Description
Book SynopsisThe concept of friendship is more easily valued than it is described: this volume brings together reflections on its meaning and practice in a variety of social and cultural settings in history and in the present time, focusing on Asia and the Western, Euro-American world. The extension of the group in which friendship is recognized, and degrees of intimacy (whether or not involving an erotic dimension) and genuine appreciation may vary widely. Friendship may simply include kinship bonds—solidarity being one of its more general characteristics. In various contexts of travelling, migration, and a dearth of offspring, friendship may take over roles of kinship, also in terms of care.
Table of ContentsEditorial Foreword Andrew Fitz-Gibbon Preface List of Contributors Introduction: Conceptualizing Friendship in Time and Place Carla Risseeuw and Marlein van Raalte SECTION : Classical Asian Sources and Traditions 1 The Chinese Concept of Friendship: Confucian Ethics and the Literati Narratives of Pre-Modern China Ping Wang 2 The Concept of Friendship in the Jātaka Tales Ranjini Obeyesekere SECTION : Western/European Traditions 3 Friendship after Money: The Case of Classical Greece Tazuko van Berkel 4 The Road to Wisdom: A New Conceptualization of Friendship in Fourth-Century bce Athens Albert Joosse 5 Historical Moments of Friendship Ideals: David & Jonathan, Montaigne, Adam Smith Allan Silver 6 Friendship in the European Enlightenment: The Rationalization of Intimacy? Adam Sutcliffe SECTION 3: Friendship in Contemporary East and West 7 The Utility of ‘Translated’ Friendship for the Sinophone World: Past and Present Wei-cheng Chu 8 Intimate Relationships between Women as Romantic Love in Modern Japan Kanako Akaeda 9 Impartiality, Close Friendships and the Confucian Tradition Andrew Lambert 10 The Performance of Friendship in Contemporary India Nita Kumar 11 Shades of Friendship among Thai Women in the Netherlands Panitee Brown Suksomboon 12 On Family, Friendship and the Need for ‘Cultural Fuss’: Changing Trajectories of Family and Friendship in the Netherlands Carla Risseeuw 13 Civil Friendship: A Proposal for Legal Bonds Based on Friendship and Care Natascha Gruver Index Nominum General Index
