"Figured Worlds explores the possibilities of commitments to mutual understanding and the framing of strategies of negotiation within and among cultures. Focusing on Canadian First Nations, Australian Aborigine, New Zealand Maori, Japanese, and Zanzabari cultures, this collection of essays begins its analysis by describing how people first obtain knowledge about their own ontologies or 'figured worlds,' made up of sensation, affirmation and will, prophecy, revelations, myths, dreams, and metamorphoses. It then sets out how diverse figured worlds within a given social system are related, and concludes by offering mappings of the dynamics of these relations, perceived in both their existential-ontological and material-practical aspects. Drawing on a wide range of scholarship, this work offers foundational perspectives into the thought worlds of cultures found within other cultures."--BOOK JACKET.