Paper short abstract:

This presentation will review anthropology of Korea in Japan, focusing on the works which are not based on the traditional ethnographical community (village) studies. The key words will be mobility, diaspora, cross-border, history and post- colonialism.

Paper long abstract:

The book titled Transforming Korean Society: Reports of Anthroplogical Field-works from 1970’s to 1980’s was published in 1998 in Japan. The publication of this book, which was a comparative study of ethnographical researches of Korean villages, could be considered as a symbolic turning point of anthropological studies of Korea in Japan. Socio-economic changes occurred around the time were reflected in the themes and approaches of anthropological studies of Korea in Japan as well as in the overall paradigm of the discipline.

In this presentation, it will be attempted to review new kinds of Korean anthropology in Japan, which are distinct from traditional community studies both in themes and approaches. I’ll mainly explore the works concerning Korean diasporas and historical anthropological studies in relation to the theoretical issues of colonialism.