Research Catalog

Wrapping culture : politeness, presentation, and power in Japan and other societies

Title
Wrapping culture : politeness, presentation, and power in Japan and other societies / Joy Hendry.
Author
Hendry, Joy.
Publication
Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1993.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Book/TextUse in library DS830 .H45 1993Off-site

Details

Description
xiv, 200 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.
Summary
Wrapping Culture is concerned with problems of intercultural communication and the possibilities for misinterpretation of the familiar in an unfamiliar context. Starting with an examination of gift-wrapping, Joy Hendry demonstrates how our expectations are often influenced by cultural factors which may blind us to an appreciation of underlying intent. She then extends this approach to the study of polite language as the wrapping of thoughts and intentions, garments as body wrappings, constructions and gardens as wrapping of space, and even to the ways in which people may be wrapped in seating arrangements, or meetings and drinking customs may be constrained by temporal versions of wrapping. Throughout the book, Dr Hendry considers ways in which groups of people use such symbolic forms to impress and manipulate one another, and points out a Western tendency to underestimate such non-verbal communication, or to reject it as mere decoration. The ideas she presents should be valid in any inter-cultural encounter and demonstrate that Japanese culture, so often thought of as a special case, can supply a model through which we can formulate general theories about human behaviour.
Series Statement
Oxford studies in the anthropology of cultural forms
Uniform Title
Oxford studies in the anthropology of cultural forms.
Subject
  • National characteristics, Japanese
  • Intercultural communication > Japan
  • Japanese
  • Japanese
  • Civilization
  • Intercultural communication
  • National characteristics, Japanese
  • Internationaler Vergleich
  • Kulturkontakt
  • Nationalcharakter
  • Verpackung
  • Etiquette
  • Communicatie
  • Nationale kenmerken
  • Savoir-vivre > Japon
  • Communication interculturelle > Japon
  • Caractère national japonais
  • Japan > Civilization
  • Japan
  • Japon > Moeurs et coutumes
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references.
Contents
1. The Purpose and Meaning of Wrapping -- 2. The Language and Value of Japanese Wrapping -- 3. Japanese Language as Wrapping -- 4. Wrapping of the Body -- 5. The Wrapping of Space -- 6. Social Wrapping, or People Wrapping People -- 7. Temporal Wrapping -- and Unwrapping -- 8. Politeness, Packaging, and Power -- Wrapping it up: The Symbolic Power of Wrapping.
ISBN
  • 0198273894
  • 9780198273899
  • 0198280289
  • 9780198280286
LCCN
92023254
OCLC
  • ocm26256703
  • 26256703
  • SCSB-14478869
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library