Michaels, Axel
The Scholar’s Choice: Lieblingsstücke Heidelberger Wissenschaftler aus dem Völkerkundemuseum der von Portheim-Stiftung. Eine Ausstellung anlässlich der Eröffnung des Centrums für Asienwissenschaften und Transkulturelle Studien (CATS)
This volume, which emerged from an exhibition of the same name, comprises seventeen objects from the Ethnological Museum of the von Portheim Foundation in Heidelberg that address various themes of life: love, disguise by masks or jewellery, religion, music, food, measurement and weighing, books, weapons, travel, domination, death. The objects were selected as their favourite pieces by Heidelberg scholars associated with the Centre for Asian Studies and Transcultural Studies, which opened in 2019.
Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India
This volume is the outcome of the conference “Studying Documents in Premodern South Asia and Beyond: Problems and Perspective”, held in October 2015 in Heidelberg. In bringing together experts from different fields—including Indology, Tibetology, History, Anthropology, Religious Studies, and Digital Humanties—it aims at exploring and rethinking issues of diplomatics and typology, the place of documents in relation to other texts and literary genres, methods of archiving and editing documents, as well as their “social life”, i.e. the role they play in social, religious and political constellations, the agents and practices of their use, and the norms and institutions they embody and constitute.
The book is the first volume of the Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, published by the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in collaboration with the National Archives, Nepal.
The Mulukī Ain of 1854: Nepal’s First Legal Code
The Mulukī Ain of 1854—the law code with constitutional features drafted at the initiative of Prime Minister Jaṅga Bahādura Rāṇā—is the foundational legal text for modern Nepal. It covers almost every aspect of public, criminal, private and religious law, ranging from the organisation of the state and courts to murder and other delicts, the workings of the caste system and the joint family, matters of purity and penance, customary law, widow-burning and witchcraft. As such, the Mulukī Ain is a unique source not only for the political, social and economic life of 19th-century Nepal, but also for the place of traditional Hindu jurisprudence in South Asian legal cultures.
Slavery and Unfree Labour in Nepal: Documents from the 18th to Early 20th Century
The topic of slavery is largely under-represented in the historiography of Nepal. This source book, aware of this disparity and wishing to encourage future studies on the topic, provides the reader with editions, translations and a study of selected documents and legal texts of Nepal from the period of the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. These sources are concerned with such different aspects of slavery as donations, transactions, bondservitude, forced labour, emancipation, and law.
Caring for Old Age: Perspectives from South Asia
Many societies are experiencing growing longevity and population ageing simultaneously with increasing urbanization and mobilities. Such fundamental demographic and structural shifts have been reflected in a multitude of narratives and strategies how to “age well” in view of rapidly transforming environments, mobilities of people and changing social relations. This volume explores the transcultural dimensions of ageing and care through close-up ethnographic and literary case studies in South Asia, as well as one European case study from a South Asian researcher’s view. By critically engaging with Eurocentric aspects in ageing studies, the eleven contributions of this volume highlight how perspectives from the Global South shed light on transcultural entanglements and connectivities of experiences of care and ageing.
