Paper short abstract:

This paper depicts the private museums established in the first half of the twentieth century, to show a neglected but important aspect of the history of popularizing anthropology in Japan. The collection of them was left for the present Japanese anthropology for future international cooperation.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to shed the light on a hidden aspect of the history of cultural anthropology in Japan by focusing on the private museums established in 1920s to 30s. Indeed, it is well known that a part of the oldest collection of the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan was come from the collection of "Attic Museum," a private museum and institute owned by Keizo Shibusawa, the famous patron and scholar of Japanese anthropology, yet there were still many amateur or non-professional anthropologists and several private museums of ethnology established by them at that time. And those anthropologists or devotees of anthropological studies contributed to popularize the anthropological comparison of world cultures to the Japanese people, and left their collection of Asian folk-crafts for the present Japanese anthropology as the precious resources for future cooperation with foreign scholars. The two private museums in Nara prefecture are depicted in this paper. One is "Toyo Minzoku Hakubutsukan," Museum of Oriental Culture, and the other is Tenri Sankokan Museum. The former was established by Toyokatsu Tsukumo in 1928. Tsukumo was an assistant to Frederick Starr, one of the founding members of the sociology and anthropology at University of Chicago. The latter was established by Shozen Nakayama in 1930. Nakayama was the leader of Tenrikyo, a Japanese new religion. By impressed with the activities of the French Catholic mission in Shanghai, he conceptualized the museum as an educational facility for the missionary work of Tenrikyo.

Paper short abstract:

The classic hypothesis of the dual structure of Korean spiritual world which was published by a colonial Japanese anthropologist has been used to describe Korean culture until today in Japan and South Korea. The hermeneutic circle behind the scene is, however, rather lack of dialogues and unities.

Paper long abstract:

Anthropological studies of Korean culture were systematically started by Japanese researchers under the Japanese regime of the Korean Peninsula, and have been uniquely developed in the world of Japanese texts. A good example of this would be the dual structural hypothesis which interprets the basis of Korean spiritual world as a combination of masculine Confucianism and feminine shamanism. This hypothesis was first published by a Japanese anthropologist in the colonial period, and still reflects the comprehension of Korean culture even in today's South Korea. In the contemporary academic world, we are rather critical to the extent that it is obviously based on the colonialist and/or Orientalist point of view from Japanese scholars to Korean people in the modern political settings. We, however, are still talking and teaching about it, partly because no counter hypothesis is given yet by any other anthropologists with high authority, including those in the Western countries. At the same time, in South Korean highly intellectualized society, most people learn the hypothesis as a common sense of intellectuals, with no serious skepticism; even core doers both of ancestral worships and shamanist rituals are aware of it and are sometimes making use of it when they are in need to justify their deeds. This situation proves the postmodernist idea of hermeneutic circle is mostly correct, but we can never say that the circle is totally founded on any good dialogues or unities between the dead hypothesis and grassroots recognition, or those between Japan-oriented anthropology and post-colonial Korean society.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the formation of anthropology in contemporary Vietnam from the viewpoint of Vietnamese anthropologists by focusing on the establishment of the faculty of anthropology (khoa nhan hoc) at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi National University, in 2015.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the formation of anthropology in contemporary Vietnam from the viewpoint of Vietnamese anthropologists by focusing on the establishment of the faculty of anthropology (khoa nhan hoc) at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi National University, in 2015. After the Doi Moi (Renovation) policy was launched in 1986, fieldwork-based anthropological research became possible for foreign scholars in Vietnam and Vietnamese students also began to study anthropology in Western countries, thereby creating opportunities for Vietnamese ethnologists to come into contact with Western-style anthropology. In recent years, the younger generation who obtained PhDs in Western universities have begun to play a pivotal role in the discipline, initiating a movement to introduce Western anthropological theories into Vietnamese academics and, more importantly, to convert the name of the discipline from ethnology (dan toc hoc) to anthropology (nhan hoc). Besides these shifts, however, there are several points that do not appear to be changing. For example, most field research is still conducted in Vietnam. It seems that anthropology in Vietnam is more like an empirical study of "home" than of "others." Also, domestic political issues, such as the improvement and preservation of ethnic groups' living arrangements, are still at the core of academic discussion. The intention of applied anthropology is another way of understanding anthropology in contemporary Vietnam. Based on the analysis of recent international conferences on Vietnamese anthropology organized in Vietnam, this paper explores how Vietnamese anthropologists understand these academic movements.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper uses Talal Asad and Kenneth Dean’s approaches as an interpretive turn following Clifford Geertz’s method to examine religious practices in today’s Taiwan. These cases show religion as a persuasive force, embarking on new orders from other forces of plurality within dynamic movements.

Paper long abstract:

For Clifford Geertz, religion is a system of symbols that establishes seemingly realistic moods, motivations and conceptions with "an aura of factuality". As religion stands beyond concrete social reality, it is an anthropologist's task to decipher such a symbolic system through thick description. Though, within the drastic global struggles among multiple levels generated by religions, we cannot help but wonder: is religion merely an abstract sphere, isolated from social complexity? Talal Asad argues that these concepts are not an extrinsic existence. Instead, they allow for "elaboration, modification, testing and so forth", stimulating social changes, which, when triggered by contingent power relations, become part of a historical process. Hence, an universal definition of religion is not possible since social relations and discursive processes differ based on time and space. Indeed, in his studies on ritualistic transformation, Kenneth Dean claims that religions in Southeastern China act as "disruptive communities" and "hybrid sites". Through religion, "otherness" permeates through multilayered domains and reaches a global level. Based on Dean's approach, this paper examines religious practices in contemporary Taiwan, particularly the author's observation of the abortion ritual. These examples show that religion interacts within the State's ideology, social movements, communal morality, family values,technology and consumerism. Hence, each religion case study acts as a piece of the puzzle and enriches the anthropological methodology. By scrutinizing religion and other forces used to contextualize, construct and convert knowledge and actions into concrete entities, anthropology is not only practical for understanding people's struggles, but even intrinsic to them.

Paper short abstract:

This paper interprets how Chinese Singaporeans understand their past by observing kopitiam, a traditional Chinese-style coffee shop with a focus on practices surrounding the interpretive turn by Geertz. I conclude that people cut and paste their own elements to create an imagined past and homeland.

Paper long abstract:

In the Malay Peninsula, traditional Chinese-style coffee shops are called kopitiam and have been cherished by the public for ages. Kopitiam offer a wide variety of foods, but are especially famous for their signature breakfasts and thick, aromatic, sweetened coffee. Many kopitiam offer Hainanese-style Western food as in British colonial times. At the same time, they serve Malaysian Chinese specialties such as Hainanese chicken rice. In this way, kopitiam appear to be a good example of the hybrid culture of the Malay Peninsula with the influx of Hainanese Chinese immigrants in the late nineteenth century.

From the mid-2000s onward, the mushrooming growth of modern kopitiam became a notable phenomenon. Such fast-growing modern café chains have interiors that reflect a "traditional atmosphere", even while the café provides a modern, comfortable gathering space with air conditioning, table settings, and wireless Internet access with Muslim-friendly halal foods. However, kopitiam are gradually earning the position of an irreplaceable cultural icon for Singaporeans to represent their rich past and culture.

This paper explores how Chinese Singaporeans enthusiastically cut and paste their own elements of the past to create an imagined past and homeland, all while avidly consuming nostalgic sentiment. Kopitiam are like a complex assemblage of texts and memories that constitutes a web of meanings. These meanings are understood by actors themselves as "national culture." By analyzing the discourse on kopitiam with the discussion of interpretive turn by Clifford Geertz, I attempt to indicate how kopitiam evoke nostalgic sentiments among patrons.

Paper short abstract:

This paper attempts to deal with the politics and the formation of self when we use a certain language. By presenting the case of Goa, the author wants to point out that this politics of script is also related to the politics of academic text circulations and the dominance of English today.

Paper long abstract:

This paper attempts to deal with the politics and the formation of self when we use a certain language. A language as a system can be considered from two aspects: language as sounds (spoken form) and language as script (written form). The latter became foregrounded by the preparation of dictionaries as well as the establishment of particular orthographies in the modern time, which perpetuated (substantialized) what languages are to be. Besides, internalization of the written form of language given at school strengthened the process. This leads to the rise of a sense (or attachment) that we own "our language" and how it should be managed.

The author presents the case of the official language issue in Goa, India, especially the problem of selecting the "right" script for Konkani, the language of the state of Goa. Goa was under the Portuguese rule between 1510 and 1961. After it was incorporated to India, it should decide the official language and which script the language should be written. However, Konkani, the local language did not have the sole script. Hindu Konkani writers utilized Devanagari script; Christians have been attached to Roman script. The official language act of 1987 specified that the state official language is Konkani written in Devanagari script. But Roman script is still widely used.

The author would like to point out that this politics of script is also related to the politics of academic text circulations and the dominance of English in the world today.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the unconventional economic situation under the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe and explores how people navigated the economic life by using the common sense, or naturalness, practicalness, thinness, immethodicalness, and accessibleness (Geertz 1983).

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the common sense that could be glimpsed in the unconventional economic situation under the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. It examines how people managed to navigate their economic life by using their common sense, or naturalness, practicalness, thinness, immethodicalness, and accessibleness (Geertz 1983).

Zimbabwe faced serious political and economic "crisis" after year 2000. From 2007 to 2009, the country eventually experienced hyperinflation, whose official rate eventually reached more than 200 million% annually. The economic life under the hyperinflation was characterized by rapid and seemingly disorderly market movement: The domestic currency could erode its value rapidly, and there were severe shortages of food, basic commodities, fuel, and cash of both domestic and foreign currency.

During such a situation, although people struggled to get by, there was some kind of order in their life. Many scholars have argued that the various survival strategies enabled people to adapt themselves to the unconventional environment. It is true that to focus on the emergence of the new and different way of doing things is important, however it would also be necessary to pay attention to what was unchanged despite the rapid economic and social change.

Showing the cases of people's economic activity and money usage under the hyperinflation and especially focusing on what could not be changed easily (sometimes in contradiction to economic rationality), this paper examines how the economy was sustained based on the people's common sense.