Impermanence: Exploring Continuous Change Across Cultures

Nothinglasts forever. This common experience is the source of much anxiety but alsohope. The concept of impermanence or continuous change opens up arange of timely questions and discussions that speak to globally sharedexperiences of transformation and concerns for the future. Impermanence engages with an emergent body of social theory emphasizing flux and transformation, and bringsthis into a dialogue with other traditions of thought and practice, notably Buddhism that has sustained a long-lasting and sophisticated meditation onimpermanence.

In cases drawn from all over the world, thisvolume investigates the significance of impermanence in such diverse contextsas social death, atheism, alcoholism, migration, ritual, fashion, oncology,museums, cultural heritage and art. The authors draw on a wide range ofdisciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, art history, Buddhiststudies, cultural geography and museology. This volume also includes numerousphotographs, artworks and poems that evocatively communicate notions andexperiences of impermanence.