The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, continues to struggle with socioeconomic and political development. "Culture and Customs of the Congo" provides the full context of traditional culture and modern practices against a backdrop of a turbulent history. The volume opens up a land and peoples little known in the United States. Written expressly to meet the needs of students and the general audience, the work will inform about the geography, economy, political history, and history from the slave trade to dictatorship; ancestral religions and inroads of western faiths; ancestral literary heritage and communication; art, architecture, and housing; diet and dress; marriage, family, and women; lifestyles and life events, and traditional and modern music and dance.

Congolese society comprises hundreds of ethnic groups, such as the Luba, the Kongo, and the Kuba. The countryside is largely based on the hunting and gathering, herding, and farming lifestyles. The city is marked by lifestyles reflecting the prevalence of small business activities and increasing cultural sycretism of customs from different parts of the Congo and Western imports. Mukenge's narrative gives the diverse perspectives of their cultures with their fascinating juxtapositions to our familiar western ways. Examples of this are found in the Religion and Worldview chapter, which discusses ancestral religions, the spirits of the land, and supernatural power practitioners. The Literature chapter covers verbal competition and game songs. Congolese cuisine is based on starches such as the cassava root, the corn, and the plantain; green vegetables, insects, fish and, to a lesser extent, meat. Other chapters cover topics from the distinct Congolese dress and symbolic adornments, all-important family lines, to ceremonial music and dance. A chronology and glossary are added value.

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"Although the essays explore different events from various historical periods in individual countries, the authors are animated by a common denominator: opposition to rigid isolationism, preserving space for a creative dialogue, and opposition to political manipulation of national identities."
--"Multicultural Review"

"Todorova kept her authors engaged with each other and with the current scholarly literature on memory, history and nationalism. Their efforts to create such a rich and diverse volume must be commended."--" American HIstorical Review"

Balkan Identities brings together historians, anthropologists, and literary scholars all working under the shared conviction that the only way to overcome history is to intimately understand it. The contributors of Balkan Identities focus on historical memory, collective national memory, and the political manipulation of national identities. They refine our understanding of memory and identity in general and explore and assess the significance of particular manifestations of Balkan national identities and national memories in the region.

The essays in Balkan Identities grapple with three major problems: the construction of historical memory, sites of national memory, and the mobilization of national identities. While most essays focus on a single country (e.g. Croatia, Romania, Turkey, Cyprus, Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia), they are in dialogue with each other and share an opposition to rigid isolationist identities.

Illuminating and challenging, Balkan Identities demonstrates the ever-changing nature of a troubled and culturally vibrant region.

Challenging conventional wisdom, Shienbaum argues that the U.S. federal government, not the private sector, created the dynamic New Economy. Declining economic competitiveness and relative global underperformance during the 1970s and early 1980s threatened America's post-war global leadership position, a role Washington was loath to relinquish, especially during the Cold War. Citing these threats to American leadership and security, government officials set out to make the U.S. economy more competitive by creating innovative technology policies combined with policies providing strong incentives to new entrants while removing regulatory protections from more established companies. The federal government, in other words, nurtured fragile high-tech start-ups while forcing larger companies to compete in the marketplace, in the process transforming regulatory capitalism into an entrepreneurial capitalism marked by innovation, entrepreneurship, and competition.

ShienbauM's book will be of interest to political scientists, policy makers, economists, and lay readers wanting to discover the causal factors that created the conditions for the unprecedented economic boom of the 1990s. Furthermore, by explicitly connecting government policy-making to economic change, Shienbaum reminds us of the basic but often-ignored truth that politics and economics are inescapably linked together. She concludes with a clear-eyed discussion of the limits of entrepreneurial capitalism and the forces lining up to oppose the New Economy.

Since its inception 30 years ago, Southeast Asian Affairs (SEAA) has been an indispensable annual reference for generations of policy-makers, scholars, analysts, journalists, and others. Succinctly written by regional and international experts, SEAA illuminates significant issues and events of the previous year in each of the 10 Southeast Asian nations and the region as a whole. Southeast Asian Affairs 2006 begins with four incisive regional surveys, which focus on terrorism, security challenges and economic impact on Southeast Asia in 2004. The eleven country sections with the inclusion of Timor Leste discuss incisive surveys of regional economic, political, and social trends. It also features indispensable country reviews.

Examine the everyday lives of ordinary Americans from the 1940s and 1950s and discover how very different the two decades were. World War II affected Americans and the way they behaved, not only in the 1940s, but also in the years that followed when the depression that preceded the war was replaced with an economic boom. Explore how women's roles and lives changed during these two very distinct decades, how politics and political decisions impacted all walks of life, and what the advent of growing technology, much of it developed during the war, meant to the general population. What was it like to be a woman suddenly earning her own money while men were off fighting? How did children and teenagers contribute to the war effort? How did housing change in postwar America? What pastimes were popular during these two decades and how did they reflect the times? These questions and others are explored in detail, encouraging students, teachers, and interested readers to recognize the tremendous shift in society between the war years and the atomic age that immediately followed. This text presents the 1940s as a time of social problems that existed alongside community commitment to the war, while the 1950s are presented as a time when exciting social change such as the beginning of the civil rights movement and the building of Levittowns occurred. After the war ordinary people began to question long-accepted ideas. The exploration of these everyday details provides a rich look at two very important decades in our country's history.

Creating a broad, new vision of the 1930s, this highly readable social history shows that despite the hard times, Americans faced the Depression years with a characteristic resilience and optimism. Though more seriously affected by the Depression than Europe, Americans weathered hardship while European societies floundered, accepted dictatorships, or were caught in bitter ideological conflicts. Existing depictions of the era emphasize the negatives and overlook the diverse strengths of the American people, their ability to cope with temporary deprivation, and their triumphant retention of hope for themselves and the future of their society. Restoring perspective on the era, this book looks at Americans' solid value systems, their diverse support systems, their religious life, and the role of FDR and the New Deal.

Although the New Deal helped undeniably, social and cultural resources played a major role in the stability of American society and the resiliency with which Americans withstood the severity of the Great Depression. Confirming this interpretation, McGovern takes a close look at numerous facets of American life--rural areas, great cities, the Okie Odyssey, labor, African Americans, ethnic organizations, radio and films, technology and design. All reveal sources of confidence, abundant energy, and robust action, typical of a hopeful people. This study attempts to explain the successes and achievements of Americans in the 1930s.

A unique, revealing look at the history and contemporary culture of the Philippine Islands and their multicultural and foreign-influenced facets. Interest in the Philippines has grown substantially over recent years. The Philippines: A Global Studies Handbook provides an all-encompassing introduction to the dramatic history of this intriguing nation as well as the contemporary social, political, economic, religious, and artistic life, written for travelers, business people, researchers, students, or general readers. The author, an award-winning professor of Asian studies, explores the effects of centuries of change and continuity on this fascinating, often contradictory land. It is a locals-eye view that gets straight to the heart of the Filipino experience-a cultural tour that measures the profound impact of the islands' Japanese, Spanish, and American conquerors, as well as the influence of Islam, the Marcos regime, and the People Power revolutions that ousted Ferdinand Marcos and, 15 years later, Joseph Estrada. An etiquette section that discusses respect and levels of interaction, first names and surnames, titles of respect, and core values versus surface values Twelve photographs of noteworthy figures such as physician and novelist Jose Rizal, nationalist Andres Bonifacio, and other Filipino heroes

This two-volume set investigates the concept, institutionalization, models and mechanism of mediation, an important form of alternative dispute resolution within China’s legal system. Grounded in traditional dispute resolution practices throughout Chinese history, mediation is born out of the Chinese legal tradition and considered to be “Eastern� in nature. Seeking to explore how mediation has developed in order to function in a modernized society, the first volume looks into the legal foundations of Chinese mediation as well as paths to the institutionalization and professionalization of mediation. The second volume examines the development of diversified dispute resolution via the elucidation of eight major types of mediation in China. By reviewing its history and enquiring into trends and prospects, the authors seek to establish a mediation system that incorporates diversified models, institutionalized and noninstitutionalized approaches, changing contexts, and a range of dimensions for society. This title will serve as a crucial reference for scholars, students and related professionals interested in alternative dispute resolution, civil litigation, and especially China’s dispute resolution policy, law, and practice.

An up-to-date, concise examination of China-past and present-providing detailed information on a country whose substantial impact on the global economy and consumer culture continues to grow. Part of ABC-CLIO's Asia in Focus series, this authoritative resource is designed to help a wide variety of readers understand the complexities of the world's most populous country-a nation of ancient glory and rising importance, yet one that remains elusive and not generally well known. Packed with recent scholarship and fascinating details, this concise, multifaceted volume offers an updated look at China's geography and history, from the political and technological dominance of the imperial period to the communist revolution and the present state. The work also vividly captures the "living" China of today-its economy, politics, and culture-with extensive coverage of topics ranging from education, languages, arts, and cuisine to industrialization, gender issues, population control efforts, and human rights controversies that have impacted the country's relationship to the global community. Contributions from an accomplished team of scholars and experts on Chinese history, economics, art, music, literature, politics, and other topics-organized to facilitate clear and focused conveyance of information More than 50 sidebars focusing on key people, places, and events, plus a variety of maps created to help readers better understand the nation's history, geography, language distribution, and other important facets

In five decades, Taiwan has shifted from an authoritarian regime to a multi-party democracy, has moved steadily toward modernization, and has become an economically affluent, socially pluralistic society. Its experience provides valuable lessons for developing countries. This book offers a critical assessment of Taiwan's path to modernization, focusing particularly on developments of constitutional democracy and the rule of law, democratic transition and consolidation, internationalization and globalization, and social developments.

From its market economy to its democratization, Taiwan provides a valuable case study. On social developments, it provides a unique model of demographic transition, rising women's social status, and the emergence of the nuclear family. In eighteen chapters written by prominent scholars, this book examines the multiple aspects of Taiwan's modernization in a global perspective.

Between 1850 and 1920 women's travel and travel writing underwent an explosion. It was an exciting period in the history of travel, a golden age. While transportation had improved, mass tourism had not yet robbed journeys of their aura of adventure. Although British women were at the forefront of this movement, a number of intrepid Spanish women also participated in this new era of travel and travel writing. They transcended general societal limitations imposed on Spanish women at a time when the refrain "la mujer en casa, y con la pata quebrada" described most of their female compatriots, who suffered from legal constraints, lack of education, a husband's dictates, or little or no money of their own. Spanish Women Travelers at Home and Abroad, 1850-1920: From Tierra del Fuego to the Land of the Midnight Sun analyzes the travels and the travel writings of eleven extraordinary women: Emilia Pardo Bazan, Carmen de Burgos (pseud. Colombine), Rosario de Acuna, Carolina Coronado, Emilia Serrano (Baronesa de Wilson), Eva Canel, Cecilia Boehl de Faber (pseud. Fernan Caballero), Princesses Paz and Eulalia de Borbon, Sofia Casanova, and Mother Maria de Jesus Guell. These Spanish women travelers climbed mountain peaks in their native country, traveled by horseback in the Amazon, observed the Indians of Tierra del Fuego, suffered from el soroche [altitude sickness] in the Andes, admired the midnight sun in Norway, traveled to mission fields in sub-Saharan Africa, and reported on wars in Europe and North Africa, to mention only a few of their accomplishments. The goal of this study is to acquaint English-speaking readers with the narratives of these remarkable women whose works are not available in translation. Besides analyzing their travel narratives and the role of travel in their lives, Spanish Women Travelers includes many long excerpts translated into English for the first time.

Focusing on Afghanistan's relations with the West during the latter half of the 20th century, this study offers new insights on the long-term origins of the nation's recent tragedies. Roberts finds that, since the 1930s in particular, Afghanistan pursued policies far more complex, and considerably more pro-Western, than previous studies have surmised. By the end of the Second World War, Britain and Afghanistan seemed headed toward an extensive partnership in military and economic affairs. Opportunities to cement Afghanistan to the West existed, but ultimately ran afoul of regional politics, shortsighted policy, and indifference. The rise of the Indian nationalist movement and the eventual partition of India would have strategic ramifications for Afghanistan. Pakistan and India, weakened and poised against each other, saw no reason to aid the Kabul regime, leaving only the United States as a potential benefactor. Successive American administrations, however, denied most Afghan requests. When the Eisenhower administration extended support to Pakistan, it alienated Afghan leaders, who then chose to broker a deal with the Soviet Union. Roberts analyzes recent American policy toward Afghanistan and its neighbors, clarifying the current situation and offering guidelines for future relations.

Questions about democracy and human rights have emerged in the advent of the 21st century, a time in which the prospects for progress in these areas have never been greater. This book is designed to respond to some of these questions with reference to Latin America, where democratic regimes have alternated with authoritarian governments and the human rights record is inconsistent at best. Taken together, these essays reveal the complexity of democratic transitions, the importance of support for human rights, and the way in which democracy and human rights are linked in Latin America.

The first part of the book includes chapters that cast a critical eye on democracy and human rights trends in Chile, Venezuela, Columbia, and Brazil. Part two gauges the impact and prospects of foreign initiatives promoting democracy and human rights in the region, focusing especially on those efforts made by the United States in Haiti and Cuba. Each chapter reaffirms the essential linkages between procedural democracy and substantive human rights, and argues that states with authoritarian pasts must reorient their political cultures, and that these initiatives must come from both domestic and international agents. Students and scholars interested in the problems and prospects inherent in democratic transitions in contemporary Latin America will find this collection enlightening.

Dreaming the Great Brahmin explores the creation and recreation of Buddhist saints through narratives, poetry, art, ritual, and even dream visions. The first comprehensive cultural and literary history of the well-known Indian Buddhist poet saint Saraha, known as the Great Brahmin, this book argues that we should view Saraha not as the founder of a tradition, but rather as its product. Kurtis Schaeffer shows how images, tales, and teachings of Saraha were transmitted, transformed, and created by members of diverse Buddhist traditions in Tibet, India, Nepal, and Mongolia. The result is that there is not one Great Brahmin, but many. More broadly, Schaeffer argues that the immense importance of saints for Buddhism is best understood by looking at the creative adaptations of such figures that perpetuated their fame, for it is there that these saints come to life.

Nigeria's democratisation efforts since attaining political independence from Britain have been tumultuous and have spanned over three successive republics. A persistent bug decimating Nigeria's democracy and repeatedly leading to military coups has been brazen electoral violence perpetrated by the nation's political elite. Nigeria's 2019 Democratic Experience analyses and explains what went wrong in Nigeria's experiment with democracy. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and the world's seventh most populous nation, also contributes 70% of West Africa's population. She is sub-Saharan Africa's largest oil producer and has remained Africa's largest economy by GDP since 2014. The country has hundreds of diverse ethnic nationalities and languages grouped into 36 states (or federating units) and an independent federal capital territory. Though recognized as Africa's largest democracy, her democratisation process since the 1960s has remained tumultuous with massive electoral violence and political intolerance. This repeatedly compelled the military to intervene in the nation's political history in the years 1966, 1983 and 1985. It is these developments that provided the motivation for this volume to capture for posterity the conduct of the 2019 General Elections in Nigeria.

Chile's natural beauty, fascinating history, cultural traditions, and warm people are uniquely evoked in "Culture and Customs of Chile." Chilean American Castillo-Feliu effectively conveys how Chile's geography has helped to shape it into a modern, socially responsible model in Latin America. Students and other readers will learn how this small country has contributed to the hemisphere's stature, from a stable political scene to seafood-inspired cuisine. Chile's lively history forms the backdrop for a survey of a wealth of social riches. The literary lion Pablo Neruda, Andean music, and fine wine are just a few of the highlights found herein.

Because it has been such a model country, except for a troubled period in the 1970s and 1980s under the dictator Augusto Pinochet, Chile often stays out of headline news in the United States. Through chapters on history and people, religion, social customs, broadcasting and print media, literature, performing arts, and the arts and architecture, "Culture and Customs of Chile" will introduce Chile to a wider audience who can appreciate its understated charms. A chronology and appendix of the Spanish of Chile are indispensable aids.

A role model for late industrializing countries, Taiwan provides unique and interesting development lessons for third world countries. Once a poverty-stricken, resource-poor, technologically backward nation, Taiwan has become the hub of a global production network in many high tech industries with increasing significance in the world economy. In ten outstanding essays, written by highly respected economists, this book analyzes Taiwan's postwar economic development path, providing a valuable case study of its structural transformation from a labor-intensive to a technology-intensive economy.

The book addresses three major topics. First it recaptures the lessons of Taiwan's experience. Then it considers the role of foreign investment on structural transformation and globalization. Finally, it examines Taiwan's economy in a global perspective, evaluating its role in the world market from the past to the future and its evolution from a colony to a newly industrialized country.

This anthology analyzes societal and cultural aspects of modern Japan. It identifies the dynamic trend and undercurrent in Japan by addressing three key areas: modernization, internationalization, and memory and imagination. Using interdisciplinary and multi-language approaches, it discusses topics such as religion, ethnicity, civil society, art, public health, popular culture, war, identity and education. It is a valuable resource for scholars and graduate students with an interest in cutting-edge research analyses of Japanese / Asian studies.

This provocative volume is the first book to offer an extensive examination of the nature of poverty and its relationship to gender and ethnicity in five post-communist societies. As nations make the difficult transition from socialism to capitalism, the extent and nature of poverty tends to change and, because of this, the proportion of the population living in poverty tends to change. As a result, the proportion of the population living in poverty has increased sharply in these countries. The contributors contend that a "new poverty" is in the making and that the growing underclass is strongly related to ethnicity, as such an underclass is more likely to form if there is a sizeable Roma (Gypsy) minority. The question of whether gender interacts with poverty the same way ethnicity does is the subject of intense controversy and is addressed here in lucid, accessible prose. In this comprehensive analysis of the interaction between poverty, ethnicity, and gender in East European transitional societies, the contributors thoughtfully address the relevant issues and relationships and conclude that poverty has become deeper and increasingly long-term in Eastern European nations. Although it is clear that poverty increased in Eastern Europe during the market transition, the extent and nature of the changes have not yet been illuminated. Covering Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, the contributors analyze the interaction between poverty, ethnicity, and gender in an effort to explain the changing nature of poverty and the formation of an underclass in these countries. Roma (Gypsies) arise as the most likely candidates for membership in the new underclass, as they were alwayseconomically disadvantaged and the targets of discriminatory practices. On the other hand, however because they were often better educated than men during socialism, women may have been relatively advantaged, at least temporarily, during the market transition. Thus while poverty may be "racialized" during the transformation, it may not yet be "feminized." In this comparative assessment of social trends in this region, the contributors consider what they mean for the countries where they occur.

From an award-winning Tunisian author comes a stirring allegory about a country in the aftermath of revolution and the power of a single quest. Sidi lives a hermetic life as a bee whisperer, tending to his beloved "girls" on the outskirts of the desolate North African village of Nawa. He wakes one morning to find that something has attacked one of his beehives, brutally killing every inhabitant. Heartbroken, he soon learns that a mysterious swarm of vicious hornets committed the mass murder-but where did they come from, and how can he stop them? If he is going to unravel this mystery and save his bees from annihilation, Sidi must venture out into the village and then brave the big city and beyond in search of answers. Along the way, he discovers a country and a people turned upside down by their new post-Arab Spring reality as Islamic fundamentalists seek to influence votes any way they can on the eve of the country's first democratic elections. To succeed in his quest, and find a glimmer of hope to protect all that he holds dear, Sidi will have to look further than he ever imagined. In this brilliantly accessible modern-day parable, Yamen Manai uses a masterful blend of humor and drama to reveal what happens in a country shaken by revolutionary change after the world stops watching.