of endless seeking. The diversity of contemporary American spirituality comes through in the voices of the interviewees. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and Native Americans are included, as are followers of occult practices, New Age religions, and other eclectic groups. The book also notes how politicized spirituality, evangelical movements, and resources such as Twelve-Step programs and mental health therapy influence definitions of religious life today. The book explains the changes in personal spirituality that have come to shape our religious life.Less
The evolution of American spirituality over the past fifty years is the subject of this book. The book uses in-depth interviews and a broad range of resource materials to show how Americans, from teenagers to senior citizens, define their spiritual journeys. The findings are a telling reflection of the changes in beliefs and lifestyles that have occurred throughout the United States in recent decades. The book reconstructs the social and cultural reasons for an emphasis on a spirituality of dwelling (houses of worship, denominations, neighborhoods) during the 1950s. Then, in the 1960s, a spirituality of seeking began to emerge, leading individuals to go beyond established religious institutions. In subsequent chapters, the book examines attempts to reassert spiritual discipline, encounters with the sacred (such as angels and near-death experiences), and the development of the “inner self.” The final chapter discusses a spirituality of practice, an alternative for people who are uncomfortable within a single religious community and who want more than a spirituality of endless seeking. The diversity of contemporary American spirituality comes through in the voices of the interviewees. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and Native Americans are included, as are followers of occult practices, New Age religions, and other eclectic groups. The book also notes how politicized spirituality, evangelical movements, and resources such as Twelve-Step programs and mental health therapy influence definitions of religious life today. The book explains the changes in personal spirituality that have come to shape our religious life.
Heonik Kwon
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247963
- eISBN:
- 9780520939653
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247963.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
Though a generation has passed since the massacre of civilians at My Lai, the legacy of this tragedy continues to reverberate throughout Vietnam and the rest of the world. This engrossing study ...
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Though a generation has passed since the massacre of civilians at My Lai, the legacy of this tragedy continues to reverberate throughout Vietnam and the rest of the world. This engrossing study considers how Vietnamese villagers in My Lai and Ha My—a village where South Korean troops committed an equally appalling, though less well-known, massacre of unarmed civilians—assimilate the catastrophe of these mass deaths into their everyday ritual life. Based on a detailed study of local history and moral practices, this book focuses on the particular context of domestic life in which the Vietnamese villagers lived. The book explains what intimate ritual actions can tell us about the history of mass violence and the global bipolar politics that caused it. It highlights the aesthetics of Vietnamese commemorative rituals and the morality of their practical actions to liberate the spirits from their grievous history of death. The book brings these important practices into a critical dialogue with dominant sociological theories of death and symbolic transformation.Less
Though a generation has passed since the massacre of civilians at My Lai, the legacy of this tragedy continues to reverberate throughout Vietnam and the rest of the world. This engrossing study considers how Vietnamese villagers in My Lai and Ha My—a village where South Korean troops committed an equally appalling, though less well-known, massacre of unarmed civilians—assimilate the catastrophe of these mass deaths into their everyday ritual life. Based on a detailed study of local history and moral practices, this book focuses on the particular context of domestic life in which the Vietnamese villagers lived. The book explains what intimate ritual actions can tell us about the history of mass violence and the global bipolar politics that caused it. It highlights the aesthetics of Vietnamese commemorative rituals and the morality of their practical actions to liberate the spirits from their grievous history of death. The book brings these important practices into a critical dialogue with dominant sociological theories of death and symbolic transformation.
Sam Dubal
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520296091
- eISBN:
- 9780520968752
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520296091.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This book is not about crimes against humanity. Rather, it is an indictment of “humanity,” the concept that lies at the heart of human rights and humanitarian missions. Based on fieldwork in northern ...
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This book is not about crimes against humanity. Rather, it is an indictment of “humanity,” the concept that lies at the heart of human rights and humanitarian missions. Based on fieldwork in northern Uganda, this book brings readers inside the Lord’s Resistance Army, an insurgent group accused of rape, forced conscription of children, and inhumane acts of violence. The author talks with and learns from former rebels as they find meaning in wartime violence, politics, spirituality, and love—experiences that observers often place outside the boundaries of humanity. Rather than approaching the LRA as a set of possibilities, humanity looks at the LRA as a set of problems, as inhuman enemies needing reform. Humanity hegemonizes what counts as good in ways that are difficult to question or challenge. It relies on specific notions of the good—shaped in ideals of modern violence, technology, modernity, and reason, among others—in ways that do violence to the common good. What emerges from this ethnography is an unorthodox question—what would it mean to be “against humanity”? Against Humanity provocatively asks us how to honor life existing outside normative moralities. It challenges us to shift toward alternative, more radical approaches to humanitarian, political, medical, and other interventions, rooted in anti-humanism.Less
This book is not about crimes against humanity. Rather, it is an indictment of “humanity,” the concept that lies at the heart of human rights and humanitarian missions. Based on fieldwork in northern Uganda, this book brings readers inside the Lord’s Resistance Army, an insurgent group accused of rape, forced conscription of children, and inhumane acts of violence. The author talks with and learns from former rebels as they find meaning in wartime violence, politics, spirituality, and love—experiences that observers often place outside the boundaries of humanity. Rather than approaching the LRA as a set of possibilities, humanity looks at the LRA as a set of problems, as inhuman enemies needing reform. Humanity hegemonizes what counts as good in ways that are difficult to question or challenge. It relies on specific notions of the good—shaped in ideals of modern violence, technology, modernity, and reason, among others—in ways that do violence to the common good. What emerges from this ethnography is an unorthodox question—what would it mean to be “against humanity”? Against Humanity provocatively asks us how to honor life existing outside normative moralities. It challenges us to shift toward alternative, more radical approaches to humanitarian, political, medical, and other interventions, rooted in anti-humanism.
Christopher Rea
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520283848
- eISBN:
- 9780520959590
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520283848.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The Age of Irreverence tells why China’s entry into the modern age was not just traumatic but also uproarious. As the Qing dynasty slumped toward extinction, prominent writers compiled jokes into ...
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The Age of Irreverence tells why China’s entry into the modern age was not just traumatic but also uproarious. As the Qing dynasty slumped toward extinction, prominent writers compiled jokes into collections they called “histories of laughter.” During the first years of the Republic, novelists, essayists, and illustrators used humorous allegories to make veiled critiques of the new government. But political and cultural discussion repeatedly erupted into invective, as critics jeered and derided rivals in public. Farceurs drew followings in the popular press, promoting a culture of practical joking and buffoonery. Eventually, these expressions of hilarity proved so offensive to high-brow writers that the writers launched a campaign to transform the tone of public discourse, hoping to displace the old forms of mirth with a new one they called youmo (humor). Christopher Rea argues that this era—from the 1890s to the 1930s—transformed how Chinese people thought and talked about what is funny. Focusing on five cultural expressions of laughter—jokes, play, mockery, farce, and humor—he reveals the textures of comedy that were a part of everyday life during modern China’s first “age of irreverence.” This new history offers an unprecedented and up-close look at a neglected facet of Chinese cultural modernity and discusses its legacy in the language and styles of Chinese humor today.Less
The Age of Irreverence tells why China’s entry into the modern age was not just traumatic but also uproarious. As the Qing dynasty slumped toward extinction, prominent writers compiled jokes into collections they called “histories of laughter.” During the first years of the Republic, novelists, essayists, and illustrators used humorous allegories to make veiled critiques of the new government. But political and cultural discussion repeatedly erupted into invective, as critics jeered and derided rivals in public. Farceurs drew followings in the popular press, promoting a culture of practical joking and buffoonery. Eventually, these expressions of hilarity proved so offensive to high-brow writers that the writers launched a campaign to transform the tone of public discourse, hoping to displace the old forms of mirth with a new one they called youmo (humor). Christopher Rea argues that this era—from the 1890s to the 1930s—transformed how Chinese people thought and talked about what is funny. Focusing on five cultural expressions of laughter—jokes, play, mockery, farce, and humor—he reveals the textures of comedy that were a part of everyday life during modern China’s first “age of irreverence.” This new history offers an unprecedented and up-close look at a neglected facet of Chinese cultural modernity and discusses its legacy in the language and styles of Chinese humor today.
Charlotte Greenhalgh
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520298781
- eISBN:
- 9780520970809
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520298781.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
As the baby boom generation reaches retirement and old age, bringing unprecedented challenges, this study of aging could not be more timely. Historian Charlotte Greenhalgh examines ignored testimony ...
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As the baby boom generation reaches retirement and old age, bringing unprecedented challenges, this study of aging could not be more timely. Historian Charlotte Greenhalgh examines ignored testimony to urge us to hear the voices of elderly people in Britain throughout the twentieth century. To do so, she probes the work of Peter Townsend, one of Britain’s most celebrated social scientists, and reveals the significant contributions that elderly Britons have made to social research since 1900. The study is the first to unite the public and private histories of old age and to investigate what their connections reveal about attitudes towards old age. This book helps us to understand the experience of growing old — what has changed and what stays the same across time.Less
As the baby boom generation reaches retirement and old age, bringing unprecedented challenges, this study of aging could not be more timely. Historian Charlotte Greenhalgh examines ignored testimony to urge us to hear the voices of elderly people in Britain throughout the twentieth century. To do so, she probes the work of Peter Townsend, one of Britain’s most celebrated social scientists, and reveals the significant contributions that elderly Britons have made to social research since 1900. The study is the first to unite the public and private histories of old age and to investigate what their connections reveal about attitudes towards old age. This book helps us to understand the experience of growing old — what has changed and what stays the same across time.
Robert Wyrod
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520286689
- eISBN:
- 9780520961784
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520286689.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Health, Illness, and Medicine
AIDS has been a devastating plague in much of sub-Saharan Africa, but the long-term implications for gender and sexuality are just emerging. This book tackles this issue head-on and examines how AIDS ...
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AIDS has been a devastating plague in much of sub-Saharan Africa, but the long-term implications for gender and sexuality are just emerging. This book tackles this issue head-on and examines how AIDS has altered the ways in which masculinity is lived in Uganda—a country known as Africa’s great AIDS success story. Based on over a decade of ethnographic research in an urban slum community called Bwaise, this book reveals the persistence of masculine privilege in the age of AIDS and the implications such privilege has for combating AIDS across the African continent.Less
AIDS has been a devastating plague in much of sub-Saharan Africa, but the long-term implications for gender and sexuality are just emerging. This book tackles this issue head-on and examines how AIDS has altered the ways in which masculinity is lived in Uganda—a country known as Africa’s great AIDS success story. Based on over a decade of ethnographic research in an urban slum community called Bwaise, this book reveals the persistence of masculine privilege in the age of AIDS and the implications such privilege has for combating AIDS across the African continent.
Judith Levine
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520274716
- eISBN:
- 9780520956919
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520274716.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This book explores issues of trust and distrust among low-income women in the United States—at work, around childcare, in their relationships, and with caseworkers—and presents richly detailed ...
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This book explores issues of trust and distrust among low-income women in the United States—at work, around childcare, in their relationships, and with caseworkers—and presents richly detailed evidence from in-depth interviews about our welfare system and why it's failing the very people it is designed to help. By comparing low-income mothers' experiences before and after welfare reform, the author probes women's struggles to gain or keep jobs while they simultaneously care for their children, often as single mothers. By offering a new way to understand how structural factors impact the daily experiences of poor women, the book highlights the pervasiveness of distrust in their lives, uncovering its hidden sources and documenting its most corrosive and paralyzing effects. The author's critique and conclusions hold powerful implications for scholars and policymakers alike.Less
This book explores issues of trust and distrust among low-income women in the United States—at work, around childcare, in their relationships, and with caseworkers—and presents richly detailed evidence from in-depth interviews about our welfare system and why it's failing the very people it is designed to help. By comparing low-income mothers' experiences before and after welfare reform, the author probes women's struggles to gain or keep jobs while they simultaneously care for their children, often as single mothers. By offering a new way to understand how structural factors impact the daily experiences of poor women, the book highlights the pervasiveness of distrust in their lives, uncovering its hidden sources and documenting its most corrosive and paralyzing effects. The author's critique and conclusions hold powerful implications for scholars and policymakers alike.
Blood and Water
Dreams and Nightmares
Sounds
Arnold Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw in Postwar Europe
Assimilating Seoul
Go Nation
Haunting Images
Historians across Borders
Into the Twilight of Sanskrit Court Poetry
