An adaptation of an Indonesian trickster tale about Kanchil the mouse deer.

The effective education of gifted children is one of the most significant challenges facing educational systems in many countries around the world, made particularly difficult by the forces of globalization. Conceptions of Giftedness describes the unique and varied ways cultures conceive of giftedness. As language influences perception, different ideas of giftedness may embody different ways of thinking, especially in the areas of creativity and problem solving. This important new volume in special education encourages the understanding, appreciation, and preservation of our “intellectual diversity.” Contributing authors to this book are authorities in the field of gifted education, and represent a range of languages and cultures, including Western, Chinese, Japanese, Australian Aboriginal and Malay cultures. Each chapter describes giftedness from one cultural perspective within the global context, resulting in both local and global educational implications. Conceptions of Giftedness appeals to an international audience, and will serve as a primary and/or secondary resource for scholars, teachers, and undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in gifted education. Its distinctive universal perspective will attract sociolinguists and anthropologists, as well as educators.

For centuries, people around the world have been telling stories about tricksters—characters who solve problems by using their wits to fool others. Sometimes, these tricksters want to help people. Other times, they use their cleverness for selfish reasons. Occasionally, they aren’t as clever as they think and are tricked themselves. Although trickster tales from different countries are similar in many ways, story details, problems to be solved and the personalities of characters reflect the beliefs and values of the culture from which they come. Not only are trickster stories entertaining, they also teach readers things about themselves. And they show how, through wit and inventiveness, unlikely or underappreciated characters often can succeed. In A Book of Tricksters, Jon C. Stott has collected traditional trickster tales from 14 different countries, including “How Anansi Brought Stories to the People” (Ghana), “How Zhao Paid His Taxes” (China), “How Kancil Built a Crocodile Bridge” (Indonesia) and “How Maui Discovered the Secret of Fire” (Hawaii).

Can Kanchil the little mouse deer trick a few crafty crocodiles with terrible teeth?

Jon C. Stott has collected traditional trickster tales from fourteen different countries, including Ghana, China, Indonesia, Hawaii, and many more.

This book has outlined many aspects of traditionalism and modernity, although the topics here are divergent; the consistent part of it is that all of the authors mostly come from the same disciplines of Sociology and Social Anthropology. The main concern is to find out the socio-cultural changes that have occurred due to modernization and development. From that perspective, the book is very useful to understand Sociology and Social Anthropology from diversities based on traditionalism and modernity. It contains eleven articles contributed by a few renowned sociologists and social anthropologists from a number of countries around the world, focusing on diversified issues on traditionalism and modernity. The papers are written on the basis of each author's expertise in their respective field which are compiled to make them a suitable document in the field of Sociology and Social Anthropology. The book seems to be very useful for the students seeking knowledge on traditionalism and modernity having based in Sociology and Social Anthropology. The concepts of traditionalism and modernity are very important and are related issues in Sociology and Social Anthropology that many theoretical discussions have been carried out in these areas and several theoretical paradigms have been conceptualized in this regard which have been highlighted in the book in the form of descriptive-analytic discussion.