The revolutionary experiences of Cantonese peasant villagers are documented in the first comprehensive analysis of rural Chinese society by foreign anthropologists since the Revolution of 1949.

The ten chapters of this book, all of them published previously in specialist works, derive from the author's ethnographic research among the Uyghur of Xinjiang and Kazakhstan in the mid-1990s. Approaching beliefs and practices as politically embedded, the articles have historical value in documenting the possibilities and constraints of fieldwork in this region in the 1990s. They also offer a point of departure for new studies of the Uyghur and their relations with their neighbors in the increasingly difficult conditions which characterize the early twenty-first century. (Series: Halle Studies in the Anthropology of Eurasia, Vol. 31) [Subject: Sociology, Anthropology]

The Many Roads to Becoming Modern explores "collectivism" in the context of contemporary rural Chinese history. Following the history of a southern village from 1949 to the present, the author attempts to understand the origin and current state of "collectivity" in rural China. Along with other unique Chinese institutions, such as the Danwei (work-unit) system, rural collectivism is the basis of New China’s economic development. Previous academic research on rural collectivism in general is limited to scattered historical fragments, this book, however, is an empirical study of the actual historical process of rural collectivism. Focusing on presenting a mechanism for universal interpretation, the author illustrates the development of rural collectivism in southern Jiangsu using the historical research method, revealing the characteristics of the Chinese society as it is. Within seven chapters, the author explains in detail the core features and evolution mechanism of the collective model throughout different periods since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. This book will be of interest to all levels of students and scholars who study contemporary China, modern Chinese history and collectivism, especially those who are concerned with rural area development and the land systems.

In countries with officially egalitarian property law, women still accumulate less wealth than men. Combining quantitative, ethnographic, and archival research, The Gender of Capital explains how and why women of all classes are economically disadvantaged at crucial junctures in family life such as divorce, inheritance, and succession.

This book is the result of the first interdisciplinary conference in Vietnam which took place on "the Rule of Law." Instead of beginning immediately with a highly specialized debate from the perspective of one single academic discipline, we started to discuss numerous facets of the subject arising from a multidisciplinary dialogue. For this reason, the contributions for this publication come from various scientific disciplines in Vietnam and Germany: political, historical, social, economic and legal sciences, but also members of Vietnamese governmental and non-governmental organizations. The aim of the volume is to open up a dialogue about the Rule of Law between two very different legal cultures, the German-European and the Vietnamese-Southeast Asian.

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, working-class people across northern India found themselves negotiating rapid industrial change, emerging technologies, and class hierarchies. In response to these changes, Indian Muslim artisans began publicly asserting the deep relation between their religion and their labor, using the increasingly accessible popular press to redefine Islamic traditions “from below.” Centering the stories and experiences of metalsmiths, stonemasons, tailors, press workers, and carpenters, Pious Labor examines colonial-era social and technological changes through the perspectives of the workers themselves. As Amanda Lanzillo shows, the colonial marginalization of these artisans is intimately linked with the continued exclusion of laboring voices today. By drawing on previously unstudied Urdu-language technical manuals and community histories, Lanzillo highlights not only the materiality of artisanal production but also the cultural agency of artisanal producers, filling in a major gap in South Asian history.