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This book is a collection of true-to-life essays which offers the reader various ways to view the socio-cultural state of the modern world as seen through the eyes of the author - a somewhat cynical but ethical Japanese professor. Through journeys in various cultures, these stories break numerous stereotypes, from the failure of higher education in Japan to the mysteries of using various types of toilets in Mediterranean Europe. The author narrates brief encounters with all aspects of society, from radical students to conservative academicians, from old-style street merchants to modern business people, from government agencies to independent artists. These stories also include lessons which, the author believes, people and society as a whole can and should learn from such encounters. The episodes highlight what is rapidly being lost across cultures in an era of globalization and the shrinking number of differences that once made every culture independent of the others. The book will captivate those who enjoy seeing another's view of the world, observing many unique 'windows' from which to view global change on a personal level. Also of interest will be the cynical but ethical assessment of the future of Japanese universities which have lost their educational principles at this critical time of survival, and the approaching IT society.
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African Thought in Comparative Perspective showcases how adept Ali Mazrui, the most prolific writer on Africa today, is at using complex conceptual apparatuses to categorize and synthesize Africa's political and social thought. This book, thus, offers an original interpretation of the knowledge that has been accumulated over the years, and which is of timeless relevance. It covers such themes as the legacy of the African liberation movements, the convergence and divergence of African, Islamic...
Comparative civilization. --- Civilization, Comparative --- Civilization --- Africa --- Civilization.
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The authors of this collection, renowned scholars from around the world, explore the tensions and dilemmas that impact pluralism and homogeneity in modern societies. This book is in homage to Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt. We honor his ground-breaking work in the comparative study of modernities and civilizations.
Cultural pluralism --- Comparative civilization --- Pluralism (Social sciences) --- Congresses
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Ancient Greece and China Compared is a pioneering, methodologically sophisticated set of studies, bringing together scholars who all share the conviction that the sustained critical comparison and contrast between ancient societies can bring to light significant aspects of each that would be missed by focusing on just one of them. The topics tackled include key issues in philosophy and religion, in art and literature, in mathematics and the life sciences (including gender studies), in agriculture, city planning and institutions. The volume also analyses how to go about the task of comparing, including finding viable comparanda and avoiding the trap of interpreting one culture in terms appropriate only to another. The book is set to provide a model for future collaborative and interdisciplinary work exploring what is common between ancient civilisations, what is distinctive of particular ones, and what may help to account for the latter.
Comparative civilization --- Greece --- China --- History --- Civilization --- Civilization, Ancient --- Civilization, Ancient. --- Civilization. --- Comparative civilization. --- To 146 B.C. --- China. --- Greece.
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The first classics in human history-the early works of literature, philosophy, and theology to which we have returned throughout the ages-appeared in the middle centuries of the first millennium BCE. The canonical texts of the Hebrew scriptures, the philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle, the Analects of Confucius and the Daodejing, the Bhagavad Gita and the teachings of the Buddha-all of these works came down to us from the compressed period of history that Karl Jaspers memorably named the Axial Age. In The Axial Age and Its Consequences, Robert Bellah and Hans Joas make the bold claim that intellectual sophistication itself was born worldwide during this critical time. Across Eurasia, a new self-reflective attitude toward human existence emerged, and with it an awakening to the concept of transcendence. From Axial Age thinkers we inherited a sense of the world as a place not just to experience but to investigate, envision, and alter through human thought and action. Bellah and Joas have assembled diverse scholars to guide us through this astonishing efflorescence of religious and philosophical creativity. As they explore the varieties of theorizing that arose during the period, they consider how these in turn led to utopian visions that brought with them the possibility of both societal reform and repression. The roots of our continuing discourse on religion, secularization, inequality, education, and the environment all lie in Axial Age developments. Understanding this transitional era, the authors contend, is not just an academic project but a humanistic endeavor.
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The Fate of America examines the national character of the United States against the backdrop of its history, popular culture, and media. Michael Gellert suggests that the deterioration of America's "heroic ideal," the heart of its national character, is responsible for the country's deepening social ills and the erosion of its vital institutions. He calls for a spiritual and intellectual renaissance and a renewed sense of national purpose in order to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.
Comparative civilization. --- Idealism --- Animism --- Monism --- Personalism --- Philosophy --- Positivism --- Dualism --- Materialism --- Realism --- Transcendentalism --- Civilization, Comparative --- Civilization --- Social aspects --- National characteristics [American ] --- Comparative civilization --- United States --- Heroes --- Mythology
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"Parallels between ancient Rome and modern America have been drawn before, but never like this. Professor Kiessling compares the ancient Greeks and the Romans, and he compares them to the modern Americans and Europeans. Subjects include levels of commitment to religion, responsiveness to post-heroic values, attitudes toward war and peace, moral permissiveness, demography, the susceptibility to universalistic ideas and supra-nationalism and the different levels of belief in the political capacity of the nation and its constitutional framework. Discussing challenges facing present-day America, the author looks at our mounting social inequality, increased political polarization, the transformation into an empire of consumption, the privatization of military force, the role of organized money in politics, and the rise of irrational, apocalyptic thought in public discourse - all of which are reminiscent of ancient Rome.
Comparative civilization. --- Civilization, Comparative --- Civilization --- Rome --- Greece --- United States --- Europe --- Civilization.
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Anthropological inquiry developed around the study of the exotic. Now that we live in a world that seems increasingly familiar, putatively marked by a spreading sameness, anthropology must re-envision itself. The emergence of diverse national traditions in the discipline offers one intriguing path. This volume, the product of a novel encounter of American anthropologists of France and French anthropologists of the United States, explores the possibilities of that path through an experiment in the reciprocal production of knowledge. Simultaneously native subjects, foreign experts, and colleagues, these scholars offer novel insights into each other’s societies, juxtaposing glimpses of ourselves and a familiar “others” to productively unsettle and enrich our understanding of both.
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Bodies of Maize, Eaters of Grain provides a comparative study of the earliest urban civilisations of the Maya lowlands and the Greek mainland. It builds upon earlier comparative studies by Gordon Childe, Robert Adams and Bruce Trigger, extending their work into new directions. Specifically, the focus lies on the art styles of the Late Preclassic lowland Maya and Mycenaean Greece. The approach used here seeks to combine more traditional iconographic approaches with more recent models on metaphor and the social agency of things. Comparing Maya and Mycenaean art styles through the three aspects of metaphor, semiotics and praxis, their differences and similarities are made clear. The book shows art to have played a more active role in the development of the earliest urban civilisations, rather than passively reflecting economic and political trends. In that way, the social role of art provides a key to understanding the relations between the different factors in the development of the two societies, as they played out at different temporal and geographical scales. To understand this, the notion of distinct Maya and Mycenaean 'material worlds', involving both materials and ideas, is proposed, with consequences for models about the earliest urban civilisations in general.
Maya art --- Art, Mycenaean --- Civilization, Mycenaean. --- Mayas --- Art, Comparative. --- Comparative civilization. --- Themes, motives. --- Intellectual life. --- Antiquities.
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Cross-cultural Studies: China and the World, A Festschrift in Honor of Professor Zhang Longxi collects twelve essays by eminent scholars across several disciplines in Chinese and cross-cultural studies to celebrate Zhang Longxi’s scholarly achievements. As a leading scholar from post-Cultural Revolution China, Zhang Longxi’s academic career has set a milestone in cross-cultural studies between China and the world. With an introduction by Qian Suoqiao, and a prologue by Zhang Longxi himself, the volume features masterly essays by Ronald Egan, Torbjörn Lodén, Haun Saussy, Lothar von Falkenhausen, and Hwa Yol Jung among others, which will make significant contributions to Sinological and cross-cultural studies of themselves on the one hand, and demonstrate Zhang Longxi’s friendships and scholarly impact on the other.
Comparative civilization. --- Civilization, Comparative --- Civilization --- Zhang, Longxi. --- China --- Study and teaching. --- Relations. --- Civilization. --- Relations --- Chang, Lung-hsi --- 张隆溪 --- 張隆溪
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