Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin

Marie-Louise Nabholz-Kartaschoff

Urs Ramseyer

In Bali, textiles are more than just decorative fabrics; they are imbued with magical powers and deep ritual significance. Gods, humans, trees, and even temples are arrayed on festival days in exquisite hand-wrought cloths, some of which rank among the most spectacular examples of traditional textile art in the world. In this illustrated book, three experts examine the history, production, and ritual uses of textiles in Balinese society.

Balinese Textiles

Temples and Rituals as Landmarks of Social Events and Processes in a South Bali Village

Traces of Gods and Men

The book offers a glimpse back in time to a Middle Sepik society, the Iatmul, first investigated by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson in the late 1920s while the feminist anthropologist Margaret Mead worked on sex roles among the neighbouring Tchambuli (Chambri) people. The author lived in the Iatmul village of Kararau in 1972/3 where she studied women’s lives, works, and knowledge in detail. She revisited the Sepik in 2015 and 2017. The book, the translation of a 1977 publication in German, is complemented by two chapters dealing with the life of the Iatmul in the 2010s. It presents rich quantitative and qualitative data on subsistence economy, marriage, and women’s knowledge concerning myths and rituals. Besides, life histories and in-depth interviews convey deep insights into women’s experiences and feelings, especially regarding their varied relationships with men in the early 1970s. Since then, Iatmul culture has changed in many respects, especially as far as the economy, religion, knowledge, and the relationship between men and women are concerned. In her afterword, the anthropologist Christiane Falck highlights some of the major topics raised in the book from a 2018 perspective, based on her own fieldwork which she commenced in 2012. Thus, the book provides the reader with detailed information about gendered lives in this riverine village of the 1970s and an understanding of the cultural processes and dynamics that have taken place since.

Women in Kararau

Angkor, the temple and palace complex of the ancient Khmer capital in Cambodia is one of the world's most famous monuments. Hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the globe visit Angkor Park, one of the finest UNESCO World Heritage Sites, every year. Since its UNESCO listing in 1992, the Angkor region has experienced an overwhelming mushrooming of hotels and restaurants; the infrastructure has been hardly able to cope with the rapid growth of mass tourism and its needs. This applies to the access and use of monument sites as well. The authors of this book critically describe and analyse the heritage nomination processes in Cambodia, especially in the case of Angkor and the temple of Preah Vihear on the Cambodian/Thai border. They examine the implications the UNESCO listings have had with regard to the management of Angkor Park and its inhabitants on the one hand, and to the Cambodian/Thai relationships on the other. Furthermore, they address issues of development through tourism that UNESCO has recognised as a welcome side-effect of heritage listings. They raise the question whether development through tourism deepens already existing inequalities rather than contributing to the promotion of the poor.

Circumstances and Implications of UNESCO Listings in Cambodia

World Heritage Angkor and Beyond

I Wayan Ardika

The villages on Bali's north-east coast have a long history. Archaeological findings have shown that the coastal settlements of Tejakula District enjoyed trading relations with India as long as 2000 years ago or more. Royal decrees dating from the 10th to the 12th century, inscribed on copper tablets and preserved in the local villages as part of their religious heritage, bear witness to the fact that, over a period of over 1000 years, these played a major role as harbour and trading centres in the transmaritime trade between India and (probably) the Spice Islands. At the same time the inscriptions attest to the complexity in those days of Balinese society, with a hierarchical social organisation headed by a king who resided in the interior - precisely where, nobody knows. The interior was connected to the prosperous coastal settlements through a network of trade and ritual. The questions that faced the German-Balinese research team were first: Was there anything left over of this evidently glorious past? And second: Would our professional anthropological and archaeological research work be able to throw any more light on the vibrant past of these villages? This book is an attempt to answer both these and further questions on Bali's coastal settlements, their history and culture.

Ethnoarchaeological Investigations in North Bali, Indonsia

Burials, Texts and Rituals

Lyndel V. Prott

Against the backdrop of international conventions and their implementation, Cultural Property and Contested Ownership explores how highly-valued cultural goods are traded and negotiated among diverging parties and their interests. Cultural artefacts, such as those kept and trafficked between art dealers, private collectors and museums, have become increasingly localized in a ‘Bermuda triangle’ of colonialism, looting and the black market, with their re-emergence resulting in disputes of ownership and claims for return. This interdisciplinary volume provides the first book-length investigation of the changing behaviours resulting from the effect of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. The collection considers the impact of the Convention on the way antiquity dealers, museums and auction houses, as well as nation states and local communities, address issues of provenance, contested ownership, and the trafficking of cultural property. The book contains a range of contributions from anthropologists, lawyers, historians and archaeologists. Individual cases are examined from a bottom-up perspective and assessed from the viewpoint of international law in the Epilogue. Each section is contextualised by an introductory chapter from the editors.

The trafficking of artefacts and the quest for restitution

Cultural Property and Contested Ownership

die kulturelle Dimension von Organtransplantation und Reproduktionsmedizin in Deutschland

Der geteilte Leib

Vidya Dehejia

Thomas B. Coburn

Gundolf Krüger

Christian F. Feest

George Michell

D. Dennis Hudson

Adrienne L. Kaeppler

Inken Köhler

Ulrike Rehr

Markus Schindlbeck

Manfred Urban

Insa Wendt

"Devi, the Great Goddess of India, is beautiful, beneficent, terrifying, all-powerful, and glorious. Ubiquitous in India's social and spiritual fabric, she has, over the millennia, been painted, sculpted, carved, and wrought from silver and bronze in myriad shapes and forms. Devi: The Great Goddess brings together 120 of these diverse examples of Devi and a group of distinguished essayists who explore facets of Devi worship and tradition, including ritual, architecture, literature, history, and contemporary issues such as feminism and gender politics. The book appeals to readers compelled by the exploration and interpretation of the art, religion, and history of India."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Great Goddess : Female Divinity in South Asian Art

Devi

Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin

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