Stephanie Feeney will be signing copies of her recently published book, Sun and Rain: Exploring Seasons in Hawai‘i, at:
Borders Ward Center, Saturday, March 1, 12:00 noon
Borders Windward Mall, Sunday, March 2, 12:00 noon
In addition to Sun and Rain, Dr. Feeney is the author of best sellers A is for Aloha, Hawaii is a Rainbow, and Sand to Sea: Marine Life in Hawaii.
John Clark, author of Guardian of the Sea: Jizo in Hawai‘i, will be signing his book at Akiko’s Buddhist Bed and Breakfast in Wailea on Saturday, March 1, following a performance by shakuhachi grandmaster Riley Lee and a dramatic reading of a Peter Charlot script inspired by Clark’s book. Admission for the evening program (7-8:30 p.m.) is $10 ($8 for children under 12). Parking is available at Hakalau Baseball Park. For reservations and more information, please contact Akiko at 808-963-6422 or email msakiko@hawaii.rr.com.
One of the main problems faced by teachers and students who have a scholarly interest in Southeast Asia is the lack of general, user-friendly texts in the social sciences. The absence of an introduction to the sociology of Southeast Asia is especially unfortunate. The Sociology of Southeast Asia: Transformations in a Developing Region, by Victor T. King, attempts to meet these needs. This is, then, the first sole-authored introductory sociology text on Southeast Asia that focuses on change and development in the region, provides an overview of the important sociological and political economy writings, and considers the key concepts and themes in the field since 1945.
“Victor King has produced a lucid, comprehensive, and challenging analysis of the state-of-the-art of Southeast Asian sociology. The book is not only an excellent textbook for courses on Southeast Asia or development sociology, but also ‘required reading’ for all social scientists embarking on research on the area. I am certain that it will become a long-lasting addition to the standard literature on Asia.” —Hans-Dieter Evers, University of Bonn
January 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3229-2 / $26.00 (PAPER)
Nokonofo Kitea (We Keep on Living This Way): Myths and Music of Futuna, Vanuatu, by Janet Dixon Keller and Takaronga Kuautonga, is centered on stories and songs from the Polynesian outlier West Futuna, Vanuatu. It aims to accomplish three goals: found a secular literature, celebrate and interpret the verbal arts, and connect ancestral discourses with the complex fabric of present-day lives. In the narratives islanders past and present enunciate personal and social struggles, articulate power dynamics, and proclaim the cultural geography and cosmology that promote community. History emerges through their perspectives. Gender, marriage, residence, exchange, and alliance are interrogated; gluttony and conservation juxtaposed.
“This volume is a superb example of the kind of quality that a collaborative project, between expatriate academics and Pacific Islanders, can produce. The collaborative strategy has major implications for the discipline of anthropology in general.” —Kirk Huffman, honorary curator, Vanuatu Cultural Center
February 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3113-4 / $50.00 (CLOTH)
One of the most influential artists working in the genre of ukiyo-e (“pictures of the floating world”) in late-eighteenth-century Japan, Kitagawa Utamaro (1753?–1806) was widely appreciated for his prints of beautiful women. In images showing courtesans, geisha, housewives, and others, Utamaro made the practice of distinguishing social types into a connoisseurial art. In Utamaro and the Spectacle of Beauty, Julie Nelson Davis makes a close study of selected print sets, and by drawing on a wide range of period sources reinterprets Utamaro in the context of his times.
February 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3199-8 / $65.00 (CLOTH)
News from University of Hawai‘i Press 