Confucianism and the Family
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An interdisciplinary exploration of the Confucian family in East Asia which includes historical, psychocultural, and gender studies perspectives.
Description
The family is central to societies that have been profoundly influenced by the Confucian, and later Neo-Confucian, mandate. This book examines the nature of family continuities and the internal family social and psychological dynamics in societies that comprise the Confucian core of Asia, namely China (including Taiwan), Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Singapore.
Confucian ideas are discussed from diverse perspectives: religion, philosophy, and history; anthropology and sociology; psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychiatry. Both abiding psychological and social similarities as well as cultural differences are addressed. The volume provides insights on both the positive social cohesiveness found within Asian families and on the possible tensions and even psychopathological responses that may be engendered within a contemporary Confucian family. In addition, the work explores the common Confucian family-cultural background that must be understood to interpret both the scholastic and entrepreneurial success of East Asians wherever they have settled in the Americas and the recent economic push in their homelands.
Walter H. Slote is Senior Research Associate in the East Asian Institute of Columbia University, where he is also Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Sociology. George A. De Vos is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of several books, including most recently, Social Cohesion and Alienation: Minorities in the United States and Japan and coeditor (with Lola Romanucci-Ross) of Ethnic Identity.
Reviews
"The topic of this book is significant, as a part of both the literature on the family as a social institution, and the growing literature reevaluating the Confucian tradition in industrial (and post-industrial) East Asia. " — John Chaffee, Binghamton University, State University of New York