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Asian Cultural Traditions

Carolyn Brown Heinz

Lucid. Magisterial. Subtle. Engaging. This remarkable book has pretty much everything going for it. “If ever there was a time when Asia could be ignored, that time is not the present.” Thus begins the opening chapter of this important contribution to our understanding of the bewildering diversity that has existed and continues to exist in the cultures of South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. The first survey of its kind ever published, this volume reflects a great deal of knowledge, thought, curiosity, and style. Heinz, in a single, brief book, pulls together some of the major cultural strands by which people in Asian societies have organized their collective life and made their lives meaningful. Heinz effectively brings a range of disciplines into her account, drawing from anthropology, history, geography, linguistics, religious studies, art history, world literature, and political science.
 

$30.95 list, 416 pages

10-digit ISBN: 1-57766-043-9

13-digit ISBN: 978-1-57766-043-9

© 1999

“Heinz has accomplished something quite remarkable here. Lucid, magisterial, subtle, engaging—this book has pretty much everything going for it.”  — Don Brenneis, University of California, Santa Cruz

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

Culture Areas of Asia

2. Asia As Cultured Space

The “Great Collision” and Asian Landforms / Rivers / The Outer Ring of Islands / Monsoons / Monsoon Asia and Rice Adaptations / Origins of Rice Cultivation / Two Rice Cultures / Rice and the Green Revolution / Early Asians

3. Tongues, Texts, and Scripts

Voices from the Past / Making Family Connections: The Indo-Europeans / East Asian Homelands / Austroasiatic / Austro-Tai / Sino-Tibetan / Texts / “You Are Hurting My Language” / The Search for Sacred Texts / Scripts / Written Chinese / Korean and Japanese

4. Tribal Peoples

Tribe, State, and Ethnic Group / Ethnic Identity / The Colonial Theory of Ethnicity / How the Thai Became an Ethnic Group / The Premodern and Modern State / The Hmong of Thailand / Who Are the Miao? / Hmong in Thailand / The Transitory Community / Adaptation and Response: Opium / Fathers and Sons / “Silver Celebrates the Worth of Women” / Spirits, Domestic and Wild

5. India

An “Empire of the Spirit”? / The Moral Society / Dharma: The Moral Order of the Cosmos / The First Civilizations / Indus Valley Civilization (2300–1750 B.C.) / The Vedic Age (1500–450 B.C.) / A Tale of Two Kings: The Premodern Hindu State From Dan to Tax Collection / The Caste System / The Varna System / Pure and Impure / The Castes of Mithila / The Jajmani System / Dangerous Exchange of Substances / The Dharma of Women / Hinduism / Upanishadic Thought / Buddhism / Rediscovering Buddhism / The Four Periods of Buddhism / The Three Jewels of Buddhism / Islamic Civilization in India / The Islamic Conquerors

6. Southeast Asia

Four Stages of Southeast Asian History / The Prehistoric Period 2500–150 B.C. / Period of Indian Cultural Influence A.D. 100–1300 / The Period of Chinese and Islamic Influence, 1300–1750 / Theravada Buddhism and the Thai State / The Buddhist Ramayana / Buddhism and Popular Religion / The Soul and Other Spirit Entities / The Monkhood / Women in Theravada Buddhism

7. China

The Beginnings: Shang, Zhou, and Qin / “The Ruins of Yin” / The Uses of Bronze / Communicating with Heaven / Idealized Zhou Feudalism / Two Sages: Confucius and Laozi (Lao Tzu) / The First Emperor and the Unification of China / Emergence of the Confucian Elite (Shenshi) / The Buddhist Challenge to Confucian Civilization / Neo-Confucianism / The Confucian Model for Kinship and Gender / Ancestor Worship / Wealth, Power, and Morality in the Large Lineage / The Family in the Twentieth Century / Women in Confucian China

8. Japan

The Yamato State / Shinto, Folk and Imperial / The China Connection: Asuka, Nara, and Heian Periods / Buddhism Comes to Japan / The Failure of the Centralized State / Romance at Court / Warrior Culture in Feudal Japan / The Shogunate / The Samurai Class / Zen Buddhism and Samurai Culture / The Practice of Zen / Zen Buddhism’s Institutions / Zen Culture: Zen and the Arts

9. The Colonial Period

Trade in the Precolonial Period / European Empires in Asia / Portuguese Port Cities and Priests / English and Dutch Merchant Companies / Britain’s Indian Empire / China: Opium Wars and the Treaty Century / “Below the Winds”—Colonizing the Islands / Burma and Thailand / Vietnam / Cambodia / The Meiji Era