Research Catalog

Title

From white to yellow : the Japanese in European racial thought, 1300-1735 / Rotem Kowner.

Author

Kowner, Rotem

Publication

• Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2014]
• ©2014

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxv, 678 pages : illustrations, maps; 23 cm

Summary

A study of the evolution of European interpretations of the Japanese and the emergence of discourses about race in early modern Europe. Transcending the conventional focus on Africans and Jews within the rise of modern racism, Rotem Kowner demonstrates that the invention of race did not emerge in a vacuum in eighteenth-century Europe, but rather was a direct product of earlier discourses of the "Other." This ... study indicates that the racial discourse on the Japanese, alongside the Chinese, played a major role in the rise of the modern concept of race. While challenging Europe's self-possession and sense of centrality, the discourse delayed the eventual consolidation of a hierarchical worldview in which Europeans stood immutably at the apex.--Provided by publisher.

Series Statement

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of ideas ; 63

Uniform Title

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of ideas ; 63.

Alternative Title

Japanese in European racial thought, 1300-1735

Subjects

• Europe
• Racism
• Race > Social aspects
• Public opinion
• History
• Early works
• Europa
• Japan > Foreign public opinion, European > History
• Japan > Description and travel > Early works to 1800
• Europe > Race relations > History
• Racism > Europe > History
• Race > Social aspects > Europe > History
• Public opinion > Europe > History
• Japaner
• Travel
• Race relations
• Public opinion, European

Genre/Form

• Early works.
• History.

Note

• "Legal deposit fourth quarter 2014"--Title page verso.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 345-615) and index.

Additional Formats (note)

• Issued also in electronic format.

Contents

Phase One. Speculation : Pre-Encounter Knowledge of the Japanese (1300-1543). 1. The emergence of "Cipangu" and its precursory ethnography ; 2. The "Cipanguese" at the opening of the age of discovery -- Phase Two. Observation : A Burgeoning Discourse of Initial Encounters (1543-1640). 3. Initial observations of the Japanese ; 4. The Japanese position in contemporary hierarchies ; 5. Concrete mirrors of a new human order ; 6. "Race" and its cognitive limits during the phase of observation -- Phase Three. Reconsideration : Antecendents of a Mature Discourse (1640-1735). 7. Dutch reappraisal of the Japanese body and origins ; 8. Power, status, and the Japanese position in the global order ; 9. In search of a new taxonomy : botany, medicine, and the Japanese ; 10. "Race" and its perceptual limits during the phase of reconsideration -- Conclusion : The discourse of race in early modern Europe and the Japanese case.

ISBN

• 9780773544543
• 0773544542
• 9780773544550
• 0773544550
• 9780773596832 (canceled/invalid)
• 9780773596849 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

2016364953

OCLC

• ocn879528886
• 879528886
• SCSB-14459996

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library