Publications
Now showing items 1-80 of 92
The Power of the Brush
(2020)
The invention of an easily learned Korean alphabet in the mid-fifteenth century sparked an “epistolary revolution” in the following century as letter writing became an indispensable daily practice for elite men and women ...
Healing with Poisons
(2021)
At first glance, medicine and poison might seem to be opposites. But in China’s formative era of pharmacy (200–800 CE), poisons were strategically deployed as healing agents to cure everything from chills to pains to ...
Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India
(2021)
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, India played a pivotal role in global conversations about population and reproduction. In Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India, Mytheli Sreenivas demonstrates how ...
Kernels of Resistance
(2024)
The story of how Mesoamerican food activists faced down Monsanto . . . and won
Right before the 2014 World Cup, US trade interests pressured Guatemala’s legislature into lifting its national ban on genetically modified ...
Mapping Water in Dominica
(2021)
"Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/ 9780295748733
Dominica, a place once described as “Nature’s Island,” was rich in biodiversity and seemingly abundant water, but in the eighteenth century a brief, failed attempt by ...
The Mandate of Heaven and The Great Ming Code
(2011)
After overthrowing the Mongol Yuan dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), proclaimed that he had obtained the Mandate of Heaven (Tianming), enabling establishment of a spiritual orientation ...
The Changing Presentation of the American Indian
(2004)
In this book, which grew out of a landmark NMAI symposium in 1995, Native and non-Native scholars and museum professionals explore issues concerning the representation of Indians and their cultures by museums in North ...
Three Impeachments
(2024)
A probe into corruption in late Imperial China
At the beginning of China's long eighteenth century or ""High Qing"" era, a time of peace and prosperity when the foundations of Manchu rule under the Qing dynasty were ...
Molecular Feminisms
(2018-11-04)
"“Should feminists clone?” “What do neurons think about?” “How can we learn from bacterial writing?” These and other provocative questions have long preoccupied neuroscientist, molecular biologist, and intrepid feminist ...
Lahore Cinema
(2022)
Commercial cinema has been among the most powerful vectors of social and aesthetic modernization in South Asia. So argues Iftikhar Dadi in his provocative examination of cinema produced between 1956 and 1969—the long ...
Misreading the Bengal Delta
(2021)
"Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295749624
Perilously close to sea level and vulnerable to floods, erosion, and cyclones, Bangladesh is one of the top recipients of development aid earmarked for climate change ...
New Lives in Anand
(2022)
Social and cultural anthropology;Social classes;Islam
The Power of the Brush
(2020)
The invention of an easily learned Korean alphabet in the mid-fifteenth century sparked an “epistolary revolution” in the following century as letter writing became an indispensable daily practice for elite men and women ...
Upland Geopolitics
(2022)
In the twenty-first century, land deals in the Global South have become increasingly prevalent and controversial. Transnational access to arable land in impoverished "land-rich" countries in Latin America, Sub-Saharan ...
In the Land of the Eastern Queendom
(2013)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804842 The story underlying this ethnography began with the recent discovery and commercialization of the remnant of an ancient “queendom” on the Sichuan-Tibet border. Recorded in ...
In the Land of the Eastern Queendom
(2013)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804842 The story underlying this ethnography began with the recent discovery and commercialization of the remnant of an ancient “queendom” on the Sichuan-Tibet border. Recorded in ...
Communist Multiculturalism
(2011)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295800417 The communist Chinese state promotes the distinctiveness of the many minorities within its borders. At the same time, it is vigilant in suppressing groups that threaten the ...
Communist Multiculturalism
(2011)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295800417 The communist Chinese state promotes the distinctiveness of the many minorities within its borders. At the same time, it is vigilant in suppressing groups that threaten the ...
The Scholar and the State
(2015)
In imperial China, intellectuals devoted years of their lives to passing rigorous examinations in order to obtain a civil service position in the state bureaucracy. This traditional employment of the literati class conferred ...
The Scholar and the State
(2015)
In imperial China, intellectuals devoted years of their lives to passing rigorous examinations in order to obtain a civil service position in the state bureaucracy. This traditional employment of the literati class conferred ...
The Changing Presentation of the American Indian
(2004)
In this book, which grew out of a landmark NMAI symposium in 1995, Native and non-Native scholars and museum professionals explore issues concerning the representation of Indians and their cultures by museums in North ...
The Changing Presentation of the American Indian
(2004)
In this book, which grew out of a landmark NMAI symposium in 1995, Native and non-Native scholars and museum professionals explore issues concerning the representation of Indians and their cultures by museums in North ...
Perpetual Happiness
(2011)
The reign of Emperor Yongle, or “Perpetual Happiness,” was one of the most dramatic and significant in Chinese history. It began with civil war and a bloody coup, saw the construction of the Forbidden City, the completion ...
Perpetual Happiness
(2011)
The reign of Emperor Yongle, or “Perpetual Happiness,” was one of the most dramatic and significant in Chinese history. It began with civil war and a bloody coup, saw the construction of the Forbidden City, the completion ...
Religious Revival in the Tibetan Borderlands
(2011)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295801551 Revival of religious practices of all sorts in China, after decades of systematic government suppression, is a topic of considerable interest to scholars in disciplines ranging ...
Religious Revival in the Tibetan Borderlands
(2011)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295801551 Revival of religious practices of all sorts in China, after decades of systematic government suppression, is a topic of considerable interest to scholars in disciplines ranging ...
Cultural Encounters on China’s Ethnic Frontiers
(2011)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804088 China's exploitation by Western imperialism is well known, but the imperialist treatment within China of ethnic minorities has been little explored. Around the geographic ...
Cultural Encounters on China’s Ethnic Frontiers
(2011)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804088 China's exploitation by Western imperialism is well known, but the imperialist treatment within China of ethnic minorities has been little explored. Around the geographic ...
The Xi Jinping Effect
(2024)
The Xi Jinping Effect explores the relationship between the People's Republic of China's current ""paramount leader""—arguably the most powerful figure since Mao Zedong (1893–1976)—and multiple areas of political and social ...
Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China
(2012)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804071 Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in the 1980s and 1990s in southern Sichuan, this pathbreaking study examines the nature of ethnic consciousness and ethnic relations ...
Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China
(2012)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804071 Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in the 1980s and 1990s in southern Sichuan, this pathbreaking study examines the nature of ethnic consciousness and ethnic relations ...
The Dong World and Imperial China’s Southwest Silk Road
(2024)
Brings a borderlands perspective to the history of China
From the eighth to thirteenth centuries along China’s rugged southern periphery, trade in tribute articles and an interregional horse market thrived. These ties ...
The Dong World and Imperial China’s Southwest Silk Road
(2024)
Brings a borderlands perspective to the history of China
From the eighth to thirteenth centuries along China’s rugged southern periphery, trade in tribute articles and an interregional horse market thrived. These ties ...
Fir and Empire
(2020)
A CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE The disappearance of China’s naturally occurring forests is one of the most significant environmental shifts in the country’s history, one often blamed on imperial demand for lumber. ...
Symptoms of an Unruly Age
(2018)
Symptoms of an Unruly Age compares the writings of Li Zhi (1527–1602) and his late-Ming compatriots to texts composed by their European contemporaries, including Montaigne, Shakespeare, and Cervantes. Emphasizing aesthetic ...
Symptoms of an Unruly Age
(2018)
Symptoms of an Unruly Age compares the writings of Li Zhi (1527–1602) and his late-Ming compatriots to texts composed by their European contemporaries, including Montaigne, Shakespeare, and Cervantes. Emphasizing aesthetic ...
Late Industrialization, Tradition, and Social Change in South Korea
(2024)
Examines how primary social ties fueled economic growth
South Korea's rapid industrialization occurred with the rise of powerful chaebǒl (family-owned business conglomerates) that controlled vast swaths of the nation's ...
Fir and Empire
(2020)
A CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE The disappearance of China’s naturally occurring forests is one of the most significant environmental shifts in the country’s history, one often blamed on imperial demand for lumber. ...
Mapping Water in Dominica
(2021)
"Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/ 9780295748733
Dominica, a place once described as “Nature’s Island,” was rich in biodiversity and seemingly abundant water, but in the eighteenth century a brief, failed attempt by ...
Mapping Water in Dominica
(2021)
"Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/ 9780295748733
Dominica, a place once described as “Nature’s Island,” was rich in biodiversity and seemingly abundant water, but in the eighteenth century a brief, failed attempt by ...
On the Margins of Tibet
(2011)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804101 The state of Tibetan culture within contemporary China is a highly politicized topic on which reliable information is rare. But what is Tibetan culture and how should it be ...
On the Margins of Tibet
(2011)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804101 The state of Tibetan culture within contemporary China is a highly politicized topic on which reliable information is rare. But what is Tibetan culture and how should it be ...
Bodies in Balance
(2017)
2015 Best Art Book Accolade, ICAS Book Prize in the Humanities Category Bodies in Balance: The Art of Tibetan Medicine is the first comprehensive, interdisciplinary exploration of the triangular relationship among the ...
Medicine and Memory in Tibet
(2018)
Only fifty years ago, Tibetan medicine, now seen in China as a vibrant aspect of Tibetan culture, was considered a feudal vestige to be eliminated through government-led social transformation. Medicine and Memory in Tibet ...
Jesuits and Matriarchs
(2018)
In early modern China, Jesuit missionaries associated with the male elite of Confucian literati in order to proselytize more freely, but they had limited contact with women, whose ritual spaces were less accessible. ...
Menacing Environments
(2023)
Known for their progressive environmental policies and nature-loving citizens, Nordic countries also produce what may seem a counterintuitive film genre: ecohorror, where distinctions between humans and nature are blurred ...
Chinese Autobiographical Writing
(2023)
Personal accounts help us understand notions of self, interpersonal relations, and historical events. Chinese Autobiographical Writing contains full translations of works by fifty individuals that illuminate the history ...
Chinese Autobiographical Writing
(2023)
Personal accounts help us understand notions of self, interpersonal relations, and historical events. Chinese Autobiographical Writing contains full translations of works by fifty individuals that illuminate the history ...
Footprints of War
(2018)
When American forces arrived in Vietnam, they found themselves embedded in historical village and frontier spaces already shaped by past conflicts. American bases and bombing targets followed spatial and political logics ...
Footprints of War
(2018)
When American forces arrived in Vietnam, they found themselves embedded in historical village and frontier spaces already shaped by past conflicts. American bases and bombing targets followed spatial and political logics ...
A Landscape of Travel
(2014)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295805061 While the number of domestic leisure travelers has increased dramatically in reform-era China, the persistent gap between urban and rural living standards attests to ongoing ...
The Mandate of Heaven and The Great Ming Code
(2011)
After overthrowing the Mongol Yuan dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), proclaimed that he had obtained the Mandate of Heaven (Tianming), enabling establishment of a spiritual orientation ...
The Mandate of Heaven and The Great Ming Code
(2011)
After overthrowing the Mongol Yuan dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), proclaimed that he had obtained the Mandate of Heaven (Tianming), enabling establishment of a spiritual orientation ...
A Landscape of Travel
(2014)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295805061 While the number of domestic leisure travelers has increased dramatically in reform-era China, the persistent gap between urban and rural living standards attests to ongoing ...
China's New Socialist Countryside
(2013)
Open-access edition: 10.6069/9780295804781 Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this case study examines the impact of economic development on ethnic minority people living along the upper-middle reaches of the Nu (Salween) ...
Governing Water in India
(2022)
Intensifying droughts and competing pressures on water resources foreground water scarcity as an urgent concern of the global climate change crisis. In India, individual, industrial, and agricultural water demands exacerbate ...
Xinjiang and the Modern Chinese State
(2016)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295806570 Xinjiang and the Modern Chinese State views modern Chinese political history from the perspective of Han officials who were tasked with governing Xinjiang. This region, inhabited ...
Manchus and Han
(2015)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295997483 China’s 1911–12 Revolution, which overthrew a 2000-year succession of dynasties, is thought of primarily as a change in governmental style, from imperial to republican, ...
The Tibetan Nun Mingyur Peldrön
(2022)
Born to a powerful family and educated at the prominent Mindröling Monastery, the Tibetan Buddhist nun and teacher Mingyur Peldrön (1699–1769) leveraged her privileged status and overcame significant adversity, including ...
Healing with Poisons
(2021)
At first glance, medicine and poison might seem to be opposites. But in China’s formative era of pharmacy (200–800 CE), poisons were strategically deployed as healing agents to cure everything from chills to pains to ...
Games and Play in Chinese and Sinophone Cultures
(2024)
Games as global and connected phenomena have been examined in the rising scholarly field of game studies, but relatively little has been published on the history of games and gaming in China. Weiqi (a.k.a. Go), one of the ...
Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India
(2021)
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, India played a pivotal role in global conversations about population and reproduction. In Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India, Mytheli Sreenivas demonstrates how ...
Mumbai on Two Wheels
(2024)
Cyclists from India reimagine transportation infrastructure for all
Mumbai is not commonly seen as a bike-friendly city because of its dense traffic and the absence of bicycle lanes. Yet the city supports rapidly ...
Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India
(2021)
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, India played a pivotal role in global conversations about population and reproduction. In Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India, Mytheli Sreenivas demonstrates how ...
The Story of Han Xiangzi
(2011)
In this seventeenth-century Chinese novel, Han Xiangzi, best known as one of the Eight Immortals, seeks and achieves immortality and then devotes himself to converting his materialistic, politically ambitious Confucian ...
The Story of Han Xiangzi
(2011)
In this seventeenth-century Chinese novel, Han Xiangzi, best known as one of the Eight Immortals, seeks and achieves immortality and then devotes himself to converting his materialistic, politically ambitious Confucian ...
The Han
(2015)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295805979 This ethnography explores contemporary narratives of “Han-ness,” revealing the nuances of what Han identity means today in relation to that of the fifty-five officially ...
The Han
(2015)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295805979 This ethnography explores contemporary narratives of “Han-ness,” revealing the nuances of what Han identity means today in relation to that of the fifty-five officially ...
Familiar Strangers
(2011)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295800554 The Chinese-speaking Muslims have for centuries been an inseparable but anomalous part of Chinese society--Sinophone yet incomprehensible, local yet outsiders, normal but ...
Misreading the Bengal Delta
(2021)
"Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295749624
Perilously close to sea level and vulnerable to floods, erosion, and cyclones, Bangladesh is one of the top recipients of development aid earmarked for climate change ...
Exile from the Grasslands
(2020)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295748207 At the beginning of the new millennium, the Chinese government launched the Great Opening of the West, a development strategy targeted at remote areas inhabited mainly by ...
Satirical Tibet
(2025)
What does comedy look like when the wrong punchline can land you in jail?
Humor has long been a vital, if underrecognized, component of Tibetan life. In recent years, alongside well-publicized struggles for religious ...
New Lives in Anand
(2022)
Social and cultural anthropology;Social classes;Islam
Lahore Cinema
(2022)
Commercial cinema has been among the most powerful vectors of social and aesthetic modernization in South Asia. So argues Iftikhar Dadi in his provocative examination of cinema produced between 1956 and 1969—the long ...
The Nuosu Book of Origins
(2019)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295745701 The Nuosu people, who were once overlords of vast tracts of farmland and forest in the uplands of southern Sichuan and neighboring provinces, are the largest division of the ...
Lessons in Being Chinese
(2011)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804125 Two very different ethnic minority communities—the Naxi of the Lijiang area in northern Yunnan and the Tai (Dai) of Sipsong Panna (Xishuangbanna), along Yunnan’s border with ...
Three Impeachments
(2024)
A probe into corruption in late Imperial China
At the beginning of China's long eighteenth century or ""High Qing"" era, a time of peace and prosperity when the foundations of Manchu rule under the Qing dynasty were ...
The Power of the Brush
(2020)
The invention of an easily learned Korean alphabet in the mid-fifteenth century sparked an “epistolary revolution” in the following century as letter writing became an indispensable daily practice for elite men and women ...
Mapping Shangrila
(2014)
Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295805023 In 2001 the Chinese government announced that the precise location of Shangrila—a place that previously had existed only in fiction—had been identified in Zhongdian County, ...
A Ming Confucian’s World
(2022)
A forgotten century marks the years between the Ming dynasty's (1368–1644) turbulent founding and its sixteenth-century age of exploration and economic transformation. In this period of social stability, retired scholar-official ...