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Heritage and Religion in East Asia examines how religious heritage,
in a mobile way, plays across national boundaries in East Asia and,
in doing so, the book provides new theoretical insights into the
articulation of heritage and religion. Drawing on primary,
comparative research carried out in four East Asian countries, much
of which was undertaken by East Asian scholars, the book shows how
the inscription of religious items as "Heritage" has stimulated
cross-border interactions among religious practitioners and boosted
tourism along modern pilgrimage routes. Considering how these
forces encourage cross-border links in heritage practices and
religious movements in China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, the
volume also questions what role heritage plays in a region where
Buddhism, Taoism, and other various folk religious practices are
dominant. Arguing that it is diversity and vibrancy that makes
religious discourse in East Asia unique, the contributors explore
how this particularity both energizes and is empowered by heritage
practices in East Asia. Heritage and Religion in East Asia enriches
understanding of the impact of heritage and religious culture in
modern society and will be of interest to academics and students
working in heritage studies, anthropology, religion, and East Asian
studies.
The recent heritage boom in China is transforming local social,
economic, and cultural life and reshaping domestic and global
notions of China's national identity. Based on long-term
ethnographic fieldwork conducted largely by young anthropologists
in China, Grassroots Values and Local Cultural Heritage in China
departs from the dominant top-down UNESCO-influenced narrative of
cultural heritage preservation and approaches the local not as a
fixed definition of place but as a shifting site of negotiation
between state, entrepreneurial, transcultural, and local community
interests. The volume takes readers along an unusual trajectory
between a disadvantaged neighborhood in central Beijing,
metropolitan centers in Anhui and Sichuan, Quanzhou in the
southeast, and Yunnan in the southwest before finally ending at the
great Samye Monastery in Tibet. Across these sites, the
contributors converge in apprehending the grassroots as an arena of
everyday life and belonging underpinning ordinary social
interactions and cultural practices as diverse as funeral rituals,
Tibetan Buddhist pilgrimages, and encounters between young
contemporary artists and the Bloomsbury Group. In examining the
diversity of local cultural practices and knowledge that underpin
ideas about cultural value, this volume argues that grassroots
cultural beliefs are essential to the liveability and
sustainability of life and living heritage.
Social Transformations in Archaeology explores the relevance of
archaeology to the study of long-term change and to the
understanding of our contemporary world. The articles are divided
into:
* broader theoretical issues
* post-colonial issues in a wide range of contexts
* archaeological examination of colonialism with case studies from
the Mediterranean in the first millenium BC and historical Africa.
Heritage and Religion in East Asia examines how religious heritage,
in a mobile way, plays across national boundaries in East Asia and,
in doing so, the book provides new theoretical insights into the
articulation of heritage and religion. Drawing on primary,
comparative research carried out in four East Asian countries, much
of which was undertaken by East Asian scholars, the book shows how
the inscription of religious items as "Heritage" has stimulated
cross-border interactions among religious practitioners and boosted
tourism along modern pilgrimage routes. Considering how these
forces encourage cross-border links in heritage practices and
religious movements in China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, the
volume also questions what role heritage plays in a region where
Buddhism, Taoism, and other various folk religious practices are
dominant. Arguing that it is diversity and vibrancy that makes
religious discourse in East Asia unique, the contributors explore
how this particularity both energizes and is empowered by heritage
practices in East Asia. Heritage and Religion in East Asia enriches
understanding of the impact of heritage and religious culture in
modern society and will be of interest to academics and students
working in heritage studies, anthropology, religion, and East Asian
studies.
This volume brings together a series of papers which define the
relevance of archaeology to the study of long term change and to
the understanding of our contemporary world. It re-evaluates the
premises and epistemologies which underlie the study of archaeology
and looks at the ways discoveries about the past have a direct
bearing oncontemporary beliefs and actions. The major theoretical
ideologies which have influenced archaeology since the mid-1970s
are considered: functionalism, determinism, structural Marxism,
world systems theory, postmodernism and postprocessual archaeology.
The papers in this volume, however, concentrate on the study of
structures as far as the archaeological record brings new or
different insight to their functioning in the long term. The volume
also remains committed to the possibility of an historical
reconstruction of social realities. The text is a compilation of
papers in theoretical archaeology and should appeal to academics
and postgraduates in archaeology, anthropology and history.
Presenting a unique study of shopping, the life of shopping centres and the nature of shoppers, this book offers new understanding of the significance of place and the construction of identity. From an historical and thematic survey of the nature of consumer societies and their implications for identity, the authors examine the commercial and historical background of two London shopping centres - Brent Cross and Wood Green. Drawing on their own primary research on shoppers from particular streets, focus groups and survey questionnaires, the authors examine particular issues that arise in the action of locating identity through shopping. Shopping, Place and Identity engages with key debates in contemporary consumption and identity studies, yet presents a firmly grounded study that will complement the more speculative writing about shopping, place and identity that has developed in recent years.
The nature of power - one of the central concerns in social science - is the main theme of this wide-ranging book. Introducing a much broader historical and geographical comparative understanding of domination and resistance than is available elsewhere, the editors and contributors offer a wealth of perspectives and case studies. They illustrate the application of these ideas to issues as diverse as ritualized space, the nature of hierarchy in non-capitalist contexts and the production of archaeological discourse. Drawing on considerable experience in promoting interaction between archaeology and other disciplines concerned with ideology, power and social transformation, the editors have brought together a stimulating book that will be of widespread interest amongst students of archaeology, ancient history, sociology, anthropology and human geography.
The nature of power - one of the central concerns in social science
- is the main theme of this wide-ranging book. Introducing a much
broader historical and geographical comparative understanding of
domination and resistance than is available elsewhere, the editors
and contributors offer a wealth of perspectives and case studies.
They illustrate the application of these ideas to issues as diverse
as ritualized space, the nature of hierarchy in non-capitalist
contexts and the production of archaeological discourse. Drawing on
considerable experience in promoting interaction between
archaeology and other disciplines concerned with ideology, power
and social transformation, the editors have brought together a
stimulating book that will be of widespread interest amongst
students of archaeology, ancient history, sociology, anthropology
and human geography.
Civilisation is a debated concept and is often associated with the
prerogatives of the 'West', colonial histories, and even emerging
global politics. In this book, Stephen Feuchtwang and Michael
Rowlands use the examples of Africa and China to provide a new
conceptualisation that challenges traditional notions of
'civilisation'. They explain how to understand duration and
continuity as long-term processes of transformation. Civilisations
are best seen as practices of feeding and hospitality, of rituals
and manners of living and dying, of entering the portals into the
invisible world that surrounds and encompasses us, of healing and
the knowledge of the encompassing universe and its powers,
including its ghosts and demons. Civilisations furnish the moral
ideals for people to live by and aspire to and they are changed
more by the actions of disappointed grassroots and their little
traditions than by their ruling authorities. Just as they
revitalise and change their civilisations, this book revitalises
and changes the way to think about civilisations in the humanities,
the historical and the social sciences.
Struggles over the meaning of the past are common in postcolonial
states. State cultural heritage programs build monuments to
reinforce in nation building efforts-often supported by
international organizations and tourist dollars. These efforts
often ignore the other, often more troubling memories preserved by
local communities-markers of colonial oppression, cultural
genocide, and ethnic identity. Yet, as the contributors to this
volume note, questions of memory, heritage, identity and
conservation are interwoven at the local, ethnic, national and
global level and cannot be easily disentangled. In a fascinating
series of cases from West Africa, anthropologists, archaeologists
and art historians show how memory and heritage play out in a
variety of postcolonial contexts. Settings range from televised
ritual performances in Mali to monument conservation in Djenne and
slavery memorials in Ghana.
Struggles over the meaning of the past are common in postcolonial
states. State cultural heritage programs build monuments to
reinforce in nation building efforts-often supported by
international organizations and tourist dollars. These efforts
often ignore the other, often more troubling memories preserved by
local communities-markers of colonial oppression, cultural
genocide, and ethnic identity. Yet, as the contributors to this
volume note, questions of memory, heritage, identity and
conservation are interwoven at the local, ethnic, national and
global level and cannot be easily disentangled. In a fascinating
series of cases from West Africa, anthropologists, archaeologists
and art historians show how memory and heritage play out in a
variety of postcolonial contexts. Settings range from televised
ritual performances in Mali to monument conservation in Djenne and
slavery memorials in Ghana.
Presenting a unique study of shopping, the life of shopping centres and the nature of shoppers, this book offers new understanding of the significance of place and the construction of identity. From an historical and thematic survey of the nature of consumer societies and their implications for identity, the authors examine the commercial and historical background of two London shopping centres. Drawing on their own primary research on shoppers from particular streets, focus groups and survey questionnaires, the authors examine particular issues that arise in the action of locating identity through shopping.
Civilisation is a debated concept and is often associated with the
prerogatives of the 'West', colonial histories, and even emerging
global politics. In this book, Stephen Feuchtwang and Michael
Rowlands use the examples of Africa and China to provide a new
conceptualisation that challenges traditional notions of
'civilisation'. They explain how to understand duration and
continuity as long-term processes of transformation. Civilisations
are best seen as practices of feeding and hospitality, of rituals
and manners of living and dying, of entering the portals into the
invisible world that surrounds and encompasses us, of healing and
the knowledge of the encompassing universe and its powers,
including its ghosts and demons. Civilisations furnish the moral
ideals for people to live by and aspire to and they are changed
more by the actions of disappointed grassroots and their little
traditions than by their ruling authorities. Just as they
revitalise and change their civilisations, this book revitalises
and changes the way to think about civilisations in the humanities,
the historical and the social sciences.
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