Asian history Books

Book SynopsisPaul U. Unschuld bietet eine kulturhistorisch begründete Analyse der politischen Geschichte Chinas der vergangenen zwei Jahrhunderte. Ein erster Teil beschreibt die verschiedenen Traumata, die dem Land im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert durch ausländische Interventionen zugefügt wurden. In der zweiten Hälfte werden die Ursachen offen gelegt, die zu einem historisch einmaligen Vorgang geführt haben: dem Wiederaufstieg eines Staates, der von Staaten einer fremden, militärisch-technisch überlegenen Kultur besiegt und an den Rand des Abgrunds gebracht wurde. In seinem Geleitwort erläutert Ulrich Sendler die Bedeutung des Wissens um diese Hintergründe für ein Verständnis der Motivation und Erfolgsaussichten der Modernisierungsstrategien Chinas in einer zunehmend digitalisierten Welt. Table of ContentsVorwort.- China – Zhongguo – Reich im Zentrum der Welt.- Ein ferner König erbittet Einlass und wird abgewiesen.- Ein ferner Papst wird ausgewiesen.- Ein Kaiser erkundet Übersee und wird zurechtgewiesen.- Eine Zivilisation im freien Fall.- Die Bresche und der Dieb.- Der britische Zugriff: Trauma # 1.- Die Taiping-Rebellion.- Der britisch-französische Zugriff: Trauma # 2.- Der russische Zugriff: Trauma # 3.- Der französische Zugriff: Trauma # 4.- Der japanische Zugriff: Trauma # 5.- Der deutsche Zugriff: Trauma # 7.- Die Treuhand-Banken: Trauma # 8.- Der japanische Eingriff: Trauma # 9.- Ein Kampf der Kulturen.- Wie hätten Sie denn reagiert?.- Die Tradition existentieller Autonomie.- Europa und die Entdeckung des Sozialen. China nimmt sein Schicksal in eigene Hände.- Erste Schritte zu einem Neubeginn.- Naturwissenschaft und Medizin.- Welches Ausmaß an Verwestlichung?.- Marxismus in china.- der Weg zur Gegenwart.- Ein Fazit.

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Book SynopsisBurma's pro-democracy movement emerged in 1988 when massive demonstrations swept across the country. This book gives an account of the movement, its emergence and growth, and Aung San Suu Kyi's prominent leadership role since its inception. Woven into this history is an outline of how Aung San Suu Kyi herself has become a highly respected pro-democracy icon internationally while being revered nationally as the "female Bodhisattva" who will deliver the Burmese people from the evil of the military regime. Lintner considers her strengths as well as her weaknesses, and traces her life not only in Burma, but also in India, the United Kingdom, the United States, Bhutan, and Japan. She was greatly inspired by her father, Aung San, Burma's independence hero who was assassinated when she was an infant, and also by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Lintner analyzes the staying power of Burma's military regime and points out the obstacles to achieving what Aung San Suu Kyi is striving for: a free and democratic Burma.Trade Review"Bertil Lintner is an established authority on Burma . . . His succinct and insightful analysis focuses on post-1988 developments within the pro-democracy movement and the role of Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD, and the '88 generation of student activists." -- Jeff Kingston * The Japan Times *"Lintner is a vetran reporter who has written several books on Burma. His expertise is widely acknowledged . . . While Suu Kyi still emerges as a remarkable, if somewhat test, saint . . . Litner's conclusion is pessimistic." -- Sholto Byrnes * The Independent *

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Book SynopsisSo begins this lovely volume of exquisite photographs from Laos, a country whose remote regions are still hidden away to all but a few inquisitive scholars and venturesome travelers. The capital city of Vientiane and far-flung regions of the country are richly illustrated in 150 color images. The photographs recount the author's personal journey to towns and villages in the 1990s, portraying ethnic minorities and lowlanders, their traditional life and work, and the natural environment and terrain. Apart from a descriptive introduction, the captions provide the only text. The author observes signs of modernization with each subsequent visit--traditional dress replaced by Western clothing, forests destroyed by a new road. The book provides a rare and nuanced glimpse into the country and people of Laos as they stand at the crossroads of change.

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Book SynopsisRed Journeys is a firsthand account of the emergence and expansion of the red-shirt protests in Bangkok that took place in 2010. It traces the origins of the protest, focusing on the unique voices, stories, and motives of those who participated in the movement. Based upon hundreds of interviews and weeks spent alongside the red shirts in the middle of the protest, Sopranzetti vividly depicts daily life in the heart of the movement: its personalities, routines, rumors, and organization. As the peaceful occupation descended into violence and neared its tragic end, he describes the final moments of the protest when red shirts faced off with the Thai military. Styled engagingly between ethnography and daily blog, Red Journeys offers an unprecedented analysis of the biggest social movement in Thailand to date and highlights the discrepancies between the "official" media portrayal of the protest and the reality on the ground.Trade Review"He captures a sense of very ordinary people swept up into very extraordinary events for reasons that they can barely articulate beyond resentment at the society's deep unfairness . . . This is a brilliant little book - moving, eye-opening, unsettling." -- Chris Baker * Bangkok Post *

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Book SynopsisWith the acceleration of global migration, literature by migrant writers has emerged as a powerful medium for describing the ways in which global forces are experienced at the personal level. Migrant literature offers a compelling counter-narrative to abstract visions of globalization, grounding large-scale processes in real-life stories of individuals. In Thailand, migrant writers have documented the social and cultural impacts of fifty years of rural-urban migration through hundreds of stories, poems, and novels. Bangkok Bound is the first book to examine this body of literature and to distill the messages conveyed by Thai migrant writers about their experiences. These stories powerfully describe the ways in which migrants who leave their homes bound for Bangkok are quickly bound to Bangkok through the transformative force of modern city life. And they show the ways in which those who remain behind in the village are transformed, too, as they struggle to maintain a rural way of life in a rapidly urbanizing world. Bangkok Bound is a welcome addition to the fields of migration studies and urban studies. It will appeal to students and scholars of Thailand and Thai literature.Trade Review"An engaging and authoritative study of literary representations of migration from the provinces to Bangkok based on a wide reading of short stories written over the last four decades and interviews with major writers and critics. It will be of interest not only to students of literature, but also to anyone interested in social change in Thailand in the late twentieth century." -David Smyth, SOAS, University of London

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Book SynopsisSiam's folk epic of love, war, and tragedy Khun Chang Khun Phaen is one of the most famous works of old Thai literature. The plot is a love story, set against a background of war, and ending in high tragedy. This folk epic was first developed in oral form for popular performance with lashings of romance, adventure, violence, farce, and magic. It was later adopted by the Siamese court and written down, with two kings contributing. This first-ever translation is based on Prince Damrong’s standard edition of 1917-18, with over a hundred passages recovered from earlier versions. This English translation is written in lively prose, completely annotated, with over four hundred original line drawings and an afterword explaining the work’s historical background, social context, and poetic style. The main volume presents the entire poem in translation. The companion volume contains alternative chapters and extensions, Prince Damrong’s prefaces, and reference lists of Thai terms. The volumes are available separately or as a slipcased set. According to the leading Thai linguist William Gedney, "If all other information on traditional Thai culture were to be lost, the whole complex could be reconstructed from this marvelous text."Trade Review"Thailand's only wholly homegrown literary classic is, in Western terms, a dozen Shakespeare plays rolled into one, with a rich vein of Arthurian romance to boot. Khun Chang Khun Phaen entails comedy, tragedy, love, sex, war, magic, honour, infamy, gallantry, and treachery. And that, as untold millions of Thais have seen in the course of nearly four centuries, is entertainment." The Nation "Baker and Pasuk have combed through every possible existing version of the classic tale in Thai and provided an impressive array of alternative versions to the standard text edited by Prince Damrong in 1917-18. Their afterword offers a critical comprehensive look at the unique history of KCKP, how it evolved from the oral tradition circulated among commoners to become one of the greatest works espoused by the Siamese court, and also at the context of Thai literature and the social and geopolitical landscapes key to understanding the saga." Bangkok Post

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Book SynopsisThe cultural heritage of Siam is exceptionally rich and distinctive. As everywhere, this heritage is under threat—from the pace of change, from the demands of tourism, from mismanagement, and from neglect. This book is the first to examine the value of Siam’s heritage and the need to protect it. These nineteen essays are written by pioneers of conservation over the last generation and by the activists of today.

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Book SynopsisFew subjects elicit greater moral outrage than human trafficking. Media reports of dehumanizing practices such as slavery, abduction, child prostitution, and torture, along with shocking statistics, form the basis of public knowledge. With sensitivity and candor, this book addresses the reality of human trafficking in Thailand, dissecting studies, presenting facts, and dismissing stereotypes. It focuses on the areas of fishing, agriculture, domestic work, sex work, and the trafficking of children, weaving individual narratives and official studies into the wider history of Thailand’s changing economy and labor situation.

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Book SynopsisThis selection of essays demonstrates that, in the study of Buddhism, a concern with detailed accuracy in philological and textual specifics can be combined with wider philosophical and sociological issues. The essays are divided into three parts: (1) Pali Literature, (2) The Theory and Practice of Not-Self, and (3) Buddhism and Society. The last part builds on but goes beyond the work of Dumont and Max Weber in considering “world-renunciation” as a phenomenon of society and culture.Table of ContentsPreface Pali Literature 1. On the Very Idea of the Pali Canon 2. Notes on Some Oral Aspects of Pali Literature 3. What Is Literature in Pali? The Theory and Practice of Not-Self 4. What Are Buddhist Doing When They Deny the Self? 5. The Body in Theravada Buddhist Monasticism 6. A Buddhist Debate About the Self, and Remarks on Buddhism in the Work of Derek Parfit and Galen Strawson 7. Of Death and Trees Buddhism and Society 8. Monasticism, Utopias and Comparative Social Theory 9. Louis Dumont and the Study of Religions 10. Buddhist "Nuns" (Mae chi) and the Teaching of Pali in Thailand (With Justin McDaniel) Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book traces the evolution of the rural, Lao-speaking people of northeastern Thailand, now over a third of the nation’s population, from a traditional peasantry into “cosmopolitan” villagers who are actively shaping Thai politics. The electoral successes of the Thai Rak Thai/Pheu Thai Party in the early twenty-first century and the strong support given to the Red-Shirt movement appear to have finally given the cosmopolitan villagers of northeastern Thailand a continuing voice in the nation’s political process.Trade Review"Keyes tells the story from the micro-viewpoint of the village and the macro-level of the region. . . this book charts the social and intellectual changes underlying one major element of [regional] turbulence, and is thus necessary reading for understanding current and near future Thai politics." -- Chris Baker * Bangkok Post *"In the few months since this book was written, Thai politics has done another somersault. These ructions will continue. This book charts the social and intellectual changes underlying one major element of this turbulence, and is thus necessary reading for understanding current and near future Thai politics." * Bangkok Post *"Keyes’s book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the underpinnings of the Red Shirt movement in northeastern Thailand." -- Katherine A. Bowie * Journal of Asian Studies *

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Book SynopsisIn this book, eighteen Chinese women tell how they came to sell sex in Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Los Angeles, and New York. The women’s candid stories put a human face on issues of globalized commercial sex and provide a raw, inside view of the money-driven transnational sex industry. The author, an expert in the field of criminal justice, frames their personal accounts with contextual details and incisive commentary to provide a rich understanding of the realities and myths of prostitution and global sex trafficking. While the interviews were gathered as part of an extensive research project for the author’s 2012 book, Selling Sex Overseas, the full accounts are published here for the first time. The women describe, in their own words, what motivated them to leave China to work in the sex trade abroad, how much they earn, what hardships they face, and what they hope for in the future.

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Book SynopsisTrams, Buses, and Rails recounts the unique and little-known 130-year history of Bangkok’s transportation system, from the first horse-powered tramway in 1888 to the mass transit urban railway of the twenty-first century. Using government archives and annual reports, the author deftly pieces together long-buried records and statistics to reconstruct the transportation policies of each successive metropolitan and national administration. He highlights the politicization and regulation of Bangkok’s transport systems over the decades, and uncovers a series of setbacks, reversals, duplications, revisions, and cancellations that help to explain Bangkok’s continuing transportation woes. A series of maps and tables elucidate the development of transportation routes and the rise and fall of the city’s trams, railways, and bus lines.Table of ContentsList of Tables and Figures Acknowledgments Acronyms Introduction 1. Introduction of Rail Transport, 1880s-1900s 2. Emergence of Competition, 1910s-1930s 3. Expansion of Bus Networks, 1940s-1950s 4. Unification of Buses, 1960s-1970s 5. Revival of Rail Transport, 1970s-1990s 6. A Confused Urban Transport Policy, 2000s 7. Regulation and Politicization of Urban Transport in Bangkok Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFrench anthropologist Jacques Dournes lived in Vietnam for 25 years, from 1946 to 1970, studying the culture of the Jarai and other highland ethnic groups. He became a renowned ethnographer and the Jarai people became his lifelong passion. In part 1 of this study, Andrew Hardy explores Dournes’s challenging monograph Potao, une théorie de pouvoir chez les Indochinois jorai and his views on the role of the highlanders in ancient Champa. In part 2, Dournes speaks animatedly with the author about the Jarai, his feelings about culture and economics, his understanding of Vietnam’s history, and his personal experience of living in the Central Highlands. The French transcript of the interview is presented in the appendix.Table of ContentsForeword Acknowledgments Introduction Part 1 Jacques Dournes, Highland Champa, and the Potao: Reading Potao, une theorie du pouvoir chez les Indochinois jorai Part 2 The Vietnamese and Highlanders in the Twentieth Century: Interview with Jacques Dournes Afterword Barefoot in the Mud: Reflections on Jacques Dournes Oscar Salemink Appendix French Transcript of the Interview with Jacques Dournes Works of Jacques Dournes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFrom childhood, Ma Thida dreamed of helping others—caring for the sick, sharing information despite censorship, and standing up for people’s rights. To stand against the oppression that had been stifling Myanmar’s progress for decades, she joined Aung San Suu Kyi and the many other activists in the National League for Democracy, campaigning steadfastly despite intimidation, harassment, and worse. Because of her efforts, the regime sent her to Insein Prison, where she faced serious illness and bleak conditions. However, it was in fighting the obstacles of her imprisonment and following the Buddha’s teachings that Ma Thida found what it means to be truly free. In this memoir, readers join Ma Thida on her path through captivity and witness one remarkable woman’s courageous quest for truth and dignity.

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Book SynopsisThe research presented in this volume analyzes the impact of ethnic change and religious traditions on local, national, and regional identities. Case studies include the Bru population in Laos/Vietnam, hill tribe populations without citizenship in northern Thailand, the Lua also in northern Thailand, the Pakistani community in Penang, the Rohingya in Myanmar, the Leke religious movement in Thailand/Myanmar, political Islam in Indonesia, Sufi Muslims in Thailand, pluralism in Penang, the Preah Vihear dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, and hero cult worship in Lan Na. Historians and social anthropologists variously tackle these issues of identity and integration within the kaleidoscope of ethnicities, religions, languages, and cultures that make up Southeast Asia.

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Book SynopsisPart fact, part fiction, part myth, and part legend, this book brings to life the kingdom of Ayutthaya from its roots in the kingdom of Sukhothai to its eventual destruction by the Burmese in 1767. It is the turbulent story of both the kings and their kingdom, from its birth to its downfall. Robert Smith retells this history by reimagining and dramatizing the exploits of Ayutthaya’s rulers, building his account around a framework of documentary evidence and hints in the historical record. Intrigues and deception wind through the tale as do ingenuity, honor, and the will to greatness that made Ayutthaya a major regional power for centuries. This account of the development of a nation—and the stories behind it—shows how the old kingdom of Ayutthaya was a crucial precursor to the foundation of modern-day Thailand.

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Book SynopsisThe diffusion of religious thought in Buddhist Asia has been marked by new modes of expression. Sometimes this has meant textual translation, as highlighted in chapters about Chinese and Japanese Buddhist texts or the analysis of manuscripts in northern Thailand. In other cases it has been cultural translation, such as local adaptations of jataka tales, legal concepts developed out of Theravada Buddhist teachings, or localization of art, inscriptions, and other material culture. Additional chapters study other types of engagement: the encounter of East and West in British geographical and anthropological exploration of Burma, and the place of Brahmanism in early Buddhist thought as expressed through the jatakas. Together these contributions recognize that beyond being isolated by sectarian divisions, disparate Buddhist traditions have flourished through their simultaneity.

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Book SynopsisThis fresh and unusual collection offers a critical reflection on Southeast Asia as a progressively integrated space of production, exchange, and circulation within and beyond national boundaries. The essays describe the successful or unsuccessful entry of specific individuals or groups into wider markets and networks in their quest for prosperity—in Thailand, by Lua peasant farmers, slum families, the last century’s teak laborers, and ethnic tour hosts; in Indonesia, by communities resisting environmental destruction and the urban poor; and in Vietnam, by human trafficking returnees. The authors examine how these groups are socially and symbolically defined and redefined in the process of integration and the sense-making effort that characterizes many destitute people in urban contexts.

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Book SynopsisThe Phunoy are a Tibeto-Burmese population group in Phongsaly Province that has long been considered acculturated because of its adoption of various features of neighboring Tai societies, particularly Buddhism. This pioneering ethnography examines the Phunoy’s supposed acculturation and independent identity, demonstrating how the Phunoy emerged as a group and constructed a “mirroring” relationship with the various Tai and Lao realms dominating the region. As guardians of the borders and allies of the colonial authorities who administered the province, they progressively formed a territory where they established themselves as indispensable intermediaries between state power and the other mountain ethnic groups. The integration of the Phunoy continues within Lao society today and is part of the history of the stabilization of the margins in northern mainland Southeast Asia.

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Book SynopsisAs the Rohingya crisis exploded, observers of Myanmar were shocked to see Aung San Suu Kyi, champion for the causes of liberal democracy and human rights, stand by as atrocities tore apart the western reaches of her country. The Daughter is an in-depth exploration of this icon-turned-leader and of the people, ideas, and experiences that have shaped her political identity. What emerges is not a shift in ideology but a consistent picture of the contrasts and multidimensionality that have defined her—prisoner and leader, principled resistor and pragmatic politician, the Lady and Mother Suu. Translated and updated from the original German, The Daughter is essential reading for professionals, journalists, and other observers seeking to understand Aung San Suu Kyi’s role in Myanmar.

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Book SynopsisWritten by a multinational team of experts who deploy their disciplinary strengths in history, sociology, social anthropology, political science, and philology to analyze a wide range of sources, including royal chronicles, missionary dictionaries, colonial archival documents, audio- and videotapes, and face-to-face interviews, Armies and Societies in Southeast Asia adds to the small but growing body of publications on warfare in Southeast Asia and colonial armies. Military-society relations are examined in a wide range of ways: traditional strategies of augmenting populations, mutinies, and mutiny attempts, imperial anxieties, Japanese military legacies, the transoceanic experiences of Southeast Asian and European soldiers, postwar demobilizations and postconflict biographies, and the transformation of communist guerrillas into guardians of the state and their development of capitalist enterprises. This volume will be of interest to Southeast Asianists and military historians alike as it not only covers traditional territorial grounds, thematic terrains, and temporal landscapes but also extends to individuals and further includes the national, regional, and transnational lives of military institutions.

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Book SynopsisAsian activists, organizers, critics, teachers, artists, and entrepreneurs have become passionately involved in protecting Asia’s heritage. In this book, twelve principal authors from eleven of the region’s countries present their experience of what has been done in the past and their ideas on what should be done in the future. Chapters cover Siam’s temples, Korean religious murals, Beijing’s neighborhoods, Lao textiles, Javanese ruins, Cambodian dance, old Bangkok and George Town, Philippine creative arts, Calcutta’s architecture, China’s salt industry, and the Burmese cat. This book records the start of a conversation that promises to transform the protection of Asia’s heritage.

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Book SynopsisHighly regarded as an important part of the poetic heritage of Thailand, The Story of King Law received royal acclaim in 1914 and is included in official school curricula. All students of Thai literature memorize parts of it and retain them for decades. The story has been extolled as beautiful and deeply moving poetry, with admirable and virtuous protagonists. It has also been vilified as undignified vulgarity, as a piece of ancient titillation unworthy of attention in the modern day. And, for admirers and critics alike, it has proven to be a source of great confusion and unresolvable obscurity. Robert Bickner uses comparative and historical linguistics as the foundation for his examination and interpretation of the poem and with this translation guides readers through the many complexities of this fascinating text.

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Book SynopsisKings in Love: Lilit Phra Lo and Twelve Months (Thawathotsamat) are among the earliest works of Thai literature. These translations by an award-winning team aim to convey not only the meaning of the Thai originals but also their beauty and emotional power. Lilit Phra Lo is a long narrative poem with an unusual romance, a contest of rival magic, an erotic climax, and a blood-soaked ending. It has been condemned as feudal and indulgent, but celebrated for its flowing poetry and emotional power. Twelve Months, a passionate lament for a lost lover, was once greatly acclaimed but has been quietly sidelined for being “too erotic.” Each poem has an afterword tracing the work’s origins, structure, publication history, and critical reception. Though rooted in Thai culture, both poems speak to universal themes and have echoes in world literature.

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Book SynopsisThis pioneering work traces the history and evolution of the textiles of Myanmar (Burma) made and used by the Burman (Bama) ethnic majority. Written accessibly, it covers the importance of textiles in many contexts as well as changes and innovation brought about by trade and conflict with neighboring states, British colonization, postwar isolation, and recent “open-door” policies. In addition to visiting the major textile centers, Sylvia Fraser-Lu ventured into the more remote areas of the Burman heartland to garner information on lesser-known textiles and those made by minorities. Profusely illustrated with on-site and archival photographs of weavers and heirloom textiles, as well as with diagrams and sketches, this book will be an important reference for textile scholars and art historians and for those interested in Burman culture.Trade Review"A new work on Myanmar's textile culture by Sylvia Fraser-Lu, arguably the foremost specialist on the subject, is exciting news for scholars and collectors of Southeast Asian textiles alike." * Asian Textiles *

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Book SynopsisSoutheast Asia is renowned for birds’ nests and the bird’s nest trade. A bird’s nest is often referred to as “White Gold” or “the Caviar of the East.” In Birds’ Nests: Business and Ethnicity in Southeast Asia, Kasem Jandam explores the history of using birds’ nests and outlines key aspects of the business: consumption and its impact on ecology and the environment, market innovations, and the legal system related to public, private, community, and nonexclusive economic nesting resources. This book also discusses the trade and relationships among ethnic groups and the influence of Hong Kong’s bird’s nest market on the bird’s nest business in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

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Book SynopsisIn Music and Recording in King Chulalongkorn’s Bangkok, James Leonard Mitchell provides the first comprehensive history of Siamese music during the celebrated reign of Rama V. Following up on his previous exploration of Thailand’s most popular music genre, luk thung, Mitchell focuses on the brief period from 1903 to 1910 when gramophone recording came to Siam and almost failed to capture valuable performances. Compiling research from the EMI Archive in London and the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin, along with years of fieldwork in Thailand, the book contains eighty-eight photographs, a discography of all known recordings from the era, and links to YouTube videos. This compelling volume reveals a story of Siamese musicians, European recording experts, and Chinese middlemen that will be of interest to scholars of Asian studies and music history.

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Book SynopsisDuring the past four decades an impressive corpus of manuscripts and epigraphical material in Thailand, Laos, and adjacent Tai-speaking areas has been surveyed, documented, and digitized. Scholarly interest in this material has not been restricted to philological and historical studies of the texts contained in manuscripts and inscriptions but has extended to its material aspects, which encompass manuscripts written on palm-leaf, various forms of paper, cloth, bamboo, and other organic material, and inscriptions on stone, metal, and wood. In Manuscript Cultures and Epigraphy of the Tai World, Volker Grabowsky seeks to explore the production, use, and transmission of manuscripts both as containers of traditional knowledge and as objects used in daily life, rituals, and ceremonies. Particular emphasis is given to the relationship between manuscripts and inscriptions, as both have influenced each other to no small degree. Through a comprehensive look at the Tai-language literature’s chronological and synchronic development, readers will learn the social importance of these literary productions.

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Book SynopsisThe Thai language has extraordinarily rich, varied, and multi-leveled vocabularies for sexual anatomy, behaviors, identities, and attitudes. The authors of this in-depth study deal directly with the language of sex in Thailand in all its raw, sometimes humorous, and often derogatory immediacy. The registers of spoken Thai (phasa phut), the language of the marketplace (phasa talat), official discourse (phasa ratchakan), literary usages (phasa khian), and technical and academic vocabularies (phasa wichakan) are all covered. Much more than a vocabulary list, this book engages the language of sex and sexuality in Thailand from critical feminist and queer studies perspectives. The authors take the positions of women, men who love men, women who love women, and transgenders as standpoints from which to critique the dominant male-centered and hetero-normative structures of Thai sexual culture. Thai Sex Talk showcases the path-breaking research that a new generation of Thai scholars is conducting on the country's sexual cultures.

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Book SynopsisThe combination of the focused study of ritual performance and traditional ethnography allows readers to witness the ritual practices and lives of members of a small, real-world community rendered virtually absent from the historical record.

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Book SynopsisThis work will help us connect with our past and enlighten the readers with the faultlines that have occurred over the centuries, and have led us where we are today.

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Book SynopsisThe contributions in this volume share a concern with state intervention and its effects on community formation in Bengal. It also contains essays which address those problems from a development perspective.

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Book SynopsisThis volume then, contributing to the debate on feminity in South Asian religion, should also be of interest to scholars dealing with gender in a broader perspective.

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Book SynopsisThis collection of essays covers a broad range of disciplines to produce a work that rethinks relationships and divisions in gender, geography, class relations, culture, and much more to create a true 'politics of the possible.'

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