Hair : its power and meaning in Asian cultures / edited by Alf Hiltebeitel and Barbara D. Miller ; foreword by Gananath Obeyesekere.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Hiltebeitel, Alf.

Miller, Barbara D., 1948-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hair--Social aspects--Asia.

Hair.

Hair--Erotic aspects--Asia.

Hairstyles--Asia--History.

Hairstyles.

Ornamental hairwork--Asia--History.

Ornamental hairwork.

History.

Hair--Erotic aspects.

Hair--Social aspects.

Asia.

Asia--Social life and customs.

Manners and customs.

Physical Description:

xvi, 297 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [1998]

Summary:

Hair - whether present or absent, restored or removed, abundant or scarce, long or short, bound or unbound, colored or natural - marks a person as clearly as speech, clothing, and smell. While hair's high salience as both sign and symbol extends cross-culturally through time, its denotations are far from universal. Hair is an inter-disciplinary look at the meanings of hair, hairiness, and hairlessness in Asian cultures, from classical to contemporary contexts. The contributors draw on a variety of literary, archaeological, religious, and ethnographic evidence. They examine scientific, medical, political, and popular cultural discourses. Topics covered include monastic communities and communities of fashion, hair codes and social conventions of rank, attitudes of enforcement and rebellion, and positions of privilege and destitution. Different interpretations include hair as a key aspect of female beauty, of virility, as obscene, as impure, and linked with other symbolic markers in bodily, social, political, and cosmological constructs.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Hair Tropes / Alf Hiltebeitel 1

2. Hair and Society: Social Significance of Hair in South Asian Traditions / Patrick Olivelle 11

3. Hairy Barbarians, Furry Primates, and Wild Men: Medical Science and Cultural Representations of Hair in China / Frank Dikotter 51

4. "Long Black Hair Like a Seat Cushion": Hair Symbolism in Japanese Popular Religion / Gary L. Ebersole 75

5. Bound Hair and Confucianism in Korea / Sarah M. Nelson 105

6. Politics of the Queue: Agitation and Resistance in the Beginning and End of Qing China / Weikun Cheng 123

7. Hair Like Snakes and Mustached Brides: Crossed Gender in an Indian Folk Cult / Alf Hiltebeitel 143

8. Living Ghosts: Long-Haired Destitutes in Colonial Hong Kong / James L. Watson 177

9. Cutting the Fringes: Public Hair at the Margins of Japanese Censorship Laws / Anne Allison 195

10. Cuts and Culture in Kathmandu / Julia J. Thompson 219

11. The Disappearance of the Oiled Braid: Indian Adolescent Female Hairstyles in North America / Barbara D. Miller 259

12. Afterword: Hair Power / Barbara D. Miller 281.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0791437418

0791437426

OCLC:

37254408