Japanese Anthropology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47854/nmjvk652Keywords:
Japan, East Asia, History of Anthropology, Ethnology, ColonialismAbstract
This essay shows the multiple sources of influence on the formation of Japanese anthropology since the late nineteenth century, when the genealogical relationship between the Japanese and the Ainu attracted national attention. After the first overseas fieldwork by Japanese anthropologists in 1895, the year of Japan’s victory in the war with China, cultural anthropology, or ethnology as it was then called, developed along with the expansion of the Japanese empire. With Japan’s defeat in World War II, anthropology underwent profound changes, but close examination reveals both changes and continuities that persist to this day. By demonstrating that the “colonial roots of anthropology” are not a Western monopoly, this essay offers a different perspective for rethinking anthropology than has been the case.
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