Background
Blum, Susan Debra was born on January 7, 1957 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Daughter of George Lewis and Joyce Zuieback Blum.
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book
Portraits of 'Primitives': Ordering Human Kinds in the Chinese Nation by Blum, Susan D. (2000) Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010WI5WHK/?tag=2022091-20
Lies That Bind: Chinese Truth, Other Truths by Blum, Susan D. (2007) Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01181JU2S/?tag=2022091-20
Portraits of Primitives: Ordering Human Kinds in the Chinese Nation
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0585389616/?tag=2022091-20
Lies That Bind: Chinese Truth, Other Truths
( This provocative book explores the ideology of truth an...)
This provocative book explores the ideology of truth and deception in China, offering a nuanced perspective on social interaction in different cultural settings. Drawing on decades of fieldwork in China, Susan D. Blum offers an authoritative examination of rules, expectations, and beliefs regarding lying and honesty in society. Blum points to a propensity for deception in Chinese public interactions in situations where people in the United States would expect truthfulness, yet argues that lying is evaluated within Chinese society by moral standards different from those of Americans. Chinese, for example, might emphasize the consequences of speech, Americans the absolute truthfulness. Blum considers the longstanding values that led to this style of interaction, as well as more recent factors, such as the government's control over expression. But Chinese society is not alone in the practice of such customs. The author observes that many Americans also excel in manipulation of language, yet find a simultaneous moral absolutism opposed to lying in any form. She also considers other traditions, including Japanese and Jewish, that struggle to control the boundaries of lying, balancing human needs with moral values in contrasting ways. Deception and lying, the book concludes, are distinctively cultural yet universal—inseparable from what it is to be a human being equipped with language in all its subtlety.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0742554058/?tag=2022091-20
Portraits of 'Primitives': Ordering Human Kinds in the Chinese Nation
(Ethnicity is a highly politicized issue in contemporary C...)
Ethnicity is a highly politicized issue in contemporary China. Twentieth-century nation-building has been intimately involved with classification of China's fifty-five ethnic minorities and with fostering harmony and unity among nationalities. Officially sanctioned social science classifies the majority group, the so-called Han, at the pinnacle of modernization and civilization and most other groups as Oprimitive.O In post-socialist China, popular conceptions of self, person, and nation intersect with political and scholarly concerns with identity, sometimes contradicting them and sometimes reinforcing them. In Portraits of OPrimitives,O Susan D. Blum explores how Han in the city of Kunming, in southwest China, regard ethnic minorities and, by extension, themselves. She sketches Oportraits,O or cognitive prototypes, of ethnic groups in a variety of contexts, explaining the perceived visibility of each group (which almost never correlates with size of population). Ideas of OHannessO can be understood in part through Han desire to identify unique characteristics in ethnic minorities and also through Han celebration of the differences that distance minorities. The book considers questions of identity, alterity, and self in the context of a complex nation-state, employing methods from linguistic anthropology and psychological anthropology, as well as other forms of cultural analysis. Providing nuanced views of relationships among political, scholarly, and popular models of identity, this book will be an invaluable guide for those working in China studies, anthropology, and ethnic studies.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0742500926/?tag=2022091-20
Susan Debra Blum
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Susan Debra Blum, American anthropologist, educator. Fellow, Helen Kellogg Institute International Studies, since 2005; research grantee, American Philosophical Society, 1995, research fellow, National Endowment of the Humanities, 2002-2003. Member of Society for Linguistic Anthropology, Association for Asian Studies, American Anthropol. Association.
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Human Language, Stanford University, 1980. Master of Arts in Far Eastern Languages and Literature, University Michigan, 1986. Master of Arts in Anthropology, University Michigan, 1988.
Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology, University Michigan, 1994.
Career
Lecturer Chinese, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, 1988—1992. Adjunct instructor anthropology University Colorado, Denver, 1992—1995, assistant professor anthropology, 1996—2000. Adjunct instructor anthropology University Denver, 1992—1994, visiting assistant professor anthropology, 1994—1995.
Assistant professor anthropology University Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1995—1996. Associate professor anthropology University Notre Dame, Indiana, since 2000, director Center for Asian Studies, since 2003. Reviewer Modern China, 1999, Journal Asian Studies, 2001, National Science Foundation, 2001, 02, National Endowment of the Humanities, 2004, Cultural Anthropology, 2004.
Achievements
Works
book
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Lies That Bind: Chinese Truth, Other Truths
( This provocative book explores the ideology of truth an...)
-
Portraits of 'Primitives': Ordering Human Kinds in the Chinese Nation
(Ethnicity is a highly politicized issue in contemporary C...)
- Portraits of 'Primitives': Ordering Human Kinds in the Chinese Nation by Blum, Susan D. (2000) Paperback
- Lies That Bind: Chinese Truth, Other Truths by Blum, Susan D. (2007) Paperback
- Portraits of Primitives: Ordering Human Kinds in the Chinese Nation
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Lies That Bind: Chinese Truth, Other Truths
Membership
Member of Society for Linguistic Anthropology, Association for Asian Studies, American Anthropol. Association.
Interests
Connections
Married Lionel Millard Jensen, June 5, 1988. Children: Hannah Neora Blum Jensen, Elena Oriana Blum Jensen.
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Born
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Nationality
American
Awards
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Fellow, Helen Kellogg Institute International Studies, since 2005. Research grantee, American Philosophical Society, 1995, research fellow, National Endowment of the Humanities, 2002-2003.Fellow, Helen Kellogg Institute International Studies, since 2005. Research grantee, American Philosophical Society, 1995, research fellow, National Endowment of the Humanities, 2002-2003.