Description: Lucid. Magisterial. Subtle. Engaging. This remarkable book has pretty much everything going for it. If ever there was a time when Asia could be ignored, that time is not the present. Thus begins the opening chapter of this important contribution to our understanding of the bewildering diversity that has existed and continues to exist in the cultures of South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. The first survey of its kind ever published, this volume reflects a great deal of knowledge, thought, curiosity, and style. Heinz, in a single, brief book, pulls together some of the major cultural strands by which people in Asian societies have organized their collective life and made their lives meaningful. Heinz effectively brings a range of disciplines into her account, drawing from anthropology, history, geography, linguistics, religious studies, art history, world literature, and political science.

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