Impermanence: Exploring continuous change across cultures

Nothing Lasts Forever. This Common Experience Is The Source Of Much Anxiety But Also Hope. The Concept Of Impermanence Or Continuous Change Opens Up A Range Of Timely Questions And Discussions That Speak To Globally Shared Experiences Of Transformation And Concerns For The Future. Impermanence Engages With An Emergent Body Of Social Theory Emphasizing Flux And Transformation, And Brings This Into A Dialogue With Other Traditions Of Thought And Practice, Notably Buddhism That Has Sustained A Long-lasting And Sophisticated Meditation On Impermanence. In Cases Drawn From All Over The World, This Volume Investigates The Significance Of Impermanence In Such Diverse Contexts As Social Death, Atheism, Alcoholism, Migration, Ritual, Fashion, Oncology, Museums, Cultural Heritage And Art. The Authors Draw On A Wide Range Of Disciplines, Including Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, Buddhist Studies, Cultural Geography And Museology. This Volume Also Includes Numerous Photographs, Artworks And Poems That Evocatively Communicate Notions And Experiences Of Impermanence. 1. Introduction / Haidy Geismar, Ton Otto And Cameron David Warner -- Part 1. Living With And Against Impermanence -- 2. Heavy Curtains And Deep Sleep Within Darkness / Tsering Woeser -- 3. Disinheriting Social Death: Towards An Ethnographic Theory Of Impermanence / Carole Mcgranahan -- 4. Atheist Endings: Imagining Having Been In Contemporary Kyrgyzstan / Maria Louw -- 5. Encountering Impermanence, Making Change: A Case Study Of Attachment And Alcoholism In Thailand / Julia Cassaniti -- 6. Holding On And Letting Go: Tanzanian Indians' Responses To Impermanence / Cecil Marie Schou Pallesen -- Part 2. States Of Being And Becoming -- 7. A Melanesian Impermanence / Joe Nalo -- 8. 'we Are Not An Emblem': Impermanence And Materiality In Asmat Lifeworlds / Anna-karina Hermkens And Jaap Timmer -- 9. The Unmaking And Remaking Of Cultural Worlds: Reinventing Ritual On Baluan Island, Papua New Guinea / Ton Otto -- 10. 'do What You Think About': Fashionable Responses To The End Of Tibet / Cameron David Warner -- Part 3. Structures And Practices Of Care -- 11. Negotiating Impermanence: Care And The Medical Imaginary Among People With Cancer / Henry Llewellyn -- 12. Caring For The Social (in Museums) / Haidy Geismar -- 13. Transitional Sites And 'material Memory': Impermanence And Ireland's Derelict Magdalene Laundries / Laura Mcatackney -- 14. Photos And Artist Statement / Alison Lowry -- Part 4. Curating Impermanence -- 15. 'neurosis Of The Sterile Egg' - Permanence And Paradox: Museum Strategies For The Representation Of Gustav Metzger's Auto-destructive Art / Pip Laurenson And Lucy Bayley -- 16. Culturing Impermanence At The Museum: The Metabolic Collection / Martin Grünfeld -- 17. Screenshooting Impermanence / Winnie Soon And Sarah Schorr -- 18. 'museum Of Impermanence': The Making Of An Exhibition / Ulrik Høj Johnsen, Ton Otto And Cameron David Warner -- 19. Epilogue: Self Unhinged / Caitlin Desilvey Edited By Haidy Geismar, Ton Otto And Cameron David Warner. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.