Thomas White
Biographic Data
| ID | 3590489 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas White |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas |
| FAMILY NAME | White |
| SIGNATURE | WHITE T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lecturer, Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge Cambridge UK |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6338-406X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 37 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 27 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1923 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Impact of a content-rich literacy curriculum on kindergarteners’ vocabulary, listening comprehension, and content knowledge
Kinship imaginaries of similarity and difference
In much of the world the intensification of nationalism during the COVID-19 pandemic manifested itself as a desire for more strictly controlled borders. In this paper, however, we identify a ‘cross-border’ form of solidarity that emerged in Inner Mongolia, China. Here, ethnic Mongols share cultural and linguistic ties with people across the border in independent Mongolia. Through an analysis of Inner Mongolian media, we show how COVID-19 prompted…
Foul Weather Friends? The Transnational Politics of Dust Storms Between China and Mongolia
Yellow dust storms are a frequent phenomenon across Northeast Asia in the spring. China has often been blamed by neighbouring countries as the source of the yellow dust and has, over several decades, developed various forms of anti-desertification expertise in an attempt to control the fragile ecologies of its arid northwestern regions. However, in recent years China has increasingly sought to locate the origins of the dust storms across the bord…
The Beastly Politics of China’s Margins
The Infused Science of Christ, According to Thomas Aquinas
This paper establishes a contrast between the Thomistic conception of Christ’s de-grees of knowledge with the contemporary conception of the same. It proves the fruit-fulness of Aquinas’ division of Christ’s knowledge in four kinds (one divine, three human: vision of God, infused science, and acquired knowledge) in order to deal with the problem of harmonizing Christ’s modes of human knowledge. Very particularly, it holds that Jesus articulated i…
Sparks from the friction of terrain
Representations of the friction of terrain play a significant role in the production of the territorial imagination in contemporary China. As infrastructure and its attendant promises are rolled out to once-remote corners of the nation, the state has sought to memorialize the heroic experience of the friction of terrain during the Chinese Revolution and subsequent projects of territorial incorporation in Inner Asia, before the proliferation of du…
Identifying opportunities to deliver effective and efficient outcomes from business-biodiversity action
Business-biodiversity action is increasingly seen as critical for delivering conservation goals, but such action needs to be effective. Using detailed semi-structured interviews with leading business-biodiversity professionals and consultants we aimed to understand the actions currently taken and why, how actions are decided upon, and current challenges that hinder effective, efficient action. The scale and type of action varied by sector, driven…
Pastoralism and the State in China’s Inner Mongolia
The Chinese government has downgraded use of the Mongol language in schools in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and is now using its brand of state environmentalism to rein in Mongol pastoralists, blaming them for the degradation of grasslands. By targeting language and land use, the two pillars of Mongol autonomy, the state has shown that it is prepared to override the very limited forms of autonomy still enjoyed by China’s minority nationa…
Speaking of mountain deities beyond the county border
The Kanjur Choekor (bka’ ‘gyur chos bskor) is a well-known ritual in Bhutan, where heavy volumes of religious texts are carried around a territory. It has traditionally been performed as a rain-making ritual, a performance of environmental cosmopolitics carried out by the clergy at the behest of villagers suffering from drought. But with the advent of COVID-19, the ritual has been nationally repurposed and redeployed to protect the populace from …
Pastoralism after culture
In the name of 'ecological civilization', the Chinese state has sought to adjust the ecologies of its degraded northern grasslands, using market instruments, such as payments for ecosystem services, to induce ethnic minority pastoralists to pursue non-herding livelihoods. In the far west of Inner Mongolia, the resultant decline in the availability of rural labour has meant that most domestic camels that remain on the rangelands are now left large…
Domesticating the Belt and Road
China’s Belt and Road Initiative has led to an efflorescence of interest in the heritage of the “Silk Road,” both in China and abroad. In this article, I approach the BRI and its associated “Silk Road fever” ethnographically, discussing its effects on a particular region of China. What was once characterized in official discourse as a “remote border region” is now recovering its history of camel-based connectivity, and using this to imagine its f…
Trading Caterpillar Fungus in Tibet
Special Section
This special section, "Multispecies Co-existence in Inner Asia," explores the complex relationships between humans, animals, and plants in Inner Asia, challenging traditional understandings of domestication. The introduction, "Resituating Domestication in Inner Asia," by Thomas White and Natasha Fijn, argues for a broader perspective on domestication that moves beyond a focus on control and ownership to consider the diverse ways in which humans a…
Kept Together by Faith
This study examines how religious beliefs, practices, and faith communities influence marriage and family life strengths in American Catholic and Orthodox Christian families. Qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 families (N = 47 individuals). Qualitative data analysis revealed themes categorized under the domains of general life strengths, marital strengths, and parenting strengths. Findings suggest that for th…
Animals
What role do nonhuman animals play in human social life? This question has long interested anthropologists, who have provided various answers, themselves reflective of broader theoretical trends within the discipline. For much of the twentieth century, animals were regarded as material and/or conceptual resources for humans, with different anthropologists regarding one or the other aspect as more important. More recently, anthropologists have sou…
Gaudium et Spes
The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, seeks to address the questions posed by contemporary society to Christians. Given the dramatic cultural changes that have taken place since the constitution’s publication, however, it remains an open question how “contemporary” the document still is today. This essay affirms the constitution’s ongoing relevance by situating its anthropological statements in continuity w…
From Sent-down Youth to Scaled-up Town
In recent years pastoral regions of western China have been subjected to significant spatial transformation in the name of economic development and environmental protection. Scholarly accounts of these regions have often focused on the state's efforts to sedentarise herding households; this article, however, examines the significance of the administrative recategorisation of a pastoral district and the relocation of its centre, in line with the s…
Imperfect Happiness and the Final End of Man
247 The Thomist 78 (2014): 247-89 IMPERFECT HAPPINESS AND THE FINAL END OF MAN: THOMAS AQUINAS AND THE PARADIGM OF NATURE-GRACE ORTHODOXY THOMAS JOSEPH WHITE, O.P. Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception Washington, D.C. HE TWO MOST influential paradigms in modern theology concerning the relationship of grace to nature are at opposite extremes of the spectrum, and yet the extremes touch in their criticism of Thomism as it is exposited in …
Supernatural lore of Pennsylvania
A volume that explores the history behind Pennsylvania folklore with stories of monsters, ghosts, and miracles
The Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England, 1681–1699, Vol. 3
The Voluntary Action of the Earthly Christ and the Necessity of the Beatific Vision
The Thomist 69 (2005): 497-534 THE VOLUNTARY ACTION OF THE EARTHLY CHRIST AND THE NECESSITY OF THE BEATIFIC VISION THO:tviAS JOSEPH WHITE Dominican House of Studies Washington, D.C. THAT CHRIST in his earthly existence possessed the beatific vision (or immediate knowledge of God) is a traditional affirmation of Christian theology.1 However, this Christological theory is increasingly questioned by theologians deeply committed to the Catholic tradi…
Diet and the distribution of environmental impact
Calendar of the Correspondence of Richard Baxter, Vol. 1: 1638–1660
This calendar provides, with full annotation and indexes, the substance of the complete surviving correspondence of the Puritan divine Richard Baxter, making available a rich source for the religious, political, and cultural history of the 17th century.
Problems of Development in New Guinea
Alexander's Minor Campaigns in Turkey
Domesticating the Belt and Road
China’s Belt and Road Initiative has led to an efflorescence of interest in the heritage of the “Silk Road,” both in China and abroad. In this article, I approach the BRI and its associated “Silk Road fever” ethnographically, discussing its effects on a particular region of China. What was once characterized in official discourse as a “remote border region” is now recovering its history of camel-based connectivity, and using this to imagine its f…
Special Section
This special section, "Multispecies Co-existence in Inner Asia," explores the complex relationships between humans, animals, and plants in Inner Asia, challenging traditional understandings of domestication. The introduction, "Resituating Domestication in Inner Asia," by Thomas White and Natasha Fijn, argues for a broader perspective on domestication that moves beyond a focus on control and ownership to consider the diverse ways in which humans a…
Animals
What role do nonhuman animals play in human social life? This question has long interested anthropologists, who have provided various answers, themselves reflective of broader theoretical trends within the discipline. For much of the twentieth century, animals were regarded as material and/or conceptual resources for humans, with different anthropologists regarding one or the other aspect as more important. More recently, anthropologists have sou…
Sparks from the friction of terrain
Representations of the friction of terrain play a significant role in the production of the territorial imagination in contemporary China. As infrastructure and its attendant promises are rolled out to once-remote corners of the nation, the state has sought to memorialize the heroic experience of the friction of terrain during the Chinese Revolution and subsequent projects of territorial incorporation in Inner Asia, before the proliferation of du…
Kept Together by Faith
This study examines how religious beliefs, practices, and faith communities influence marriage and family life strengths in American Catholic and Orthodox Christian families. Qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 families (N = 47 individuals). Qualitative data analysis revealed themes categorized under the domains of general life strengths, marital strengths, and parenting strengths. Findings suggest that for th…
Pastoralism after culture
In the name of 'ecological civilization', the Chinese state has sought to adjust the ecologies of its degraded northern grasslands, using market instruments, such as payments for ecosystem services, to induce ethnic minority pastoralists to pursue non-herding livelihoods. In the far west of Inner Mongolia, the resultant decline in the availability of rural labour has meant that most domestic camels that remain on the rangelands are now left large…
Kinship imaginaries of similarity and difference
In much of the world the intensification of nationalism during the COVID-19 pandemic manifested itself as a desire for more strictly controlled borders. In this paper, however, we identify a ‘cross-border’ form of solidarity that emerged in Inner Mongolia, China. Here, ethnic Mongols share cultural and linguistic ties with people across the border in independent Mongolia. Through an analysis of Inner Mongolian media, we show how COVID-19 prompted…
Identifying opportunities to deliver effective and efficient outcomes from business-biodiversity action
Business-biodiversity action is increasingly seen as critical for delivering conservation goals, but such action needs to be effective. Using detailed semi-structured interviews with leading business-biodiversity professionals and consultants we aimed to understand the actions currently taken and why, how actions are decided upon, and current challenges that hinder effective, efficient action. The scale and type of action varied by sector, driven…
From Sent-down Youth to Scaled-up Town
In recent years pastoral regions of western China have been subjected to significant spatial transformation in the name of economic development and environmental protection. Scholarly accounts of these regions have often focused on the state's efforts to sedentarise herding households; this article, however, examines the significance of the administrative recategorisation of a pastoral district and the relocation of its centre, in line with the s…
The War Finance of Canada1
The Kimberley Division of Western Australia
Problems of Development in New Guinea
Alexander's Minor Campaigns in Turkey
Calendar of the Correspondence of Richard Baxter, Vol. 1: 1638–1660
This calendar provides, with full annotation and indexes, the substance of the complete surviving correspondence of the Puritan divine Richard Baxter, making available a rich source for the religious, political, and cultural history of the 17th century.
Diet and the distribution of environmental impact
The Voluntary Action of the Earthly Christ and the Necessity of the Beatific Vision
The Thomist 69 (2005): 497-534 THE VOLUNTARY ACTION OF THE EARTHLY CHRIST AND THE NECESSITY OF THE BEATIFIC VISION THO:tviAS JOSEPH WHITE Dominican House of Studies Washington, D.C. THAT CHRIST in his earthly existence possessed the beatific vision (or immediate knowledge of God) is a traditional affirmation of Christian theology.1 However, this Christological theory is increasingly questioned by theologians deeply committed to the Catholic tradi…
The Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England, 1681–1699, Vol. 3
Imperfect Happiness and the Final End of Man
247 The Thomist 78 (2014): 247-89 IMPERFECT HAPPINESS AND THE FINAL END OF MAN: THOMAS AQUINAS AND THE PARADIGM OF NATURE-GRACE ORTHODOXY THOMAS JOSEPH WHITE, O.P. Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception Washington, D.C. HE TWO MOST influential paradigms in modern theology concerning the relationship of grace to nature are at opposite extremes of the spectrum, and yet the extremes touch in their criticism of Thomism as it is exposited in …
Supernatural lore of Pennsylvania
A volume that explores the history behind Pennsylvania folklore with stories of monsters, ghosts, and miracles
From Sent-down Youth to Scaled-up Town
In recent years pastoral regions of western China have been subjected to significant spatial transformation in the name of economic development and environmental protection. Scholarly accounts of these regions have often focused on the state's efforts to sedentarise herding households; this article, however, examines the significance of the administrative recategorisation of a pastoral district and the relocation of its centre, in line with the s…
Gaudium et Spes
The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, seeks to address the questions posed by contemporary society to Christians. Given the dramatic cultural changes that have taken place since the constitution’s publication, however, it remains an open question how “contemporary” the document still is today. This essay affirms the constitution’s ongoing relevance by situating its anthropological statements in continuity w…
Kept Together by Faith
This study examines how religious beliefs, practices, and faith communities influence marriage and family life strengths in American Catholic and Orthodox Christian families. Qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 families (N = 47 individuals). Qualitative data analysis revealed themes categorized under the domains of general life strengths, marital strengths, and parenting strengths. Findings suggest that for th…
Animals
What role do nonhuman animals play in human social life? This question has long interested anthropologists, who have provided various answers, themselves reflective of broader theoretical trends within the discipline. For much of the twentieth century, animals were regarded as material and/or conceptual resources for humans, with different anthropologists regarding one or the other aspect as more important. More recently, anthropologists have sou…
Domesticating the Belt and Road
China’s Belt and Road Initiative has led to an efflorescence of interest in the heritage of the “Silk Road,” both in China and abroad. In this article, I approach the BRI and its associated “Silk Road fever” ethnographically, discussing its effects on a particular region of China. What was once characterized in official discourse as a “remote border region” is now recovering its history of camel-based connectivity, and using this to imagine its f…
Trading Caterpillar Fungus in Tibet
Special Section
This special section, "Multispecies Co-existence in Inner Asia," explores the complex relationships between humans, animals, and plants in Inner Asia, challenging traditional understandings of domestication. The introduction, "Resituating Domestication in Inner Asia," by Thomas White and Natasha Fijn, argues for a broader perspective on domestication that moves beyond a focus on control and ownership to consider the diverse ways in which humans a…
Pastoralism and the State in China’s Inner Mongolia
The Chinese government has downgraded use of the Mongol language in schools in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and is now using its brand of state environmentalism to rein in Mongol pastoralists, blaming them for the degradation of grasslands. By targeting language and land use, the two pillars of Mongol autonomy, the state has shown that it is prepared to override the very limited forms of autonomy still enjoyed by China’s minority nationa…
Speaking of mountain deities beyond the county border
The Kanjur Choekor (bka’ ‘gyur chos bskor) is a well-known ritual in Bhutan, where heavy volumes of religious texts are carried around a territory. It has traditionally been performed as a rain-making ritual, a performance of environmental cosmopolitics carried out by the clergy at the behest of villagers suffering from drought. But with the advent of COVID-19, the ritual has been nationally repurposed and redeployed to protect the populace from …
Pastoralism after culture
In the name of 'ecological civilization', the Chinese state has sought to adjust the ecologies of its degraded northern grasslands, using market instruments, such as payments for ecosystem services, to induce ethnic minority pastoralists to pursue non-herding livelihoods. In the far west of Inner Mongolia, the resultant decline in the availability of rural labour has meant that most domestic camels that remain on the rangelands are now left large…
Identifying opportunities to deliver effective and efficient outcomes from business-biodiversity action
Business-biodiversity action is increasingly seen as critical for delivering conservation goals, but such action needs to be effective. Using detailed semi-structured interviews with leading business-biodiversity professionals and consultants we aimed to understand the actions currently taken and why, how actions are decided upon, and current challenges that hinder effective, efficient action. The scale and type of action varied by sector, driven…
The Infused Science of Christ, According to Thomas Aquinas
This paper establishes a contrast between the Thomistic conception of Christ’s de-grees of knowledge with the contemporary conception of the same. It proves the fruit-fulness of Aquinas’ division of Christ’s knowledge in four kinds (one divine, three human: vision of God, infused science, and acquired knowledge) in order to deal with the problem of harmonizing Christ’s modes of human knowledge. Very particularly, it holds that Jesus articulated i…
Sparks from the friction of terrain
Representations of the friction of terrain play a significant role in the production of the territorial imagination in contemporary China. As infrastructure and its attendant promises are rolled out to once-remote corners of the nation, the state has sought to memorialize the heroic experience of the friction of terrain during the Chinese Revolution and subsequent projects of territorial incorporation in Inner Asia, before the proliferation of du…
The Beastly Politics of China’s Margins
Impact of a content-rich literacy curriculum on kindergarteners’ vocabulary, listening comprehension, and content knowledge
Geography (13 works) · Political science (13 works) · China (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology (8 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations (5 works) · Economics (5 works)