asia south

Hardcover. Trans Pacific Press, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in glossy boards, 170 pages. Stratification in Cultural Contexts is a collection drawn from research results of the East Asian Division of the Center for the Study of Social Stratification and Inequality at Tohoku University. In this book, scholars who specialize in areas of East and Southeast Asia examine how the problem of stratification manifests itself in different cultural and historical contexts, discussing when and in what circumstances the problem of stratification has become more serious, and suggesting how the tension could be eased. The topics dealt with are diversified, from religion to economic concerns. The local wisdom of traditional societies is used to analyze inequality and stratification in cases such as the phenomenon of 'religious revival' following democratization in Mongolian society, the lives of 'slaves' under the Choson dynasty in Korea, and the role of warrior-class women in early-modern Japan. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Crowood Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 222 pages., color plates. This impressive work encompasses history, anthropology, and an expert exposition of textile arts from this region where textiles may denote group identity and may represent a large portion of a family's wealth. The author draws upon both published information and her own extensive travels in the area, describing practices and techniques that she observed in use in situ. She illustrates cultural and historical patterns in costume, often with the aid of temple paintings, sculpture, and historic photographs to supplement current images. Her descriptions of techniques, for example of weaving, are admirably balanced -- detailed enough to inform while presented with sufficient general information for a non-specialist reader. The illustrative material is good, often her own or her son's photographs, that shows the labor-intensive processes and world-class skills as well as the resulting spectacular museum pieces.

Hardcover. NY, McGraw Hill, 1st, 1966, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The American Trails Series, edited by A.B. Guthrie, Jr. 383 pages, includes a two-page map. This book offers an account of the route between Siberia and Alaska that continues southward along the Rockies all the way to Mexico and beyond. Cushman details the stories of the many groups who have traversed parts of the route from prehistoric peoples to Native Americans, Spanish explorers, fur traders, cowboys, and whiskey runners of the Prohibition era. A clean and pristine copy of the first printing,

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 364 pages. The Second World War's Pacific conflict was one of the most complex in history. It embrioled peoples from opposite sides of the globe; it was fought in China, across the expanses of the Pacific, and in the jungles of Southeast Asia; and it was devastating in its consequences for civilians and servicemen alike. It saw the first use of atomic weapons, hastened the end of the Western empires in Asia, and marked America's rise to the position of the most powerful nation in the world.Christopher Thorne, whose previous studies of the war in the Pacific have become landmarks in the field, here weaves together both the entire network of international relations surrounding the war and the impact the war had on all the societies involved--Indian as well as American; Australian and New Zealand as well as Japanese; Korean, Chinese, and Southeast Asian as well as British, French, and Dutch. The Issue of War draws on material gathered over many years in the Far East, Western Europe, and the U.S.--material including wartime films, broadcasts, and newspapers,as well as countless private and offical papers. Representing a synthesis of military, diplomatic, economic, intellectual, and social history, it not only places the war in the context of developments before 1941, but illuminates various patterns that cut across the familiar distinctions between Asia and the West or between Japan and the Allies. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 305 pages. The Wrestler's Body tells the story of a way of life organized in terms of physical self-development. While Indian wrestlers are competitive athletes, they are also moral reformers whose conception of self and society is fundamentally somatic. Using the insights of anthropology, Joseph Alter writes an ethnography of the wrestler's physique that elucidates the somatic structure of the wrestler's identity and ideology.Young men in North India may choose to join an akhara, or gymnasium, where they subject themselves to a complex program of physical and moral fitness. Alter's first-hand description of each detail of the wrestler's regimen offers a unique perspective on South Asian culture and society. Wrestlers feel that moral reform of Indian national character is essential and advocate their way of life as an ideology of national health. Everyone is called on to become a wrestler and build collective strength through self-discipline. Clean copy.