Hair: Its Power and Meaning in Asian CulturesAlf Hiltebeitel, Barbara D. Miller, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Women's Studies Program Barbara D Miller 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. It defines a person's gender, sexual availability and desirability, age, social status, and even political stance. It may also act as a basis for discrimination in treatment by others. While hair's high salience as both sign and symbol extends cross-culturally through time, its denotations are far from universal. Hair is an interdisciplinary 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
Social Significance | 11 |
Hairy Barbarians Furry Primates | 51 |
Bound Hair and Confucianism in Korea | 105 |
Agitation and Resistance | 123 |
LongHaired Destitutes | 177 |
Pubic Hair at | 195 |
Cuts and Culture in Kathmandu | 219 |
Indian | 259 |
Hair Power | 281 |
Contributors | 287 |
Other editions - View all
Hair: Its Power and Meaning in Asian Cultures Alf Hiltebeitel,Barbara D. Miller Limited preview - 1998 |
Hair: Its Power and Meaning in Asian Cultures Alf Hiltebeitel,Barbara D. Miller No preview available - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
Alf Hiltebeitel Alis Amaterasu Anthropology appears Aravan ascetics associated avatāra beard beauty salon Beijing body hair braid caste China Chinese chubanshe comb Confucian context cult Dikötter disheveled Draupadi dress dynasty ethnic eunuch example fashion female hair festival gender genitalia girls hair styles hair symbolism hairy Hallpike head hair headdress Hindu Hong Kong human hypertrichosis identity imperial Indian Japan Japanese Kālī kami Kathmandu Korea Kṛṣṇa Küttāṇṭavar Kūvākkam long hair long-haired destitutes loose hair magatama Mahābhārata male Manchu marriage marry matted hair meaning of hair Mohini mustache myth Nepal Newār Nihonshoki NKBT North Arcot Obeyesekere obscenity Olivelle Parbatiyā political popular pubic hair Qing Qing dynasty queue cutting Rana rites Ritu's ritual root meaning sacrifice San Tin sexual Shanghai shaving Shrijana Sikh social society South Asian Susano-o temple theory tion tomb topknot traditional University Press verse village wear Western wild woman women Zhang