Farah Godrej
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199782062
- eISBN:
- 9780199919123
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199782062.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, Comparative Politics
This book takes cosmopolitanism as its central problematic, asking the question of what it might mean for the very practices of political theorizing to be cosmopolitan? It suggest that methodological ...
More
This book takes cosmopolitanism as its central problematic, asking the question of what it might mean for the very practices of political theorizing to be cosmopolitan? It suggest that methodological questions about the practice of what is commonly called comparative political theory—namely, the substantive and methodological turn beyond ideas and modes of inquiry determined by the West—are intimately and necessarily linked to the reenvisioning of political theory as a more cosmopolitan endeavour. It is therefore an argument for applying the idea of cosmopolitanism—understood in a particular way—to the discipline of political theory itself. It argues that reflections about four crucial methodological questions constitute this cosmopolitan intervention: the choice of units of analysis, the methods for interpreting non-Western texts and ideas, the application of these ideas transculturally across geographical boundaries, and the deconstruction of Eurocentrism. Taken together, each of these interventions calls upon the scholar to examine her own location as both insider and outsider to various traditions at different times, often dislocating herself through immersion within foreign civilizations, as well as relocating herself within her former disciplinary home and bringing new insights to bear on it. Examples used to illuminate these reflections will be taken from Gandhi’s political thought.Less
This book takes cosmopolitanism as its central problematic, asking the question of what it might mean for the very practices of political theorizing to be cosmopolitan? It suggest that methodological questions about the practice of what is commonly called comparative political theory—namely, the substantive and methodological turn beyond ideas and modes of inquiry determined by the West—are intimately and necessarily linked to the reenvisioning of political theory as a more cosmopolitan endeavour. It is therefore an argument for applying the idea of cosmopolitanism—understood in a particular way—to the discipline of political theory itself. It argues that reflections about four crucial methodological questions constitute this cosmopolitan intervention: the choice of units of analysis, the methods for interpreting non-Western texts and ideas, the application of these ideas transculturally across geographical boundaries, and the deconstruction of Eurocentrism. Taken together, each of these interventions calls upon the scholar to examine her own location as both insider and outsider to various traditions at different times, often dislocating herself through immersion within foreign civilizations, as well as relocating herself within her former disciplinary home and bringing new insights to bear on it. Examples used to illuminate these reflections will be taken from Gandhi’s political thought.
Farah Godrej
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199782062
- eISBN:
- 9780199919123
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199782062.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, Comparative Politics
Chapter 4 turns to the question of “self-relocation,” which refers to the relocation of the site of experience and understanding within the Western academy, using the knowledges, methods and ...
More
Chapter 4 turns to the question of “self-relocation,” which refers to the relocation of the site of experience and understanding within the Western academy, using the knowledges, methods and practices of inquiry gained from the dislocation process, and bringing them to bear on traditionally-learned frames and modes of inquiry. This chapter presents two possible models or modes of transcultural learning. The first one suggests that texts can speak polyvocally, and that creative interpretation across time and space is a necessary outcome of transcultural borrowing. In so doing, texts and ideas will often mutate in a piecemeal manner, leading to the transcultural application of ideas in a discrete, fractured and disaggregated manner. The second suggests that the only appropriate method of importing texts or ideas across cultural boundaries is one that faithfully preserves organic, holistic nature of the idea or text. Using Gandhi’s theory of nonviolence or ahimsa as an illuminating lens, I argue that pitfalls of transcultural borrowing and creative learning underscore the crucial importance of prior existential engagement with traditions and their cultural products.Less
Chapter 4 turns to the question of “self-relocation,” which refers to the relocation of the site of experience and understanding within the Western academy, using the knowledges, methods and practices of inquiry gained from the dislocation process, and bringing them to bear on traditionally-learned frames and modes of inquiry. This chapter presents two possible models or modes of transcultural learning. The first one suggests that texts can speak polyvocally, and that creative interpretation across time and space is a necessary outcome of transcultural borrowing. In so doing, texts and ideas will often mutate in a piecemeal manner, leading to the transcultural application of ideas in a discrete, fractured and disaggregated manner. The second suggests that the only appropriate method of importing texts or ideas across cultural boundaries is one that faithfully preserves organic, holistic nature of the idea or text. Using Gandhi’s theory of nonviolence or ahimsa as an illuminating lens, I argue that pitfalls of transcultural borrowing and creative learning underscore the crucial importance of prior existential engagement with traditions and their cultural products.
Engseng Ho
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520244535
- eISBN:
- 9780520938694
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520244535.003.0008
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Middle Eastern Cultural Anthropology
This chapter discusses the key findings of the second section of this book about the genealogical travel writings of the Hadramis. The focus of this section is mainly on the Hadrami sayyids who ...
More
This chapter discusses the key findings of the second section of this book about the genealogical travel writings of the Hadramis. The focus of this section is mainly on the Hadrami sayyids who combined their genealogies with other textual genres such as mysticism, history, and law. This chapter discusses how the Hadrami canon that evolved in the diaspora articulated a universalizing narrative of Prophetic mission in a language of names. It also considers the genealogies of the Hadrami diaspora as traveling texts that enable persons to travel transculturally.Less
This chapter discusses the key findings of the second section of this book about the genealogical travel writings of the Hadramis. The focus of this section is mainly on the Hadrami sayyids who combined their genealogies with other textual genres such as mysticism, history, and law. This chapter discusses how the Hadrami canon that evolved in the diaspora articulated a universalizing narrative of Prophetic mission in a language of names. It also considers the genealogies of the Hadrami diaspora as traveling texts that enable persons to travel transculturally.
Huib Schippers
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195379754
- eISBN:
- 9780199864386
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379754.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter presents a conceptual survey of approaches to cultural diversity for music educators, examining the myriad terms used to refer to cultural diversity and world music. The meaning of these ...
More
This chapter presents a conceptual survey of approaches to cultural diversity for music educators, examining the myriad terms used to refer to cultural diversity and world music. The meaning of these terms is explored, and their interpretations are linked to current discourses in ethnomusicology and music education, using the writings of Swanwick, Reimer and Elliott as springboard. The chapter specifically explores the history of the term world music and its many predecessors (including ethnic music, folk music, migrant music, international music, and world beat), as well as four different approaches to cultural diversity (monocultural, multicultural, intercultural, and transcultural), analysing how each of these influences approaches and preconceptions.Less
This chapter presents a conceptual survey of approaches to cultural diversity for music educators, examining the myriad terms used to refer to cultural diversity and world music. The meaning of these terms is explored, and their interpretations are linked to current discourses in ethnomusicology and music education, using the writings of Swanwick, Reimer and Elliott as springboard. The chapter specifically explores the history of the term world music and its many predecessors (including ethnic music, folk music, migrant music, international music, and world beat), as well as four different approaches to cultural diversity (monocultural, multicultural, intercultural, and transcultural), analysing how each of these influences approaches and preconceptions.
Wendy Laura Belcher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199793211
- eISBN:
- 9780199949700
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793211.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, World Literature
As a very young man, one of the most celebrated English authors of the eighteenth century translated a tome about Ethiopia. This experience permanently marked Samuel Johnson, leaving traces of the ...
More
As a very young man, one of the most celebrated English authors of the eighteenth century translated a tome about Ethiopia. This experience permanently marked Samuel Johnson, leaving traces of the African discourse he encountered in that text in his drama Irene;several of his short stories; and his most famous fiction, Rasselas. This book provides a much needed perspective in comparative literature and postcolonial studies on the power of the discourse of the other to infuse European texts. This book illuminates how the Western literary canon is globally produced by developing the powerful metaphor of spirit possession to posit some texts in the European canon as energumens, texts that are spoken through. The model of discursive possession offers a new way of theorizing transcultural intertextuality, in particular how Europe’s others have co-constituted European representations. Through close readings of primary and secondary sources in English, French, Portuguese, and Gəʿəz, the book challenges conventional wisdom on Johnson’s work, from the inspiration for the name Rasselas and the nature of Johnson’s religious beliefs to what makes Rasselas so strange.Less
As a very young man, one of the most celebrated English authors of the eighteenth century translated a tome about Ethiopia. This experience permanently marked Samuel Johnson, leaving traces of the African discourse he encountered in that text in his drama Irene;several of his short stories; and his most famous fiction, Rasselas. This book provides a much needed perspective in comparative literature and postcolonial studies on the power of the discourse of the other to infuse European texts. This book illuminates how the Western literary canon is globally produced by developing the powerful metaphor of spirit possession to posit some texts in the European canon as energumens, texts that are spoken through. The model of discursive possession offers a new way of theorizing transcultural intertextuality, in particular how Europe’s others have co-constituted European representations. Through close readings of primary and secondary sources in English, French, Portuguese, and Gəʿəz, the book challenges conventional wisdom on Johnson’s work, from the inspiration for the name Rasselas and the nature of Johnson’s religious beliefs to what makes Rasselas so strange.
Rupert Richard Arrowsmith
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199593699
- eISBN:
- 9780191595684
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199593699.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This book proposes an entirely new way of looking at the evolution of Modernist art and literature in the West. It shows that existing surveys of Modernism tend to treat the early stages of the ...
More
This book proposes an entirely new way of looking at the evolution of Modernist art and literature in the West. It shows that existing surveys of Modernism tend to treat the early stages of the movement as a purely European phenomenon, and fail to take account of the powerful and direct influence of Asia, Africa, and the Pacific islands operating via museums and exhibitions, particularly in London. The book presents the poet Ezra Pound and the sculptor Jacob Epstein as two seminal figures whose development of a Modernist aesthetic depended almost entirely on innovations adapted from extra-European visual art, and makes similar revelations about the work of related figures such as Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Eric Gill, T. E. Hulme, Laurence Binyon, Richard Aldington, Amy Lowell, Charles Holden, William Rothenstein, Ford Madox Ford, James Gould Fletcher, James Havard Thomas, W. B. Yeats, and D. H. Lawrence. The writing is rigorously historical, and a large quantity of previously unpublished evidence is made available from the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Institute of British architects, the Tate Gallery, and several private collections. The book positions the museums of London —and especially the British Museum —as the West's most significant hub of transcultural aesthetic exchange during the early twentieth century. It essentially proposes that, far from representing a development rooted in provincial European culture, early Modernism was in fact the result of an unprecedented willingness in the avant-garde of the West to learn from the rest of the world.Less
This book proposes an entirely new way of looking at the evolution of Modernist art and literature in the West. It shows that existing surveys of Modernism tend to treat the early stages of the movement as a purely European phenomenon, and fail to take account of the powerful and direct influence of Asia, Africa, and the Pacific islands operating via museums and exhibitions, particularly in London. The book presents the poet Ezra Pound and the sculptor Jacob Epstein as two seminal figures whose development of a Modernist aesthetic depended almost entirely on innovations adapted from extra-European visual art, and makes similar revelations about the work of related figures such as Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Eric Gill, T. E. Hulme, Laurence Binyon, Richard Aldington, Amy Lowell, Charles Holden, William Rothenstein, Ford Madox Ford, James Gould Fletcher, James Havard Thomas, W. B. Yeats, and D. H. Lawrence. The writing is rigorously historical, and a large quantity of previously unpublished evidence is made available from the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Institute of British architects, the Tate Gallery, and several private collections. The book positions the museums of London —and especially the British Museum —as the West's most significant hub of transcultural aesthetic exchange during the early twentieth century. It essentially proposes that, far from representing a development rooted in provincial European culture, early Modernism was in fact the result of an unprecedented willingness in the avant-garde of the West to learn from the rest of the world.
Tony Williams (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9789888208166
- eISBN:
- 9789888313488
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208166.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This edited volume offers the first comprehensive survey of the cinema of Evans Chan, a New York–based playwright, author, and filmmaker whose acclaimed films include To Liv(e), The Map of Sex and ...
More
This edited volume offers the first comprehensive survey of the cinema of Evans Chan, a New York–based playwright, author, and filmmaker whose acclaimed films include To Liv(e), The Map of Sex and Love, and Datong. In this collection of essays on Chan’s documentary and feature films seven experts on cultural and film studies examine the unique blending of fictional representation, historical investigation, and critical essayism that characterize Chan’s oeuvre. They discuss how Chan’s work brings out the contradictory nature of the distant and recent past through his exploration of Hong Kong’s rapid transformation before and after reunification with China in 1997. The volume concludes with an interview with Evans Chan on his work to date.Less
This edited volume offers the first comprehensive survey of the cinema of Evans Chan, a New York–based playwright, author, and filmmaker whose acclaimed films include To Liv(e), The Map of Sex and Love, and Datong. In this collection of essays on Chan’s documentary and feature films seven experts on cultural and film studies examine the unique blending of fictional representation, historical investigation, and critical essayism that characterize Chan’s oeuvre. They discuss how Chan’s work brings out the contradictory nature of the distant and recent past through his exploration of Hong Kong’s rapid transformation before and after reunification with China in 1997. The volume concludes with an interview with Evans Chan on his work to date.
Dorothea Fischer-Hornung and Monika Mueller (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781496804747
- eISBN:
- 9781496804785
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496804747.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The undead are very much alive in the contemporary cultural imaginary. Monsters in general, and vampires and zombies specifically, have garnered a generous amount of attention in print media, cinema, ...
More
The undead are very much alive in the contemporary cultural imaginary. Monsters in general, and vampires and zombies specifically, have garnered a generous amount of attention in print media, cinema, and on television. The vampire, with its roots in medieval European folklore, and the zombie, with its origins in Afro-Caribbean voodoo mythology, find multiple transformations in global culture and continue to function as deviant representatives of zeitgeist. As the authors in this volume demonstrate, the transspacial and transtemporal distributions of vampires and zombies have revealed the figures to be highly variable signifiers. Currently, of all monsters, vampires and zombies seem to be the most trendy—the most humanly embodied of the undead and the most frequently paired monsters in the media and popular culture.Moreover, both figures have experienced radical reinterpretation in the context of contemporary cultural concerns. If in the past vampires were evil, blood-sucking exploiters and zombies were brainless victims, they now have metamorphosed into kinder and gentler vampires and cruel, flesh-eating zombies. Further, they have simultaneously contracted and expanded gender, race and class roles, at once confirming and deconstructing these concepts. Although the portrayal of both vampires and zombies can be traced to specific regions and predates mass media, the introduction of mass distribution through film and game technologies has served to significantly modify their depiction over time and in various locations. This volume—authored by scholars from different national and cultural backgrounds—explores some of these transformations the vampire and zombie figures experience when they travel globally and through various media.Less
The undead are very much alive in the contemporary cultural imaginary. Monsters in general, and vampires and zombies specifically, have garnered a generous amount of attention in print media, cinema, and on television. The vampire, with its roots in medieval European folklore, and the zombie, with its origins in Afro-Caribbean voodoo mythology, find multiple transformations in global culture and continue to function as deviant representatives of zeitgeist. As the authors in this volume demonstrate, the transspacial and transtemporal distributions of vampires and zombies have revealed the figures to be highly variable signifiers. Currently, of all monsters, vampires and zombies seem to be the most trendy—the most humanly embodied of the undead and the most frequently paired monsters in the media and popular culture.Moreover, both figures have experienced radical reinterpretation in the context of contemporary cultural concerns. If in the past vampires were evil, blood-sucking exploiters and zombies were brainless victims, they now have metamorphosed into kinder and gentler vampires and cruel, flesh-eating zombies. Further, they have simultaneously contracted and expanded gender, race and class roles, at once confirming and deconstructing these concepts. Although the portrayal of both vampires and zombies can be traced to specific regions and predates mass media, the introduction of mass distribution through film and game technologies has served to significantly modify their depiction over time and in various locations. This volume—authored by scholars from different national and cultural backgrounds—explores some of these transformations the vampire and zombie figures experience when they travel globally and through various media.
Wendy Laura Belcher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199793211
- eISBN:
- 9780199949700
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793211.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, World Literature
The introduction delineates models of transcultural contact and notes their limits. It then lays out the model of discursive possession and textual energumens, addresses possible challenges to the ...
More
The introduction delineates models of transcultural contact and notes their limits. It then lays out the model of discursive possession and textual energumens, addresses possible challenges to the model, and provides two instructive examples of spirit possession from West and East Africa. Finally, it addresses the vexed terms “Africa,” “Europe,” “Ethiopia,” and the “Habesha” (the name of the people of the highlands of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea who are the focus of this book) and describes how the terms are used.Less
The introduction delineates models of transcultural contact and notes their limits. It then lays out the model of discursive possession and textual energumens, addresses possible challenges to the model, and provides two instructive examples of spirit possession from West and East Africa. Finally, it addresses the vexed terms “Africa,” “Europe,” “Ethiopia,” and the “Habesha” (the name of the people of the highlands of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea who are the focus of this book) and describes how the terms are used.
Brett Hendrickson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479834785
- eISBN:
- 9781479843015
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479834785.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book has explored how transcultural exchanges have occurred between Mexican American folk healers and Anglo American patients. It has also discussed the impact of Mexican American religious and ...
More
This book has explored how transcultural exchanges have occurred between Mexican American folk healers and Anglo American patients. It has also discussed the impact of Mexican American religious and folk healing traditions not only on Mexican Americans but also on a small but significant number of non-Mexican American patients. It has shown that the narrative predispositions of Mexican American folk healing have encountered channels of convergence with the predispositions of the American metaphysical tradition, making transcultural healing a possibility. One positive outcome of this transcultural exchange is that curanderismo has established a place for itself in the expanding world of complementary and alternative medicine. It has also allowed some curanderos in the United States to reconnect with the perceived indigenous roots of Mexican American religious healing.Less
This book has explored how transcultural exchanges have occurred between Mexican American folk healers and Anglo American patients. It has also discussed the impact of Mexican American religious and folk healing traditions not only on Mexican Americans but also on a small but significant number of non-Mexican American patients. It has shown that the narrative predispositions of Mexican American folk healing have encountered channels of convergence with the predispositions of the American metaphysical tradition, making transcultural healing a possibility. One positive outcome of this transcultural exchange is that curanderismo has established a place for itself in the expanding world of complementary and alternative medicine. It has also allowed some curanderos in the United States to reconnect with the perceived indigenous roots of Mexican American religious healing.
Esha Niyogi De
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198072553
- eISBN:
- 9780199080915
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198072553.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
This concluding chapter looks at the contextual studies of the transcultural autonomous self within the current debate on humanism between poststructuralist/postmodern and liberal feminist thinkers. ...
More
This concluding chapter looks at the contextual studies of the transcultural autonomous self within the current debate on humanism between poststructuralist/postmodern and liberal feminist thinkers. It states that a study of the autonomous person as an agent of decolonization is able to identify gender and women's issues. The concept of sexual justice is examined. Moreover, it looks at the different indigenous feminist thinkers who have embarked on a transcultural and multilayered conceptions of woman-centered autonomy. The chapter also discusses the conception of a woman as an individual and men and women's conceptions of autonomy. The author also argues that the feminists who continuously struggle to decolonize the neoliberal world would find that the Enlightenment's emancipatory hope in the autonomous person is extremely helpful.Less
This concluding chapter looks at the contextual studies of the transcultural autonomous self within the current debate on humanism between poststructuralist/postmodern and liberal feminist thinkers. It states that a study of the autonomous person as an agent of decolonization is able to identify gender and women's issues. The concept of sexual justice is examined. Moreover, it looks at the different indigenous feminist thinkers who have embarked on a transcultural and multilayered conceptions of woman-centered autonomy. The chapter also discusses the conception of a woman as an individual and men and women's conceptions of autonomy. The author also argues that the feminists who continuously struggle to decolonize the neoliberal world would find that the Enlightenment's emancipatory hope in the autonomous person is extremely helpful.
Esha Niyogi De
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198072553
- eISBN:
- 9780199080915
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198072553.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
This introductory chapter examines the postcolonial and subaltern theoretical models of agency, which are founded on a position against Enlightenment individualism. The chapter studies a few Western ...
More
This introductory chapter examines the postcolonial and subaltern theoretical models of agency, which are founded on a position against Enlightenment individualism. The chapter studies a few Western intellectual premises of this position and attempts to pinpoint where the basic position can be considered inadequate for modern Bengali and Anglophone texts. Most of this chapter concentrates on a definition of a critical apparatus. Such apparatus is predominantly used for reading how the individual autonomy and transhistorical agency elaborate on material grounds simultaneously. Furthermore, the chapter brings to light sections on the feminist transcultural individuation, anti-enlightenment critique, postcolonial theories, gendered indigenous engagement, and responsible evaluation.Less
This introductory chapter examines the postcolonial and subaltern theoretical models of agency, which are founded on a position against Enlightenment individualism. The chapter studies a few Western intellectual premises of this position and attempts to pinpoint where the basic position can be considered inadequate for modern Bengali and Anglophone texts. Most of this chapter concentrates on a definition of a critical apparatus. Such apparatus is predominantly used for reading how the individual autonomy and transhistorical agency elaborate on material grounds simultaneously. Furthermore, the chapter brings to light sections on the feminist transcultural individuation, anti-enlightenment critique, postcolonial theories, gendered indigenous engagement, and responsible evaluation.
Gabriela Curie
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197266564
- eISBN:
- 9780191889394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266564.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
Visual representations of music-making from ancient Gandhāra—a region in today’s north-western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan—bear witness to the early dissemination of music instruments and ...
More
Visual representations of music-making from ancient Gandhāra—a region in today’s north-western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan—bear witness to the early dissemination of music instruments and iconographic practices, as part of the intellectual and artistic exchanges along Eurasian trade routes during the early centuries of the Common Era. At the intersection of cultural spheres—Buddhist, Hellenistic and Zoroastrian; Indian and Persian; Kuṣāṇa, Parthian and Indo-Scythian—Gandhāran musical culture offers one perfect, albeit challenging, example of a nexus of transcultural expression. The entangled organological and iconographical histories embedded in Gandhāran artefacts lend themselves to transcultural analysis, and to the understanding of pre-modern processes of musical globalisation, encounter, exchange and hybridisation or entanglement. Since the Gandhāran world partakes in the networks of the Silk Roads as both a ‘receiver’ and ‘transmitter’ of culture, it seems to display cultural cosmopolitanism par excellence: a nexus of both centripetal and centrifugal transcultural music-iconographical and organological negotiations.Less
Visual representations of music-making from ancient Gandhāra—a region in today’s north-western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan—bear witness to the early dissemination of music instruments and iconographic practices, as part of the intellectual and artistic exchanges along Eurasian trade routes during the early centuries of the Common Era. At the intersection of cultural spheres—Buddhist, Hellenistic and Zoroastrian; Indian and Persian; Kuṣāṇa, Parthian and Indo-Scythian—Gandhāran musical culture offers one perfect, albeit challenging, example of a nexus of transcultural expression. The entangled organological and iconographical histories embedded in Gandhāran artefacts lend themselves to transcultural analysis, and to the understanding of pre-modern processes of musical globalisation, encounter, exchange and hybridisation or entanglement. Since the Gandhāran world partakes in the networks of the Silk Roads as both a ‘receiver’ and ‘transmitter’ of culture, it seems to display cultural cosmopolitanism par excellence: a nexus of both centripetal and centrifugal transcultural music-iconographical and organological negotiations.
Brett Hendrickson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479834785
- eISBN:
- 9781479843015
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479834785.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Mexican American folk and religious healing, often referred to as curanderismo, has been a vital part of life in the Mexico–U.S. border region for centuries. A hybrid tradition made up primarily of ...
More
Mexican American folk and religious healing, often referred to as curanderismo, has been a vital part of life in the Mexico–U.S. border region for centuries. A hybrid tradition made up primarily of indigenous and Iberian Catholic pharmacopeias, rituals, and notions of the self, curanderismo treats the sick person with a variety of healing modalities including herbal remedies, intercessory prayer, body massage, and energy manipulation. Curanderos, “healers,” embrace a holistic understanding of the patient, including body, soul, and community. This book examines the ongoing evolution of Mexican American religious healing from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. Illuminating the ways in which curanderismo has had an impact not only on the health and culture of the borderlands but also far beyond, the book tracks its expansion from Mexican American communities to Anglo and multiethnic contexts. While many healers treat Mexican and Mexican American clientele, a significant number of curanderos have worked with patients from other ethnic groups as well, especially those involved in North American metaphysical religions like spiritualism, mesmerism, New Thought, New Age, and energy-based alternative medicines. The book explores this point of contact as an experience of transcultural exchange. Drawing on historical archives, colonial-era medical texts and accounts, early ethnographies of the region, newspaper articles, memoirs, and contemporary healing guidebooks as well as interviews with contemporary healers, the book demonstrates the notable and ongoing influence of Mexican Americans on cultural and religious practices in the United States, especially in the American West.Less
Mexican American folk and religious healing, often referred to as curanderismo, has been a vital part of life in the Mexico–U.S. border region for centuries. A hybrid tradition made up primarily of indigenous and Iberian Catholic pharmacopeias, rituals, and notions of the self, curanderismo treats the sick person with a variety of healing modalities including herbal remedies, intercessory prayer, body massage, and energy manipulation. Curanderos, “healers,” embrace a holistic understanding of the patient, including body, soul, and community. This book examines the ongoing evolution of Mexican American religious healing from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. Illuminating the ways in which curanderismo has had an impact not only on the health and culture of the borderlands but also far beyond, the book tracks its expansion from Mexican American communities to Anglo and multiethnic contexts. While many healers treat Mexican and Mexican American clientele, a significant number of curanderos have worked with patients from other ethnic groups as well, especially those involved in North American metaphysical religions like spiritualism, mesmerism, New Thought, New Age, and energy-based alternative medicines. The book explores this point of contact as an experience of transcultural exchange. Drawing on historical archives, colonial-era medical texts and accounts, early ethnographies of the region, newspaper articles, memoirs, and contemporary healing guidebooks as well as interviews with contemporary healers, the book demonstrates the notable and ongoing influence of Mexican Americans on cultural and religious practices in the United States, especially in the American West.
Dirk Hoerder
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199731633
- eISBN:
- 9780199894420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731633.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
“Transnational” has become a catchword. Political categories, like bordered nation-states and empires, fail to capture the experiences of labor migrants, who, like nonmigrants, were socialized in ...
More
“Transnational” has become a catchword. Political categories, like bordered nation-states and empires, fail to capture the experiences of labor migrants, who, like nonmigrants, were socialized in localities and regions, which did not always begin or end at imposed borderlines. Thus, it is necessary to superimpose on political-legal frameworks worldwide economic spaces, including sectoral linkages across borders—specific forms of work and specific economic sectors rather than states and national economies attract working men and women to move to new locales. To capture the meaning of such processes requires attention to the agency of migrants and the spaces they create (macro)regionally through migration systems and acculturation into communities. Transcultural spaces need to be determined empirically from labor market options and cultural insertion or exclusion.Less
“Transnational” has become a catchword. Political categories, like bordered nation-states and empires, fail to capture the experiences of labor migrants, who, like nonmigrants, were socialized in localities and regions, which did not always begin or end at imposed borderlines. Thus, it is necessary to superimpose on political-legal frameworks worldwide economic spaces, including sectoral linkages across borders—specific forms of work and specific economic sectors rather than states and national economies attract working men and women to move to new locales. To capture the meaning of such processes requires attention to the agency of migrants and the spaces they create (macro)regionally through migration systems and acculturation into communities. Transcultural spaces need to be determined empirically from labor market options and cultural insertion or exclusion.
Bill Ashcroft
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452208
- eISBN:
- 9780801469206
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452208.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This chapter seeks to discuss a production of “presence” that is not so much a moment of aesthetic intensity as it is a moment of cultural transformation. Such presence may be seen to occur in ...
More
This chapter seeks to discuss a production of “presence” that is not so much a moment of aesthetic intensity as it is a moment of cultural transformation. Such presence may be seen to occur in transcultural encounters, particularly in the reading of cross-cultural literature. Hence the chapter looks to postcolonial poetry in translation to demonstrate how the construct of “transcultural presence,” developed through analysis of reading, proposes a more constructive dialogue, a zone of contact that produces a new cultural space based on the possibility of meaning beyond interpretation. The payoff for such an approach, as this chapter demonstrates, is that “otherness” is encouraged but not captured in the act of interpretative writing.Less
This chapter seeks to discuss a production of “presence” that is not so much a moment of aesthetic intensity as it is a moment of cultural transformation. Such presence may be seen to occur in transcultural encounters, particularly in the reading of cross-cultural literature. Hence the chapter looks to postcolonial poetry in translation to demonstrate how the construct of “transcultural presence,” developed through analysis of reading, proposes a more constructive dialogue, a zone of contact that produces a new cultural space based on the possibility of meaning beyond interpretation. The payoff for such an approach, as this chapter demonstrates, is that “otherness” is encouraged but not captured in the act of interpretative writing.
Ranjan Ghosh
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452208
- eISBN:
- 9780801469206
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452208.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This concluding chapter reflects on the poetics of “presence” and the promise of the movement for scholarship to come. In a transcultural reading of literature presence is about mediation, ...
More
This concluding chapter reflects on the poetics of “presence” and the promise of the movement for scholarship to come. In a transcultural reading of literature presence is about mediation, negotiation, and eventual transformation. Morphogenetically, there is a continuity of presence—the presence-continuous—that keeps aesthetic experiences “tense.” This conjugality of presence and literature helps in forming the phenomenon this chapter terms “becoming aesthetic.” Presence works within the aesthetic and the postaesthetic of literature. Transculturally, beyond the compulsive duress of interpretation, our experiences of literature are brought home in a mix of unmethodicity and unacknowledged sociocultural influences that then work continuously and imperceptibly into our appreciation of the world or world-making.Less
This concluding chapter reflects on the poetics of “presence” and the promise of the movement for scholarship to come. In a transcultural reading of literature presence is about mediation, negotiation, and eventual transformation. Morphogenetically, there is a continuity of presence—the presence-continuous—that keeps aesthetic experiences “tense.” This conjugality of presence and literature helps in forming the phenomenon this chapter terms “becoming aesthetic.” Presence works within the aesthetic and the postaesthetic of literature. Transculturally, beyond the compulsive duress of interpretation, our experiences of literature are brought home in a mix of unmethodicity and unacknowledged sociocultural influences that then work continuously and imperceptibly into our appreciation of the world or world-making.
Engseng Ho
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520244535
- eISBN:
- 9780520938694
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520244535.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Middle Eastern Cultural Anthropology
This book narrates the movement of an old diaspora across the Indian Ocean over the past five hundred years. Ranging from Arabia to India and Southeast Asia, the book explores the transcultural ...
More
This book narrates the movement of an old diaspora across the Indian Ocean over the past five hundred years. Ranging from Arabia to India and Southeast Asia, the book explores the transcultural exchanges—in kinship and writing—that enabled Hadrami Yemeni descendants of the Muslim prophet Muhammad to become locals in each of the three regions yet remain cosmopolitans with vital connections across the ocean. At home throughout the Indian Ocean, diasporic Hadramis engaged European empires in surprising ways across its breadth, beyond the usual territorial confines of colonizer and colonized. A work of both anthropology and history, the book demonstrates how the emerging fields of world history and transcultural studies are coming together to provide groundbreaking ways of studying religion, diaspora, and empire. The book interprets biographies, family histories, chronicles, pilgrimage manuals, and religious law as the unified literary output of a diaspora that hybridizes both texts and persons within a genealogy of Prophetic descent. By using anthropological concepts to read Islamic texts in Arabic and Malay, it demonstrates the existence of a hitherto unidentified canon of diasporic literature. The book's conceptual framework and use of documentary and field evidence are combined to present a vision of this vital world region beyond the histories of trade and European empire.Less
This book narrates the movement of an old diaspora across the Indian Ocean over the past five hundred years. Ranging from Arabia to India and Southeast Asia, the book explores the transcultural exchanges—in kinship and writing—that enabled Hadrami Yemeni descendants of the Muslim prophet Muhammad to become locals in each of the three regions yet remain cosmopolitans with vital connections across the ocean. At home throughout the Indian Ocean, diasporic Hadramis engaged European empires in surprising ways across its breadth, beyond the usual territorial confines of colonizer and colonized. A work of both anthropology and history, the book demonstrates how the emerging fields of world history and transcultural studies are coming together to provide groundbreaking ways of studying religion, diaspora, and empire. The book interprets biographies, family histories, chronicles, pilgrimage manuals, and religious law as the unified literary output of a diaspora that hybridizes both texts and persons within a genealogy of Prophetic descent. By using anthropological concepts to read Islamic texts in Arabic and Malay, it demonstrates the existence of a hitherto unidentified canon of diasporic literature. The book's conceptual framework and use of documentary and field evidence are combined to present a vision of this vital world region beyond the histories of trade and European empire.
Sun Jung
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789888028672
- eISBN:
- 9789882207127
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888028672.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
South Korean masculinities have enjoyed dramatic influence in pan-Asian popular culture, which travels freely due to its non-nationalistic appeal. This book investigates transcultural consumption of ...
More
South Korean masculinities have enjoyed dramatic influence in pan-Asian popular culture, which travels freely due to its non-nationalistic appeal. This book investigates transcultural consumption of three iconic figures: the middle-aged Japanese female fandom of actor Bae Yong-Joon, the Western online cult fandom of the horror film Oldboy, and the Singaporean fandom of the popstar Rain. Through these three specific but hybrid masculine contexts, the author develops the concepts of soft masculinity, as well as global and postmodern variants of masculine cultural impacts. The author argues that Korean masculinity is being reconstructed through its regional and sometimes global circulation as part of the Korean Wave, producing new forms that negotiate local Korean forces and international consumer forces to create culturally odorless forms that travel easily and find ready consumption.Less
South Korean masculinities have enjoyed dramatic influence in pan-Asian popular culture, which travels freely due to its non-nationalistic appeal. This book investigates transcultural consumption of three iconic figures: the middle-aged Japanese female fandom of actor Bae Yong-Joon, the Western online cult fandom of the horror film Oldboy, and the Singaporean fandom of the popstar Rain. Through these three specific but hybrid masculine contexts, the author develops the concepts of soft masculinity, as well as global and postmodern variants of masculine cultural impacts. The author argues that Korean masculinity is being reconstructed through its regional and sometimes global circulation as part of the Korean Wave, producing new forms that negotiate local Korean forces and international consumer forces to create culturally odorless forms that travel easily and find ready consumption.
Audrey Yue
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789888028757
- eISBN:
- 9789882206618
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888028757.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter continues the focus on the intersection between diaspora and intimacy by exploring the teaching of the film in Australia as part of the political pedagogy of critical multiculturalism. ...
More
This chapter continues the focus on the intersection between diaspora and intimacy by exploring the teaching of the film in Australia as part of the political pedagogy of critical multiculturalism. It illustrates how Song of the Exile cultivates a transcultural literacy that challenges the hegemonic currency of neoliberal multicultural education. It starts by presenting a critical introduction to the role of film as a form of public pedagogy, and problematizes the inclusion of Hong Kong cinema in a pluralist multicultural curriculum. It then demonstrates the minor cinema of Song of the Exile through its diasporic film distribution in Australia. In addition, it reveals how the minor cinema of Song of the Exile is deployed in a site-specific encounter for transcultural literacy. Moreover, the film is critically described as a performative text for border pedagogy. It is shown how a deconstructive pedagogical critical practice is possible by considering the diasporic circulation of the film as an excentric, oppositional, and decentred formation that speaks directly to the exigency of Hong Kong modernity.Less
This chapter continues the focus on the intersection between diaspora and intimacy by exploring the teaching of the film in Australia as part of the political pedagogy of critical multiculturalism. It illustrates how Song of the Exile cultivates a transcultural literacy that challenges the hegemonic currency of neoliberal multicultural education. It starts by presenting a critical introduction to the role of film as a form of public pedagogy, and problematizes the inclusion of Hong Kong cinema in a pluralist multicultural curriculum. It then demonstrates the minor cinema of Song of the Exile through its diasporic film distribution in Australia. In addition, it reveals how the minor cinema of Song of the Exile is deployed in a site-specific encounter for transcultural literacy. Moreover, the film is critically described as a performative text for border pedagogy. It is shown how a deconstructive pedagogical critical practice is possible by considering the diasporic circulation of the film as an excentric, oppositional, and decentred formation that speaks directly to the exigency of Hong Kong modernity.
