Bøger udgivet af Trans Pacific Press

Various contractual deeds were exchanged between people in Burmese dynastic society in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These deeds, known as thet-kayits, especially debt deeds, are valuable documents that show the socioeconomic conditions of the time. Through the reading of more than 3,000 local historical documents, the author vividly reflects specific ups and downs of the lives of ordinary people in early modern Burma, including disputes over debts and the flexible civil court system for adjudicating them, and the wisdom of life. Using Burma as a case study, this book is an attempt to empirically demonstrate the possibilities of research on early modern Southeast Asia based on documentary sources unique to the region, which until now have been largely unexplored. A new image of Burma's early modern period emerges here, overturning the conventional view of history that assumes a two-tier society of ' absolute monarchs' versus ' people without rights' .

In this study of the formation of modern Thai radical culture, Tejapira reveals a process of cultural and political interaction which results in a mutual transformation of exogenous Marxism/communism and indigenous Thai culture. The study draws on data from a number of primary and secondary sources, including memoirs from and interviews with leftist intellectuals, contemporary radical publications, and a number of unpublished Masters' dissertations in the Thai language. The book traces the introduction of Sino-Vietnamese Marxism/communism into Siam during the absolute monarchy in the late 1920s until the late 1950s when, under the military regime, it emerges as a particularly Thai cultural phenomenon. The exogenous ethnic character of the early Siamese communist movement made it an easy target for the conservative nationalist/royalist ideology of Thai-ness and socialism had been pre-judged as utopian even before its actual arrival in Thailand. After the fall of the absolute monarchy in 1932, both the lookjin communists (lookjin refers to Thai-born people of Chinese descent) and the left-wing People's Party tried separately to overcome this double-layered cultural resistance to radical ideas, but with only partial success. But the Japanese invasion and the resultant Phibun-Japanese alliance during the Second World War provided both groups with an opportunity to create a popular underground resistance movement and to earn a legitimate and legal foothold in the Thai policy after the War. Marxism/communism entered the post-war Thai cultural market in the form of printed commodities, whose demand, supply and reproduction ebbed and flowed with the volatile and violent tide of international and domestic events during the subsequent decade. More specifically, it was paradoxically diffused but dissolved by capitalist publishing, censored yet promoted by anti-communist authoritarian regimes, and confined to but freed in prisons. Through this process emerged a substantial group of (primarily) ethnic Thai radical intellectuals who proceeded to translate Marxism/communism into the Thai language and rhyming verse.

As the sequel to Groups: The Evolution of Human Sociality (2013), this book has broadened the discussion to examine the actions of people, apes, and monkeys in terms of 'what they do' by forming groups or in-groups. In Institutions, the shared processes and practices that facilitate coexistence in groups are examined from an evolutionary historical perspective. Contributors include researchers from the field of anthropology, including sociological primatology, ecological anthropology, and sociocultural anthropology. The chapters examine institutions from a diverse range of perspectives, including: encountering death, children's games, conflict and peace, cattle rustling, and mathematical proofs. In terms of non-human primates, this study focuses on 'pre-institutional' phenomena, such as relations established through 'call and response' patterns and food sharing, and it forms arguments as to whether the concept of institutions can be applied to these settings. As the chapters in this volume establish, the argument that language is a prerequisite for the establishment of institutions has indeed been surpassed.

The !Xun are a San people living in the Kalahari Desert in Namibia, Botswana, and in Angola. In this book, the cultural and ecological foundations of ethnicity of the !Xun provide a case study for an intensive regional structural comparison of Ju societies. Long known to Western Europe as the 'Bushmen, ' the San consist of various groups distinguished by language, locale, and practice. Narratives on San Ethnicity focuses on the !Xun who have lived in north-central Namibia for centuries, and it adopts a life story approach to understand the lived histories of the people. The book looks at inter-ethnic relationships and the multi-dimensional associations with neighboring groups, particularly the Owambo and Akhoe. It scrutinizes kinship and naming terminologies, transitions of ethnicity, the interplay between ethnicity and familial / kin relationships, and the reorganization of environmental features that effect child socialization. Narratives on San Ethnicity provides a valuable research perspective in San studies and in the emerging anthropology of their life-world. It is a significant addition to the small body of anthropological studies on the !Xun. *** "The text, replete with numerous individual, indigenous narratives followed by the author's subsequent commentary, results in a persuasive and respectful portrait of these still-interesting people. Highly recommended." -- Choice, Vol. 53, No. 3, November 2015 [Subject: Anthropology, African Studies, Ethnic Studies]

This title is the first volume of a comprehensive, four-volume survey which documents the miraculous growth of Japanese science and technology from post-war devastation to its attaining a leading global status. A team of more than fifty Japanese experts labored for ten years in assembling the unique materials into a monumental work of careful scholarship. The study won the prestigious Mainichi Publications Award in 1997.

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the phenomenon of 'democratic regression' has been on the rise around the world. Thailand, which was once called the 'honors student of democratization', is no exception. In 2006 and 2014, there were two military coups, and in both cases the ruling party was dissolved by the Constitutional Court. The author of this book focuses on the phenomenon of the 'judicialization of politics' in Thailand. She highlights the 1992 Bloody May Incident, the political reform movement and the debates surrounding the drafting of the 1997 and 2007 constitutions. The author clarifies the differences between Thai and Western constitutionalism, and then explores the causes and background of the regression of Thai democracy by examining interviews with those involved and the minutes of the constitutional drafting process. Existing research tends to be critical of the drafters of the constitutions, but this book is distinctive in that it carefully depicts the background to their decision-making process and the sense of crisis they felt about the limitations of the king's ability to mediate in the face of the intensification and escalation of mass demonstrations from the 1990s onwards.

Japan's radical development following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, drew the attention of the world. Among other provinces in British India, it was in Bengal chiefly, that one witnessed a sustained interest in the material advancement of Japan, as well as the uniqueness of her culture. For example, it is well-known that Bengal-born Rabindranath Tagore, the winner of Nobel Prize in Literature, visited Japan quite a few times. The book is an attempt to explore how writers of Bengal, also travelogue writers, nationalists and cultural enthusiasts from this part of British India have tried to represent the politics and culture of Japan during that period.

In the early modern period, relations between the Netherlands and Japan were founded on trade. The Dutch United East India Company operated in Japan for over 100 years, from 1609 to the early 18th century. The Dutch-Japanese relationship--built sometimes on understanding and at other times on resentment--is recorded in great detail in the trade-related archives of the period. This book closely examines these documents to reveal the changing market conditions of the main commodities exported by the Dutch from Japan at the time: silver, koban (gold), copper, and camphor. This analysis of both Dutch and Japanese perspectives on the trade market forms an intricate picture of the cultural, political, and economic context of trade between the Netherlands and Japan in the early modern period.

After a swift and bloody regime change in 1998, Indonesia established democratic institutions. Democratization over the first two decades of the 21st century fundamentally transformed Indonesia as a nation-state; and with a population of approximately 270 million as of 2020, Indonesia is the third largest democracy in the world. This book presents twelve original chapters to discuss the achievements and challenges of Indonesia's transformation since the fall of Suharto's authoritarian regime in 1998. The fundamental transformation from an authoritarian to a democratic system is analyzed by researchers, experts, and NGO officials from various academic disciplines and from Asia at large (Japan, Korea, and Indonesia). Specific topics include: how Reformasi changed the structure of the Indonesian state and affected the daily lives of its citizens; the extent to which the Indonesian economy has developed beyond economic indicators; why and what problems continue to exist despite institutional changes and the relative freedom of Indonesians. Part I, "Governance and Social Dynamics," includes four chapters describing changes in institutions and social conditions since democratization in 1998. Part 2, "Paths to Equality," presents four chapters that examine the economic context of development policies to address poverty, inequality, and productivity, which are critical for Indonesia to escape the middle-income country trap. Part III, "Structural Challenges," consists of four chapters that discuss corruption, human rights practices, and security and military reform. Each paper acknowledges the institutional development achieved by the Indonesian government since 1998, then addresses challenges that may impede democracy taking root in Indonesian society. The Indonesian experience of democratization is especially noteworthy in a context in which Islamic societies historically have struggled with democracy and as many neighboring Southeast Asian countries are becoming less and less democratic.

The challenges we face today are growing conspicuously broad in scale and complex in nature. Human Survivability Studies is a new transdisciplinary field born from the growing awareness of the urgent need to tackle the large-scale environmental and social issues at crisis point in the world today. Based at Kyoto University, the recently established Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability is seeking to develop leaders able to challenge global problems on a number of fronts. Each of the twenty chapters in this volume, written by academics from the Graduate School, looks at critical issues facing humanity from a different perspective, discussing new ideas and scientific methods that will form the basis of human survivability. The aim here is to outline the framework behind the ideas, methodology, and practice of this new scientific paradigm that incorporates knowledge from both the social and natural sciences.

Groups: The Evolution of Human Sociality is the product of a collaborative project based at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Researchers primarily involved in three fields--primate sociology and ecology, ecological anthropology, and socio-cultural anthropology--came together to discuss the shape and variations of groups as sympatric entities, and the evolutionary historical foundations that have led to the orientation of groups in present-day human society. To that end, the book turns to non-human primates for comparative purposes to consider the nature of the evolutionary historical foundations of sociality. In place of the past objective of "reconstructing" the ecology and society of early humans, the book's contributions instead re-identify the creation and evolution of that which is social and challenge the prevailing theory of groups in socio-cultural anthropology. Specialists on research into human beings and those studying non-human primates develop the debate about groups in the context of their own areas of expertise, at times in ways that extend beyond the boundaries of their fields.

Japan's national identity associates the 'Japanese people' with the Japanese land, making the farmer the backbone of the nation. Others in Japanese Agriculture challenges this mythology, revealing the changing faces of Japanese farmers during the colonial and post-war eras. First, it traces the tangled trail of Koreans brought into farming villages as a result of war mobilization and capitalist development. Second, it discusses the plight of those who evacuated from cities as they attempted to eke out a living on marginal land. Third, it points out that settlers repatriated from the colonies were met with hostility from villagers and indifference from authorities. Finally, it explores how those who were encouraged to emigrate for 'the good of the nation' in post-war Japan, found themselves victims of agrarian reforms, which severed their ties. In sum, despite being lauded as the 'backbone of the nation' Japanese farmers have been repeatedly marginalized and othered.

Susumu Shimazono, one of Japans foremost sociologists of religion, deals with the development of popular religious and spiritual movements in Japan in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. At present, it is estimated that more than ten percent of Japans total population are members of the so-called New Religions. While Buddhist and Shintoist influences remain pronounced, there are many other features common to modern Japans popular religious thinking. Through a careful study of these features, the author examines classical concepts and theories of religious studies, proposes alternative approaches, and reconsiders religion in modernity in the context of Japanese cultural heritage.