http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/logg?logg=8385 18th Conference University of Oslo Museum of Cultural History March 14-17, 2007 http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=47946&logg=8385 Based on fieldwork conducted in the summer of 2006, this paper examines the spatial pratices of mortuary rites for pets in contemporary Japan. Even though human and animal realms are seen as interconnected in the Japanese tradition, there has also been a sense of differentiation and hierarchy. As the boundary between humans and pets becomes more permeable, new social and ritual boundaries are drawn in mortuary practices to reinforce differences between the species. The discourse about the social 2006-11-17T23:42:22Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=47927&logg=8385 During the 1990s and 2000s, Japanese government educational reforms have aimed to develop children's individuality, improve their socialization, and create more integrated communities. This paper shows how this has translated into practice through an ethnographic study of primary classrooms, focusing on two areas: the teaching of Japanese (kokugo) and the new field of integrated studies (sōgō gakushū). Both aim to develop interdependence, as well as to give individuals scope to pu 2006-11-17T17:34:13Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=47926&logg=8385 Generally speaking, it must be common sense for any organizations to recruit excellent personnel if they want to maximize the benefits to the organization. One of the measurements used to determine whether certain personnel are excellent or not depends on their academic background. The higher a person's academic background, the higher their position may be, and likewise the lower a person's academic background, the less chance they have to reach a higher position. In a Japanese company in Taiwan 2006-11-17T17:31:02Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=47826&logg=8385 Starting January 1st, 2007, all tanneries along Tokyo's Arakawa River must implement upgraded water purification systems. All noncompliant factories will be forced to cease leather production. These systems indicate a drastic change in the pollution standards of the city and will result in massively cleaner water discharged from factories that currently dump potentially toxic forms of chromium into Tokyo's sewers. At the same time, the installation of these systems will cost individual factories 2006-11-17T00:21:11Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=47787&logg=8385 The theoretical basis of the research is the "cognitive-discursive" paradigm which combines heuristics of cognitive science and media discourse-analyses. Metaphor is not seen as the rare or isolated linguistic device, but as one of the most basic and ordinary means through which humans conceptually organize the world. Through examination of linguistic data one can reveal the structure of humans' conceptual systems and the inextricable links with language, thought and action. Thus, by identifying 2006-11-16T12:02:57Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=47786&logg=8385 The workshop will give an introduction to how to search for relevant information and literature in Japanese and in English for anthropology students. More specifically, it will demonstrate the use of databases such as GeNii (from the National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo) and Anthropological Literature (from Tozzer Library, Harvard University). It will also focus on how to use information from the web and what precautions we should take when we use information attained through different searc 2006-11-16T12:00:44Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=47429&logg=8385 This paper discusses the Japanese movie Kamome shokudoo (2006) by the female director as a counter-Orientalist talking-back discourse. Instead of remaining objects of the Orientalist gaze, Japanese women set out to create a new cultural meaning of the other - in this case Finland. The movie depicts three Japanese women, one who runs a restaurant in central Helsinki and two others who come to help her. The movie is about independence as well as about the mutual dependence of women in suspended d 2006-11-13T10:42:06Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=47366&logg=8385 "Charisma Housewife" (karisuma shufu) is a recent role model for Japanese housewives, which refers to celebrity housewives with renowned cooking and housekeeping skills, who have recently become trendy items in women's magazines and in the general media. Following Bryan Wilson's idea that "charisma is not a personality attribute, it is the social recognition of a claim", my main interest is in the lives of "ordinary" housewives who can only gaze at or dream of becoming "charisma housewives" like 2006-11-12T08:57:50Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=47346&logg=8385 At first glance, the Japanese worldview would in many ways appear to be illogical. There is a long history in Japan of values and practices, such as the tendency to favor the concrete over the abstract, which are irreconcilable with absolutes and ideals. Further evidence for these seemingly irrational tendencies is found in social customs that encourage thinking and acting in culturally appropriate ways, rather than conforming to universal principles. In absence of any absolutes, all concepts ar 2006-11-11T10:35:44Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=47050&logg=8385 This presentation will be based on the study conducted among 30 bereaved families of karoshi and karojisatsu on their perspectives of bodily symptoms of the deceased before their deaths. Karoshi is a social term that is employed in a strict legal sense in qualifying for workers' compensation and is used broadly as any illnesses and deaths that the individuals and/or the society perceive as resulting from overwork. The study will examine the patterns of bodily symptoms and verbal complaints in su 2006-11-08T09:02:08Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=47007&logg=8385 This paper is concerning the changing consumption patterns on Japanese TV dramas of different generations in Hong Kong. When TVB (Television Broadcasts Limited) launched its broadcast in 1967, it started importing a large number of foreign TV programs because it had limited production capacity as a television station. A part of these imported programs were Japanese TV dramas. This phenomenon made Japanese TV dramas grow popular in Hong Kong starting from the 1970s, yet we could hardly find any J 2006-11-07T13:12:40Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=46630&logg=8385 Public drunkenness is an easily observed phenomenon in contemporary Japan, especially among adult males, clad in the ubiquitous black or gray suits of salarymen. But for all the stereotyping and commentary on such drinking comportment, little is known of the intricacies or motivations that sustain this practice. The acceptance of public drunkenness has grown out of the central role of alcohol in after-work relaxation and entertaining (Allison 1994), as well as the place of drinking as "a space o 2006-11-02T10:37:36Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=46288&logg=8385 This paper will present the results of my recent fieldwork in Misasa Onsen in Tottori ken, a town rich in mineral hot springs. I was working in the local hospitals which make use of these springs for healing therapy, recording information about patient choice of the type of treatment they receive. I concentrated on elderly patients of two very different hospitals - one private and the other a University teaching hospital, both offering balneotherapy. I tried to establish how patients decide whic 2006-10-30T09:43:50Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=46287&logg=8385 Presentation of the video "Angama of Ishigaki Island, Okinawa" by Evgeny BAKSHEEV (Russian Institute for Cultural Research, Moscow, 2006; 38 min.) - edited field research video of Angama Performances of Ishigaki City, Ishigaki Island, Yaeyama Islands, Southern Ryukyus filmed on August 18, 2005 at aza Tonoshiro and August 19, 2005 at aza Ookawa of Ishigaki City. On Yaeyama Islands Angama Festivities are performed during three nights of the Obon Festival of the Dead. In Ishigaki City the Angama, a 2006-10-30T09:37:34Z http://wo.uio.no/as/WebObjects/nettlogg.woa/wa/melding?id=46047&logg=8385 Since the 1980s, the number of foreigners living in Japan began to increase steadily, among which foreigners from other Asian countries constituted the main part of these migrants. Japanese media, which had so far set the focus on productions depicting Japanese characters acting in Japan now also stood up to face this new challenge in society. Cinema was the first fictional genre to respond to these changes and it came to a virtual 'Asia boom' in the late 1980s, when more Asian characters than e 2006-10-25T13:17:21Z