Tradition and Transition


Book Description

This one hundred year story of the Amish church depicts the survival of the believers in the early part of the nineteenth century. Revealing the agony of the Great Schism of 1865 which fractured the Amish church, Yoder reveals the coming maturity of the Old Order Amish and the Amish Mennonites, who merged with the Mennonites early in the twentieth century. This book sheds light on the identity and heritage of faith and lifestyle of today's Amish and many Mennonites, and posits that although they hold in common the basic Christian faith, differences in their patterns of obedience remain.




Zen, Tradition and Transition


Book Description

Zen Buddhism has flourished for over a thousand years as a rich and complex spiritual tradition. While its origins lie somewhere in the remote mountains of China, today Zen Buddhism has a large number of followers in the West, and its teachings have been transmitted to a variety of cultural settings. "Zen: Tradition and Transition" is a unique anthology which encompasses both the history of Zen and its current practice all over the world. It offers for the first time an overview of Zen Buddhism which brings together contemporary Zen masters and scholars who are among the most distinguished figures in the field. Accessible to beginners as well as challenging to advanced students, "Zen: Tradition and Transition" provides an authoritative and comprehensive perspective on one of the most important spiritual and philosophical movements of our time. -- From publisher's description.




Rethinking Media Change


Book Description

The essays in Rethinking Media Change center on a variety of media forms at moments of disruption and cultural transformation. The editors' introduction sketches an aesthetics of media transition—patterns of development and social dispersion that operate across eras, media forms, and cultures. The book includes case studies of such earlier media as the book, the phonograph, early cinema, and television. It also examines contemporary digital forms, exploring their promise and strangeness. A final section probes aspects of visual culture in such environments as the evolving museum, movie spectaculars, and "the virtual window." The contributors reject apocalyptic scenarios of media revolution, demonstrating instead that media transition is always a mix of tradition and innovation, an accretive process in which emerging and established systems interact, shift, and collude with one another.




The Israeli Druze Community in Transition


Book Description

While there are books that describe the history and traditions of the Druze as an ethnic and religious group, this is the first and only academic book of its kind. It gives voice to the Israeli Druze, through in-depth interviews with 120 people, 60 young adults and 60 of their parents’ generation. How is this traditional group, bound together through the centuries by their secret religion and strong value system, dealing with modernization? What contradictions and continuity come to light in the stories of this people during a time of transition? Can their religion, and their very identity, survive the meeting with the modern, technological world? What resources do the young and the not-so-young bring to the task of preserving their community and helping it to flourish as the world changes around them? The people in this text answer these questions through the telling of their stories, in which they express their values, opinions, beliefs and aspirations. The book draws out theoretical, practical, religious and sociological implications from this analysis, in order to shed light on the challenges faced by other traditional societies meeting modernity.




A Billion Trips a Day


Book Description

A Billion Trips a Day: Tradition and Transition in European Travel Patterns consists of twenty-four original chapters developed by a network of transport professionals in a coordinated manner. The three parts of the book are: European Mobility Patterns; Dimensions of European Mobility, and National Perspectives. Mobility in fourteen countries is described and ten chapters of analysis compare the major dimensions of travel across Europe, which is seen as a laboratory for transport policies. A Billion Trips a Day: Tradition and Transition in European Travel Patterns questions the uniqueness of European travel and transport policies and demonstrates that, in many ways, Europe is different from other developed economies. However, there are side dissimilarities within Europe. The authors take a deep look at the underlying factors which affect travel behavior, with the objective of providing the necessary information for policy making. The comparative chapters of Part II provide an analysis based on national perspectives of the role of the time dimension travel; automobile ownership and use; commuting; public transport; and international travel. They also review the transport policies applied in Europe, explaining why some policies work in some places, while failing in others.




Chinese American Names


Book Description

The naming practices of Chinese Americans are the focus of this work. Since Chinese immigration began in the mid-19th century, names of immigrants and their descendants have been influenced by both Chinese and American name customs. This detailed study first describes the naming traditions of China, providing a base for understanding how personal names may change in the interaction between cultures. One discovers that surnames are clues to Chinese dialect sounds, that many have been Americanized, that new surnames were created and that, in more recent decades as the Chinese American population has grown, new names practices developed and surnames have proliferated. Included are ideographs to surnames and an overview of their preservation by Americans of Chinese descent.




Monarchy in South East Asia


Book Description

This title is the first study to relate the history and contemporary role of the South East Asian monarchy to the politics of the region today. Comprehensive & up-to-date, Monarchy in South East Asia features an historical and political overview of *Cambodia *Thailand *Malaysia *Brunei *Indonesia *Laos *as well as the region in general. The excellent coverage of this fascinating subject should be of interest to general reader as well as to specialists focusing on region.




Hindustani Music


Book Description




The Sepoys and the Company


Book Description

It does so by exploring the ways in which the Indian regiments of the East India Company were formed over its first sixty years, when the Company was attempting to establish itself as a successor to the Mughal empire, as well as to the regional principalities of Northern India.




University Writing in Central and Eastern Europe: Tradition, Transition, and Innovation


Book Description

This book explores specific issues related to academic writing provision in the post-communist countries in Eastern, Central and Southern Europe. Although they have different cultures and writing traditions, these countries share common features in what regards the development of higher education and research and encounter challenges different from Western European countries. Since academic writing as a discipline is relatively new in Eastern Europe, but currently plays an essential part in the development of higher education and the process of European integration, the volume aims to open discussion on academic writing in the region by addressing several issues such as the specific challenges in providing academic writing support at tertiary level in post-communist countries, the limitations and possibilities in implementing Western models of academic writing provision, or the complex interactions between writing in national languages and writing in a second language. Additionally, the book presents several recent initiatives and possible models for providing academic writing support in universities in the area. The important role of academic writing in English, a common feature in post-communist countries, is reflected in the sections which focus on writing in English as a foreign language, as well as on the impact of English upon national languages. The volume will be of interest to academic writing researchers and teachers and those involved in teaching academic writing at the tertiary level.