New Distributed Titles Fall 2009 - Oxbow Books

cultural studies � anthropology
Konflikte – Mächte – Identitäten
edited by Martin Slama
The articles in this volume analyze the current conflicts, asymmetries of power, and
often-contested identities in today’s postcolonial Southeast Asia. Social anthropological
methods – such as detailed empirical studies and their long tradition of research on
ethnicity/identity – are particularly valuable when considering those parts of Southeast
Asia, especially peripheral regions and border zones, that are afflicted by violent conflicts.
While a number of articles in this volume focus on recent conflicts, others concentrate on
Southeast Asian concepts of power in general. They not only examine symbolic domination
structures, but also how concepts of power are imposed, used, and undermined in
everyday life, especially within gender relations.
324p, b/w illus, paperback, 9783700166092, $54.00(s), Austrian Academy of Sciences, October 2009,
Beiträge zur Sozialanthropologie Südostasiens.
Die Vermessung der Kultur
Der Atlas der deutschen
Volkskunde und die Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft 1928-1980
by Friedemann Schmoll
Der Atlas der deutschen Volkskunde (The Atlas
of German Folklore) is one of the biggest longterm
cultural research projects of 20th-century
Germany. Initiated after WW I and active under
the political systems of the Weimar Republic,
the Third Reich, the FRG and the GDR, several
generations of anthropologists worked on the survey and cartographic mapping of
a “folk culture” endangered by industrialization and modernization. Millions of data
were collected within and outside the German Reich that pertain to everyday life,
farm work, customs and conventions, feasts, holidays and rituals, diet, religious beliefs,
and more. German text.
331p, paperback, 9783515092982, $77.00(s), Franz Steiner Verlag, June 2009,
Studien zur Geschichte der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft 5.
Die Verkleinerung der Yakhautboote
Fischerkulturen in Zentral- und Südtibet
im sozioökonomischen Wandel des modernen China
by Diana Altner
Boats made from Yak skin – used as ferries or for fishing – were a hallmark of the rivers
of Central Tibet until the beginning of the last century. On the example of the last
fishing village in that region, this study analyzes the changes brought about by the
political, social, and economic transformations of modern China and their implications
for Central Tibet’s fishing industry and the Yak skin boats. German text.
284p, paperback, 9783447059039, $93.00(s), Harrassowitz Verlag, July 2009.
The Baloch and Their Neighbors
– The Baloch and Others
Two-Volume Set
edited by Agnes Korn and Carina Jahani
Makes available as a set two of Reichert Verlag’s important ethnographic works
on Balochistan: The Baloch and Their Neighbours: Ethnic and Linguistic Contact in
Balochistan in Historical and Modern Times (2003) and The Baloch and Others:
Linguistic, Historical and Socio-Political Perspectives on Pluralism in Balochistan
(2008).
2 vols, 780p, 17 maps, hardback, 9783895006821, $168.00(s), Reichert Verlag,
May 2009.
Briefwechsel Joseph Franz Rock
mit Johannes Schubert 1935–1961
edited by Manfred Taube
Joseph Franz Rock (1884–1962), born in Vienna and later a resident of Hawaii,
was well known as a botanist, geographer, philologist and linguist. From 1922
to 1949 he lived in China, where he studied the language and culture of the
Na-khi, a people living in Yunnan between the Han Chinese and the Tibetans.
Through his research, he became acquainted with the Tibetologist and Mongolist
Johannes Schubert (1896–1976), librarian at the University of Leipzig and later
professor at the Eastern Asian Institute of the same university. They corresponded
quite extensively for over a quarter of a century. Rock’s letters give a vivid picture
of his long stay among the Na-khi people, of his scientific research, and – following
his flight from China in 1949 – of his restless later life and his travels in
Asia, America and Europe. Much can also be learned about Schubert’s research
from his letters. German text.
316p, paperback, 9783700165637, $57.00(s), Austrian Academy of Sciences,
October 2009, Beiträge zur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens.
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