Encounters with Emotions

Spanning Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Encounters with Emotions investigates experiences of face-to-face transcultural encounters from the seventeenth century to the present and the emotional dynamics that helped to shape them. Each of the case studies collected here investigates fascinating historiographical questions that arise from the study of emotion, from the strategies people have used to interpret and understand each other’s emotions to the roles that emotions have played in obstructing communication across cultural divides. Together, they explore the cultural aspects of nature as well as the bodily dimensions of nurture and trace the historical trajectories that shape our understandings of current cultural boundaries and effects of globalization.

Spanning Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Encounters with Emotions investigates experiences of face-to-face transcultural encounters from the seventeenth century to the present and the emotional dynamics that helped to shape them. Each of the case studies collected here investigates fascinating historiographical questions that arise from the study of emotion, from the strategies people have used to interpret and understand each other’s emotions to the roles that emotions have played in obstructing communication across cultural divides. Together, they explore the cultural aspects of nature as well as the bodily dimensions of nurture and trace the historical trajectories that shape our understandings of current cultural boundaries and effects of globalization.

List of Illustrations

Introduction: Encountering Feelings—Feeling Encounters

Benno Gammerl, Philipp Nielsen and Margrit Pernau

Chapter 1. Missionaries: False Reverence, Irreverence and the Rethinking of Christian Mission in China and India

Stephen Cummins and Joel Lee

Chapter 2. Travellers: Transformative Journeys and Emotional Contacts

Edgar Cabanas, Razak Khan and Jani Marjanen

Chapter 3. Anthropologists: Feelings in the Field

Pascal Eitler and Joseph Ben Prestel

Chapter 4. Entrepreneurs: Encountering Trust in Business Relations

Agnes Arndt

Chapter 5. Diplomats: Kneeling and the Protocol of Humiliation

Ute Frevert

Chapter 6. Occupiers and Civilians: Facing the Enemy

Philipp Nielsen

Chapter 7. Prisoners: Experiencing the Criminal Other

Pavel Vasilyev and Gian Marco Vidor

Chapter 8. ‘Monsters’: Emotional Incoherence and Familial Murder

Daphne Rozenblatt

Chapter 9. Performers: From ‘Courtesans’ to Kathakali King Lear

Kedar A. Kulkarni

Chapter 10. Lovers and Friends: Encounters of Hearts and Bodies

Margrit Pernau

Conclusion: After Encounters with Feelings: Outcomes and Further Issues

Benno Gammerl

Index