1. 2 Culture and Identity in a Postmodern World Michel Foucault’s statement that: “The present epoch will perhaps be above all the epoch of space. We are in the epoch of simultaneity; we are in the epoch of juxtaposition” (M. Foucault 1986: 22) heralded a new approach to identity in the contemporary world by suggesting that one’s identity is formed not as a result of the cultural and national values and history one has inherited, but rather as a result of the different spaces through which one travels. In other words, one’s identity is no longer perceived as an inherited construct but rather as something flexible that changes as one moves through the more fluid spaces of the contemporary, globalized world and internalizes a mixture of the different cultures and ideas that one encounters. The idealized contemporary traveller will thus effortlessly cross national and cultural borders and negotiate a constantly changing and flexible identity for himself. Andy Bennett argues that it is no longer even possible to conceive of identity as a static entity, forged from a communal history and value system, because all of the traditional certainties on which identity formation were based in the past have been fatally undermined by a postmodernist flux and fluidity: “Once clearly demarcated by relatively static and ethnically homogenous communities, the ‘spaces’ and ‘places’ of everyday life are now highly pluralistic and contested, and are constantly being defined and redefined through processes of relocation and cultural hybridisation” (A.

This book draws together studies of the histories of psychotherapies throughout the world in a comparative setting, charting the intersections of these connected histories and transcultural networks of knowledge exchange and healing practices. This volume’s explorations of these transcultural histories help to illuminate the way in which these practices have shaped (and continue to shape) contemporary notions of psychological disorder, well-being and identity itself. The contributors question the value-free status claimed by a wide array of contemporary psychotherapies, as well as the presuppositions of present-day ‘evidence based’ practice. Suspended between several different fields, the advent of modern psychotherapies represents one of the distinctive features of twentieth century Western societies, and one that has been rapidly spreading to other parts of the world. This volume will be of interest to those seeking to apply the conclusions of historical study to contemporary situations. This book was originally published as a special issue of The European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling.

Transculturalism is about identity, and the modern quest for belonging in these times of conflict and war. Grunitzky and his network of writers and photographers from around the world examine, through essays, analyses and personal tales, how certain curious, open-minded people manage to transcend their initial culture in order to explore, examine and infiltrate alien cultures. These Transculturalists' often date and marry out of their race, religion and, sometimes, gender; they dress unconventionally; and they take jobs once considered out of their league.'

The disruptive power of montage has often been regarded as a threat to scholarly representations of the social world. This volume asserts the opposite: that the destabilization of commonsense perception is the very precondition for transcending social and cultural categories. The contributors—anthropologists, filmmakers, photographers, and curators—explore the use of montage as a heuristic tool for comparative analysis in anthropological writing, film, and exhibition making. Exploring phenomena such as human perception, memory, visuality, ritual, time, and globalization, they apply montage to restructure our basic understanding of social reality. Furthermore, as George E. Marcus suggests in the afterword, the power of montage that this volume exposes lies in its ability to open the very “combustion chamber” of social theory by juxtaposing one’s claims to knowledge with the path undertaken to arrive at those claims.

Transcultural Realities is an important collection of essays written by an outstanding cast of critical scholars who discuss the importance of transculture in interdisciplinary contexts. The primary goal of the contributors is to help the reader to understand that a state of "community" or "harmony" cannot be achieved in the world until we are all ready to accept different cultural forms, norms, and orientations. In this book, transculture is defined as a form of culture created not from within separate spheres, but in the holistic forms of diverse cultures. It is based on the principle that a single culture, in and of itself, is incomplete and requires interaction and dialogue with other cultures. Transcultural Realities is divided into five parts: Transcultural issues in international and cross-cultural contexts Historical and religious struggles within and between nations Socially constructed racial identities and their consequences for transculturalism in the United States The transformative effects of sojourning in diverse cultural environments The fundamentals of transcultural research Editors Virginia H. Milhouse, Molefi Kete Asante, and Peter O. Nwosu set out to meet three specific needs. First, that the book′s interdisciplinary approach to theory and practice in cross-cultural relations will make it an important book for several fields of study, including intercultural and interpersonal communication, international relations, human relations, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and sociology. Second, that the book will be a reference tool for scholars of transcultural researcch, providing up-to-date information on cross-cultural relations that are transcultural in nature. And finally, through the use of research is critical to a fuller understanding of cross-cultural relations in a transcultural world.

Based on culture as a complex system of rules it is too obvious that each rule has a particular range which is only exceptionally congruent with national or natural borders. In general, cultural exchange is not limited by political borders or rivers, forests, seas, or mountains. Those areas are rather transcultural, which is especially true for markets and towns. Dealing with cities like Buenos Aires or Riga, regions like Podlachia (Poland), Northern Ireland, or Bukovina, and the area of the Danube river the case studies give evidence for this thesis. The book will be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of cultural and intercultural studies.