Carla Risseeuw, anthropologist (PhD Nijmegen, 1988), emeritus Professor Gender Studies, Leiden University. She published on British colonial history in Sri Lanka, and, with Indian colleagues, on the Dutch welfare state and on Ageing in South Asia and Western Europe. She studied the social consequences of contracting leprosy in East Africa, and made several ethnographic films. Marlein van Raalte (PhD Leiden, 1986) is lecturer in Ancient Greek Language and Literature at Leiden University. She published on Greek metre, wrote a commentary on Theophrastus¹ Metaphysics and co-edited the volume Protagoras of Abdera: The Man, His Measure (Brill, 2013).

• Editorial ForewordAndrew Fitz-GibbonPrefaceList of ContributorsIntroduction: Conceptualizing Friendship in Time and PlaceCarla Risseeuw and Marlein van RaalteSECTION : Classical Asian Sources and Traditions1 The Chinese Concept of Friendship: Confucian Ethics and the Literati Narratives of Pre-Modern ChinaPing Wang2 The Concept of Friendship in the Jātaka TalesRanjini ObeyesekereSECTION : Western/European Traditions3 Friendship after Money: The Case of Classical GreeceTazuko van Berkel4 The Road to Wisdom: A New Conceptualization of Friendship in Fourth-Century bce AthensAlbert Joosse5 Historical Moments of Friendship Ideals: David & Jonathan, Montaigne, Adam SmithAllan Silver6 Friendship in the European Enlightenment: The Rationalization of Intimacy?Adam SutcliffeSECTION 3: Friendship in Contemporary East and West7 The Utility of ‘Translated’ Friendship for the Sinophone World: Past and PresentWei-cheng Chu8 Intimate Relationships between Women as Romantic Love in Modern JapanKanako Akaeda9 Impartiality, Close Friendships and the Confucian TraditionAndrew Lambert10 The Performance of Friendship in Contemporary IndiaNita Kumar11 Shades of Friendship among Thai Women in the NetherlandsPanitee Brown Suksomboon12 On Family, Friendship and the Need for ‘Cultural Fuss’: Changing Trajectories of Family and Friendship in the NetherlandsCarla Risseeuw13 Civil Friendship: A Proposal for Legal Bonds Based on Friendship and CareNatascha GruverIndex NominumGeneral Index