Kategoria BISAC: Social Science >> Ethnic Studies - General

The subject of anti-Semitism, not long ago thought to be a dead issue, has been revised due to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Maccoby traces the now topical discussion of the origins of Anti-Semitism, and especially its development in the modern world. The key questions that are addressed include:

• How is it that this medieval prejudice proved so lasting and potent?
• Are the roots of anti-Semitism religious? If so, how do these roots differ in Christianity and Islam?
• By what means did it bridge the gap between...

This book provides an overview of the current state of Malaysia, looking at political and economic developments and at governance, and discussing the impact of ethnicity, patronage and the reform movement. Apart from discussing issues such as Islamisation and identity transformations within Malaysian society, it reviews policies like privatisation and provides an examination of business enterprise, exploring how control of 'corporate Malaysia' is interlinked with political developments. This study's primary focus is an analysis of why the reform movement failed to secure substantial...

Recent political changes in Central Asia, where the United States is replacing Russia as the dominant power, are having a profound effect on Russian speakers in the region. These people, formerly perceived as progressive and engaging with Europe, are now confronted by the erasure of their literary, musical, cinematic and journalistic culture, as local ethnic and American cultures become much stronger.

This book examines the predicament of Russian culture in Central Asia, looking at literature, language, cinema, music, and religion. It argues that the Soviet past was much more...

Despite their small area, the southern islands of Japan can be seen as stepping stones towards a more nuanced view of cultural osmosis between Japan and the outside world. This book presents an ethnographic portrayal of the people of the Southern Ryukyu Islands and their world. In particular it explores the mind of the islanders, their relationship with the natural world, their social relationships, and the rituals which represent and give expression to these relationships.

Based on extensive original research, including participant observation, the book allows the authentic voices...

White Rage examines the development of the modern American extreme right and American politics from the 1950s to the present day. It explores the full panoply of extreme right groups, from the remnants of the Ku Klux Klan to skinhead groups and from the militia groups to neo-nazis.

In developing its argument the book:

• discusses the American extreme right in the context of the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11 and the Bush administration;
• explores the American extreme right's divisions and its pursuit of alliances;
• analyses the movement's...

Meeting the ever increasing interest in Islam and Sufism, this book is the first comprehensive study of Sufi Qur anic commentaries and includes translations of many writings previously unavailable in English. It examines the shared hermeneutical assumptions of Sufi writers and the diversity in style of Sufi commentaries. Some of the assumptions analyzed are:

* the Qur an is a multi-layered and ambiguous text open to endless interpretation

* the knowledge of deeper meanings of the Qur an is attainable by means other than transmitted interpretations and...

This is a comprehensive overview on aspects of Taiwan's recent defence reforms. Including sections on the threat from China, relations with the United States, the domestic context of reform and specific defence issues, this book is an invaluable guide to the changes undertaken and underway within Taiwan's strategic environment.

Peter Wien presents a provocative discussion on the history of Iraq and the growth of nationalism during the 1930s and early 1940s. He deconstructs the established view that a large proportion of the nationalist movement in Iraq during this period was heavily influenced by Nazi Germany, arguing that the admiration for Germany was highly nuanced, and only rarely translated into admiration for Nazism. National unity and patriotism were important, but models of leadership were overwhelmingly based on Iraqis and not Hitler.

Analyzing the activities of the Iraqi youth and Jewish Iraqis,...

Regionalism has played an increasingly important role in the changing international relations of East Asia in recent decades, with early signs of integration and growing regional cooperation. This in-depth volume analyzes various historical approaches to the construction of a regional order and a regional identity in East Asia. It explores the ideology of Pan-Asianism as a predecessor of contemporary Asian regionalism, which served as the basis for efforts at regional integration in East Asia, but also as a tool for legitimizing Japanese colonial rule. This mobilization of the Asian...

This is the first English-language survey of Pakistan's socio-economic evolution. Mohammad Qadeer gives an essential overview of social and cultural transformation in Pakistan since independence, which is crucial to understanding Pakistan's likely future direction.

Pakistan examines how tradition and family life continue to contribute long term stability, and explores the areas where very rapid changes are taking place: large population increase, urbanization, economic development, and the nature of civil society and the state. It offers an insightful view into Pakistan,...

Examining the history and intellectual activity of the medieval Svetambara Jain renunciant order, the Tapa Gaccha, this book focuses on the consolidation by the Tapa Gaccha from the thirteenth century of its identity as the leading Svetambara order. The author argues that this was variously effected by negotiating the primacy of lineage, the posthumous divinity of one of its leaders, the validity of styles of scriptural exegesis and customary practice and the status of non-Jains through the medium of chronicles and poetry and polemical engagement with other Jain orders and dissident...

Medieval Arabic Historiography is concerned with social contexts and narrative structures of pre-modern Islamic historiography written in Arabic in seventh and thirteenth-century Syria and Eygpt. Taking up recent theoretical reflections on historical writing in the European Middle Ages, this extraordinary study combines approaches drawn from social sciences and literary studies, with a particular focus on two well-known texts: Abu Shama's The Book of the Two Gardens, and Ibn Wasil's The Dissipater of Anxieties. These texts describe events during the life...