Book excerpt: Communication in Personal Relationships Across Cultures examines the communication practices of non-Western cultures. The international cast of contributors assembled here leaves behind the biases typical of most research and theorizing done in this area of communication and enables the reader to develop a thorough understanding of how people communicate in non-Western societies. Chapters focus on communication practices in China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Iran, Africa, and totalitarian societies. Through both emic and etic approaches, this groundbreaking volume explores how members of a culture understand their own communication, and compares the similarities and differences of specific aspects of communication across cultures. --From publisher's description.