Asia

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. Harrisburg, Stackpole Company, 1st, 1961, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 322 pages. Hardcover. Features 16 pages of black & white photographs. Notations in red pencil on 2 maps - pages 92 and 97. Light wear to yellow cloth covers. No dust jacket.

Hardcover. Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 2nd pr., 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 193 pages, b&w illustrations. Two color maps in rear pocket in excellent condition. The relationship between people and terrain in a small densely settled area in the New Guinea Highlands. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, John Day Co., 1st, 1946, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a worn, chipped dust jacket. A biography of Sun Yat-Sen, founder of the short-lived Chinese Republic. Dust jacket spine faded, bookplate inside front cover.

Hardcover. London, Transaction Publishers, 2nd Ed., 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. The late twentieth century witnessed rapid changes not only in Taiwan's economy, but also in its identity. Both economic as well as ideological restructuring have been basic elements in the transformation of postwar Taiwan, as rapid democratization opened a Pandora's Box, and stirred a whirlwind of social discord. This volume considers such important questions as whether the old Taiwanese work ethic is a relic of the past, and whether Taiwan is likely to become a battleground of ideological wars.The book addresses Taiwanese nostalgia for Chinese culture; the rise and fall of postwar Taiwanese agrarian culture; the transformation of farmers' social consciousness in the period 1950-1970; the place of Confucianism in postwar Taiwan; and the awakening of the "self" and the development of a Taiwanese national identity in the post-World War II period. Finally, it considers whether "mutual historical understanding" may be the basis for Taiwan-Mainland relations in the twenty-first century. This second edition includes a new chapter on the history of Taiwan after World War II, incorporating additional developments in Taiwan in the past decade.

Softcover. Boston, MFA Publications, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 269 pages. Color and b&w reproductions of paintings throughout. A work issued in conjunction with an exhibition held in 1997, providing a survey of the extensive collection of paintings from China, including critical commentary on the work throughout, examining the cultural importance of the pieces discussed. 9 3/4" to 12" tall; interior is clean and unmarked.

Softcover. Canberra, ANU Press/Australian National University, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 334 pages. Sorcery and witchcraft practices and beliefs are pervasive across Melanesia. They are in part created by, and give rise to, a wide variety of poor social and developmental outcomes. These include uneven economic development, low public health, lack of social cohesion, crime, fear and insecurity. A further very visible problem is the attacks on men and women who are accused of being practitioners of witchcraft or sorcery, which can lead to serious bodily harm, banishment and sometimes death. Today, many communities, individuals, church organisations and policymakers in Melanesia and internationally are exploring ways to overcome the negative social outcomes associated with witchcraft and sorcery practices and beliefs. This book brings together a collection of chapters written by a diverse range of authors, both Melanesian and non-Melanesian, providing crucial insights both into how these practices and beliefs are playing out in contemporary Melanesia, and also the types of interventions that are being trialled or debated to address the problems associated with them. Some light marking to several pages.

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. New Delhi, privately printed/Pasang Wangdu, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 282 pages., profusely illustrated throughout in color and black and white painting schematics. Parallel text in English and Tibetan. Private printing. Ribbon marker, clean copy. NOTE: DUE TO SIZE AND WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, laminated color pictorial boards, 104 pages, approximately field guide size. Color plates by Sutari Bin Supari. Clean copy.

Softcover. Ithaca NY, Snow Lion Publications, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 151 pages. SIGNED ON HALF TITLE PAGE BY THE 14TH DALAI LAMA IN OCTOBER OF 2012 AT MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE. Light wear. Clean, tight copy.

Softcover. Quezon City, Malaya Books, reprint, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 212 pages, b&w illustrations, fold-out map in front. A 1970 reprint of a title first published in 1900. Clean copy, light edgewear to wrapper.

Hardcover. London, William Collins, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 342 pages, color photos. In 1976 James Crowden left his career in the British army and travelled to Ladakh in the Northern Himalaya, one of the most remote parts of the world. The Frozen River is his extraordinary account of the time he spent there, living alongside the Zangskari people, before the arrival of roads and mass tourism. James immerses himself in the Zangskari way of life, where meditation and week-long mountain festivals go hand in hand, and silence and solitude are the hallmarks of existence. When butter traders invite James on their journey down the frozen river Leh, he soon realises that this way of living, unchanged for centuries, comes with a very human cost. In lyrical prose, James captures a crucial moment in time for this Himalayan community. A moment in which their Buddhist practices and traditions are in flux, and the economic pull of a world beyond their valley is increasingly difficult to ignore.

Hardcover. NY, Grosset & Dunlap, 1st, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial cloth, 101 pages. Oversized, no dust jacket issued. B&W and color Illustrations by Sawyers and Reusswig.

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. New York, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 2001-12-01, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. Like new in publishers shrink-wrap. Contains 136 illustrations, 126 in color. A collection of photographs of the ancient and spiritual lands of Indochina: Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia taken during a lifetime of traveling and living there by Tim Page. They provide an account of a deeply religious society whose age-old Buddhist principles have endured to this day. The book also represents a personal passage for Page himself, drawing a line beneath the loss of many friends and colleagues in the Vietnam War.

Hardcover. New York, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 2001-12-01, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. Like new in publishers shrink-wrap. Contains 136 illustrations, 126 in color. A collection of photographs of the ancient and spiritual lands of Indochina: Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia taken during a lifetime of traveling and living there by Tim Page. They provide an account of a deeply religious society whose age-old Buddhist principles have endured to this day. The book also represents a personal passage for Page himself, drawing a line beneath the loss of many friends and colleagues in the Vietnam War.

Hardcover. NY/Beijing, Chambers Fine Arts, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover copy in black boards with the artists' name embossed in darker black on the front cover, in a bright red dust jacket, with some edge-wear. This is the most complete catalog of Lu Shengzhong's works to date. The catalog was prepared to accompany the exhibition at the University at Albany Art Museum. Text In English and Chinese. Essays by a dozen scholars. Biographical sketch. 34 page illustrated chronology, records Lu Shengzhong's artworks from 1980 to 2005. Illustrated throughout in color, some black & white, vintage photographs. 11" high X 8" wide, 155 pages.

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Row, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 192 pages. Includes index and bibliography. Illustrated with 102 plates in full color, many color plates within the text and many diagrams and photographs in black & white. A remainder mark rubberstamped in the shape of a "star" to the bottom edge, otherwise bright and clean.

Hardcover. Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Press , 1st, 1985, Book: Very Good, Hardcover, blue clith with gilt lettering on spine, 328 pages. Dr Moore's enterprising book focuses on an apparent paradox: the failure of Sri Lanka's highly politicized smallholder electorate to place on the national political agenda issues relating to the public distribution of material resources. Sri Lanka has more than fifty years' history of pluralist democracy and such issues directly affect the interests of the smallholder population. Yet successive Sri Lankan governments have pursued economic policies favouring food consumers and the state itself at the expense of agricultural producers. In exploring the features of Sri Lanka's history, geography, politics and economy which explain this paradox, the author looks in detail at some of the dominant features of contemporary Sri Lanka: the political consequences of the plantation experience; the persistence of elite political leadership; and the causes and consequences of ethnic conflict. Clean copy, paper tanning slightly.

Hardcover. Boston, Little Brown & Company, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 408 pages, b&w illustrations. Imperial Green Jade, also known as jadeite, is one of the rarest stones in the world. This volume combines original historical research, a travelogue, and investigative journalism to tell the secret history of jadeite. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, brick-red cloth covers, 448 pages with index. The attempted modernization of Central Asia by the central Soviet government in the 1920's was a dramatic confrontation between radical, determined, authoritarian communists and a cluster of traditional Moslem societies based on kinship, custom, and religion. The Soviet authorities were determined to undermine the traditional social order through the destruction of existing family structures and worked to achieve this aspect of revolution through the mobilization of women. Gregory J. Massell's study of the interaction between central power and local traditions concentrates on the development of female roles in revolutionary modernization. Women in Moslem societies were segregated, exploited, and degraded; they were, therefore, a structural weak point in the traditional order-a surrogate proletariat. Through this potentially subversive group, it was believed, intense conflicts could be generated within society which would lead to its disintegration and subsequent reconstitution. Marginal notes to about 15 pages, otherwise clean, solid copy.

Hardcover. Singapore, Times Editions-Marshall Cavendish, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 335 pages. The Temples of Lhasa is a comprehensive survey of historic Buddhist sites in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The study is based on the Tibetan Heritage Fund`s official five-year architectural conservation project in Tibet, during which the author and his team had unlimited access to the buildings studied. The documented sites span the entire known history of Tibetan Buddhist art and architecture from the 7th to the 21st centuries The book is divided into thirteen chapters, covering all the major and minor temples in historic Lhasa.

Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin , 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 286 pages, endpaper maps, 60 b&w and color illustrations by Eric Hosking. Dust jacket has edgewear and chipping. Book is very good, tight, clean.