Intimate Exclusion presents a novel and fascinating cultural case study that reconsiders perceptions of race and caste, ethnicity, and nationalism. It richly documents the society of the Nuosu, subsistence agriculturalists living in the high mountains of southwest China, and compares Nuosu society to race and caste in the U.S., India, and apartheid South Africa, to provide a thought-provoking a new perspective on the nature and causes of race and racism.