MINPAKU Osaka National Number 19 Ethnology Museum of December 2004 Anthropology Newsletter http://www.minpaku.ac.jp/ Mongolian modernity is In socialist Mongolia, Mongolian purposes of explicating Mongolian purposes of explicating Mongolian modernity and providing a typical Mongolian case study for social scientific disciplines, including general anthropology. underscored by the refiguration of various Mongolian groups in the world of Mongolness, set in partitions of the steppe by Russia and China, the division of historical Mongolia into Outer and Inner Mongolia, the independence of Outer Mongolia, the Russian colonization of Buryat Mongolia and the Chinese control of Inner Mongolia, as well as pan-Mongolism and the horrors this program etched in the minds of its antagonists. It is predicated on the productionsingular of one Mongolian homeland and an authentic Mongolian identity entrusted with one sole Mongolian group — to the exclusion — the Halh of other Mongolian groups and their lands, notably Mongols in Buryatia and Inner Mongolia. And above all, it is rooted in the process of building a socialist Mongolian nation in the Mongolian People’s Republic. groups, instead of being recognized Ulan Bator, Mongolia (photo by Ippei Shimamura) Ulan Bator, 10 5 3 9 16 15 15 1 13 13 14 7
Special theme: Transnationality Teiko Mishima Why do People Migrate? Chen Tien-shi Reconsidering Nationality with Anne Frank Uradyn E. Bulag Mongolian Modernity and Hybridity Ippei Shimamura More than One ‘Homeland’ Peter Kwong Chinese Illegal Immigration Yup’ik Eskimo Grass Baskets Yup’ik This denial of coevalness to the
Molly Lee Contents From the Archives Exhibition Conferences New Staff Scholars Visiting Publications The term ‘Mongol’ conjures up an nomadic bands image of homogeneous roaminggrasslands. It vast and open denotes a romantic carefree lifestyle, which appeals to an international and tourism eager for things exotic, also denotes the most brutal force unleashed by the Almighty to punish anyone humanity, an image imputed to who commits atrocity, exemplified as by the name ‘New Mongol’ acquired by Americans in recent years. Locked in native medieval time, Mongols, in both and foreign orientalist imaginations, are seldom modern. modern-day Mongols cannot conceal the fact that they are thoroughly modern and living in dynamic ways determined by not by nomadic instincts but nationalism, international and a host of other modernist geopolitics discourses that any study of modernand practices. It is thus essential Mongolia and issues. In this essay I apply a Mongols take stock of these larger theoretically-informed critical perspective, hoping that it will serve the twin Uradyn E. Bulag USA New York, City University of Hybridity Mongolian Modernity and Modernity Mongolian 2 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 December 2004
Uradyn Bulag as subgroups of the Mongolian nation, and at the same time to discourage received his PhD in have been classified as ‘ethnic groups’ national exogamy, for fear of genetic Social Anthropology from Cambridge (yastan), and divided into the majority pollution. Against real or imaginary University in 1993, and minorities, majority being erliiz, politicians have often mobilized and has been represented by the Halh following a forces in the name of safeguarding teaching at Hunter formulaic equation: Halh is Mongol, pureness and the sovereignty, College and the Graduate Center of and Mongol is Halh, so if you are not culturally and biologically. the City University of Halh, you are not Mongol, and if you Erliiz-bashing has thus become a staple New York since 1998. want to be Mongol, you must become in Mongolian electoral politics, wherein Halh first. In this way, socialist political groups avidly screen the Mongolia rendered the entire non-Halh genealogical background of their rivals. Mongolian groups as lesser or Erliiz-bashing is an exclusivist non-Mongols. In this new Mongolian practice; it makes the Mongolian world empire of ethnic hierarchy, the Halh ever shrinking, in sharp relief to the represent modernity and authenticity, outward conquest of the ancient they are the custodians of Mongolian Mongols, who once built the most history and guardians of Mongolian expansive land empire known in the homeland, whereas other groups are world, attested to by the presence of traditional and degenerate or even Mongols from Manchuria to the Volga alien. Mongols outside Mongolia are region of Russia, from Siberia to China’s seen as castaways, having lost their Yunnan province. No doubt, this Mongolian authenticity through their shrinking modern Mongolian world is associations with Chinese or Russians. also antithetical to the image of nomads Because they are not Halh-cum-Mongol, now promoted by protagonists of they are not entitled to Mongolian globalization, nomads who symbolize a citizenship. transnational movement that Inherent in this modern Mongolian transcends national boundaries. It is refiguration is the creation of new also antithetical to the notion of dynamics between homeland and hybridity embodying cosmopolitan diaspora, authenticity and hybridity. To advantage and ideal. be sure, these dynamics have been From the postcolonial perspective, shaped by the Mongolian experiences of all cultures are continually in a state of nationalist struggles in the first half of hybridity. But our postmodern the 20th century. Pan-Mongolism, or the appreciation of hybridity must not be desire of Mongolian groups to be one simple anti-essentialist talk, liberated from colonial dominations and emptied of history and politics. While to create their own unified nation, was Mongolia tries hard to transcend its promoted by the Japanese, Chinese landlocked disadvantage, its citizens and Russians at one point or another travel and migrate to far-flung corners when expedient, and denounced when of the world. This inevitably produces it did not serve their own purposes. The new kinds of hybridity. Thus Mongols external manipulation of and Mongolia must examine the social, pan-Mongolism ultimately resulted in cultural, and economic underpinnings acrimonious recrimination among of hybridity, historically and Mongols, a conflict accentuated by the geopolitically, in order to sense what so-called ethnic processes in both exactly constitutes Mongolness. It is Buryatia and Inner Mongolia. The through acknowledging the wider Soviet Union constructed a Buryat political and historical context and nationality, stripped of Mongolian experiences that we will be better able identity; and in the People’s Republic of to harness hybridity’s liberating China tens of thousands of Inner potential, while acknowledging fully the Mongols were killed after accusations painful reality of being called hybrids. that they were nationalists aspiring for For Mongols, an examination of the unification with Mongolia. issue of hybridity is of paramount In the 1990s, in the wake of the importance, not least because collapse of the socialist regime, there recognition of the Mongolian identity of developed in Mongolia an intense fear non-Halh Mongols (inside and outside of erliiz or hybrids, who were imagined Mongolia) and of the real or imaginary as biologically programmed by hostile hybrids, would only enrich a new foreigners, especially the Chinese, to Mongolia that acknowledges cultural eat away Mongolian sovereignty. diversity and is united by a common Fearing for the extinction of Mongolian sense of history. Mongolia’s greatest genes, intellectuals and politicians have deficit today is perhaps not hard been advocating the revival (read currency, but the virtue of Mongolness. invention) of the tradition of obog Recognizing hybridity, in its broad (surname), requiring everybody to know sense of cultural diversity, as the their obog so as to avoid endogamy that essential feature and strength of would enfeeble the Mongolian body, Mongolness, rather than seeing it as an December 2004 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 3 invisible perilous force undermining it, nomadic rigor and sensibility, and may also enable the modern prepare them well for their next round sedentarized Mongols to regain their of outward, but peaceful, adventure.
More than One ‘Homeland’: Diasporic Imaginations of the Aga-Buryats
Ippei Shimamura National Museum of Ethnology
The term ‘diaspora’ is derived from the large number of highly educated The author is a research fellow at the Greek verb speiro (to sow) and Buryats moved to Outer Mongolia in National Museum of preposition dia (over), and it originally the early twentieth century, joined the Ethnology. After denoted migration and colonization. Mongolian independence movement, graduation from However, the term later came to be and helped build the Mongolian Waseda University in used to refer to peoples such as Jews, People’s Republic. In the wake of 1993, he worked for CR-NEXUS, a Africans, Armenians or Palestinians Russia’s October Revolution in 1917, Japanese TV who have had traumatic experiences of and as a result of anarchy and rampant production company, being banished from their respective banditry around the Lake Baikal area and co-directed a ‘homelands’. In William Safran’s famous and in the Aga steppe, some Buryats documentary on Mongolian folk music definition, diaspora requires the one decided to escape from this homeland in 1994. He received original center as homeland and several and settle in the more peaceful Outer an MA in ethnology away locations as periphery. Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, now from the National Mongol nomads have been scattered imagined as their national homeland(s). University of Mongolia in 1998, and in 1999 throughout the Eurasian continent Because of their cultural sophistication he entered the since the fall of the Mongolian Empire and dispersed situation, Buryats are doctoral program of in the fourteenth century, and many often labeled Mongolyn Yubrii the Graduate descendants of Mongol soldiers still live (Mongolian Jews) among Mongols. University for Advanced Studies across today’s national borders in Theoretically, there are two (National Museum of Eurasia. In principle, by virtue of their antagonistic standpoints about whether Ethnology). He is now constant movement from one place to people who are dispersed across completing his PhD on another, pastoral nomads like the national borders form a diaspora or the relationship Mongols should have much less not. Safran points out that diaspora is between shamanism and ethnicity in attachment to the autochthonous land now a ‘metaphoric designation’ used to Mongolia. than sedentary peoples. Does this mean describe different categories of people that nomads have little affinity with the like deportees, political refugees, alien concept of diaspora? There are few residents, immigrants and ethnic and scholarly studies that deal with the racial minorities. James Clifford, in scattered Mongols as a diaspora. contrast, explicitly distinguishes In this short essay, I consider diasporas from people who live across whether we can or should apply the borderlands. He suggests that concept of diaspora to the Aga-Buryats, diasporas are ‘caught up with and an eastern group of Buryat Mongols defined against nation-state’, and are (Buryats). In what ways does their social entities that have different claims history represent a diaspora? from those of indigenous, Aga-Buryat Mongols have been autochthonous, and ‘tribal’ people. dispersed in three countries: Russian Borderland culture implies, on the Siberia, northeastern Mongolia, and other hand, a situation of bi-locality China’s Inner Mongolia. Their name is where an emerging syncretic culture is derived from an original homeland, the temporarily separated by erratically Aga steppe in today’s Aga Buryat enforced frontier controls, but linked by Autonomous District of Russian legal and illegal migration. Federation. After Russian invasion If we apply Clifford’s theory, beginning in the mid-seventeenth Aga-Buryats living across the borders century, Buryats became separated of three countries are not members of a from other Mongol groups. However, diaspora but ‘borderlanders.’ But here I the Russian colonization also led to the would like to demonstrate that not only emergence of a Buryat intelligentsia have they had strong attachment to versed in European culture, much their ‘lost homeland,’ but they do not earlier than other Mongols under the have just one singular center rule of the Manchu Qing dynasty. A (homeland) but plural homelands, in 4 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 December 2004
in Mongolia have been discriminated as Orosiin tsagaachid (Russian immigrants) or gadaad khun (foreigners). While aspiring for Mongolia as a Mongolian nation-state to some degree, Buryats in Mongolia also have attachments to two additional homelands: the Buryat Republic, and the Aga Buryat Autonomous District in Russia. The same is true for most Buryats in Chinese Inner Mongolia. Multiple attachments can also be observed in the trans-boundary movements of shamanism after the fall of the Soviet Union, especially between Russia and Mongolia. In recent years, among the Aga-Buryats in the four Buryat counties of Dornod province of Mongolia, the number of shamans has rapidly increased to a total of about Aga Buryat shaman in shanar ritual Mongolia and in the Buryat Republic of 120. The overall population of the four the Russian Federation. counties in 2000 was 14,789 persons, Uradyn Bulag has shown that in the so shamans constituted about one course of building the socialist percent of the population. This is Mongolian nation, Mongolia treated remarkable because the increase various Mongol groups as ethnic groups happened after the democratization of and that most groups were either 1991, and Buryat Mongols have been assimilated or were in the process of predominantly Buddhists since the 17th being assimilated into the majority century. No such dramatic shamanic Khalkh. The latter were regarded as proliferation was seen among the geographically co-terminous with the Darkhads of Khovsgol province and Mongolian nation (Bulag 1998). On the Altai-Uryankhai of Khovd province, other hand, socialist Mongolia became other groups that have been shamanic. an authentic ‘national homeland’ or In 1997, I found only five shamans Mecca to Mongols outside Mongolia, among the Darkhads, who had a including the Buryats in Russia and population of 14,757 in 1989. Inner Mongolian groups in China. It In the summer of 2000, I stayed in was the only independent state of the camp of a famous Mongolian Buryat Mongols built on the historical shaman (see photo). Within one week, I Mongolian homeland, from where saw five jeeps arrive from Russia to the Mongols marched out to conquer the quiet eastern Mongolian steppe. These world, but then found themselves in Russian Buryats came for shamanic many newly-established, modern initiations under the guidance of the states. It is no exaggeration to say that master-shaman. Interviews with these many Mongols outside Mongolia dream Russian Buryats made it clear that they of going to Mongolia, as Bulag did believe Buryats in Mongolia have before his visit there. His study preserved their traditional customs documents the epochal clashes between more than those in Russia. the principle of nation-state as a Master-shamans among the Mongolian bounded and limited entity and the Buryats have also been invited to principle of diaspora that both Aga-Buryatia by Russian Buryats to challenges and reinforces the help them become shamans nationalist ideals. (Shimamura 2002). The Buryat situation is somewhat One important role of Buryat different from that of Mongols in initiation rites (shanar) is the capture of Chinese Inner Mongolia. The latter did ancestral spirits (ug) (see photo). These not experience large-scale migration rites are usually conducted by across national boundaries in modern Mongolian Buryat shamans who are times, and are mostly included in one believed to be able to invoke the administrative unit. Unlike the Mongols ug-spirits more effectively. The magical in China, who are designated as a incantations used in shanar rituals are Mongolian nationality (ündüsten, analogous to magtaal — the traditional minzu), Buryats have been defined by Mongolian poems that eulogize the the Soviet state as a nation (natisya) ancestral land — but they also refer to separate from the Mongolian nation, the contemporary diasporic situation. and a Buryat Republic was created for Furthermore, the ug-spirits summoned them. These distinctions have had often instruct the new shamans to visit widespread repercussions. The Buryats their ancestral lands, which are often December 2004 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 5 in the Buryat Republic or the References Aga-Buryat region of Russia. Bulag,Uradyn. E. 1998. Nationalism Shamanic incantations thus appear and Hybridity in Mongolia, Oxford: to invoke and represent the essence of Clarendon Press. Buryatness for the Aga Buryats. While Shimamura, Ippei. 2002. ‘The the Russian-Buryats long for Mongol roots-seeking movement among the roots in Mongolia, the Mongolian Aga-Buryats: New lights on their Buryats long for Buryat roots in shamanism, history of suffering, and Buryatia. Through these mutual diaspora’, in Konagaya, Yuki (ed.) longings for Buryatness and Mongolian Culture Studies IV. Mongolness, the Aga-Buryat groups Cologne: International Society for that are divided in different states the Study of the Culture and construct multiple, yet unified diasporic Economy of the Ordos Mongols. homelands.
Chinese Illegal Immigration: Looking Back a Decade and Half Later
Peter Kwong City University of New York, USA
In the late 1980s, an ‘invasion’ of discovery in 2000 of 58 bodies of The author is a professor of Asian Chinese illegals began to appear at the Chinese immigrants who had suffocated American Studies at gates of Taiwan and Japan, then spread inside a Dutch tomato truck in Dover, Hunter College and to the USA, Canada and parts of England. These appalling images helped Professor of Sociology Western Europe as well. With the help to galvanize anti-immigrant responses at the Graduate Center of the City of human smuggling networks, they everywhere. The Golden Venture University of New often broke through the borders incident was one of the most important York. He has written undetected, and if discovered, appealed factors leading to the passage of a extensively on for political asylum. series of harsh anti-immigration laws Chinese American An unusual feature of this migration in the USA. These affected not just and immigrant labor issues. is the extraordinarily high fees that illegal immigrants but legal immigrants migrants must pay to the ‘snakeheads’ as well. Other nations have used the (human smugglers), starting at $20,000 threat of Chinese illegal immigration to to get into Japan, and reaching as high tighten asylum laws, strengthen border as $65,000 to get into the USA. Most controls and establish multi-national have to pay with money earned after counter-trafficking agreements. arriving at a destination. Non-payment But human smuggling remains a leads to severe retributions by the profitable multi-billion dollar industry, traffickers. The illegals are willing to and the smuggling networks are work in almost any circumstances to capable of out-smarting every law keep up the debt-payment. The enforcement initiative every step of the disturbing aspect is that being way. Over the years, human smuggling unskilled and lacking foreign-language operations have become more knowledge, the illegals end up working sophisticated. For instance, most for Chinese employers in segregated Chinese illegals in the USA no longer enclaves outside the reach of local law arrive by land or sea, but by planes, enforcement. They have become easy and they use hard-to-detect targets for exploitation. The impression counterfeited or legally acquired visas is that Chinese are laboring under the to get past the border controls. conditions of indentured servitude, and Meanwhile, the networks have are controlled by alien criminal expanded their smuggling operations to elements. more diverse destinations. Countries in Not surprisingly, the few reports to Eastern Europe, South America and reach mainstream media have become the Caribbean Islands were previously sensational news items. The June 1993 used as staging points to reach more grounding of a cargo steamer Golden ‘desirable’ destinations like the USA, Venture, outside the New York harbor, France or Germany. As the target with 286 Chinese illegal immigrants on destinations restricted immigration, board, gained the most worldwide former staging points have become the attention. Then there was the gruesome end destinations. Chinese are very 6 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 December 2004
contributing areas worth mentioning; the Wenzhou region in Zhejiang province, and the eastern part of Shandong province. The former sends emigrants mainly to Europe, the latter to Japan. The Fujianese illegals are by far the largest group of China’s illegal emigrants. They are actually coming from the northern part of the province, even more specifically from four small counties (Mawei, Liangjiang, Fuqing and Changle) on the outskirts of the city of Fuzhou. The narrowness of the emigrant base reflects the difficulties of establishing migration chains to facilitate large-scale exodus. Unskilled laborers without foreign language abilities do not have the financial resources and social contacts needed to journey to foreign countries, unless helped by relatives who already work overseas and are willing to advance a down-payment for the smuggling fee necessary to begin the journey. Once abroad, they need their ethnic contacts to help them find employment. The more Chinese already in a foreign country (i.e. the larger the ‘seed population’) the more new migrants they are able to sponsor. But the Rooms for rent and building of a sizable seed population passports for sale, in much in evidence in Italy, Hungary, requires time. Fujianese have the Chinatown, New York Romania, Former Yugoslavia and unique advantage of being a long-time (photo by Chen Tien-shi) Spain. Thus, Chinese illegal migration emigrant sending region, first to seems to be getting out of control. It Southeast Asia and then elsewhere, for has come to symbolize the nightmarish centuries. Their overseas communities vision of defenseless national have had the means to quickly boundaries in a Post-Communist establish seed population in many globalized world, with the haunting parts of the world. Up to this point, specter of China’s one billion people in very few other regions in China could the background. do the same. As out-of-control as it may seem, the Chinese illegal emigration is also scope of Chinese illegal migration is limited to very specific choices of limited and has well-defined patterns. destination. Most illegal emigrants are The overwhelming majority of the young males from semi-rural regions, Chinese have emigrated from two and have less than junior high school metropolitan areas (Beijing, Shanghai) education. They travel to where there is and four provinces (Guangdong, Fujian, need for unskilled laborers, to where Jilin and Yunnan). Emigration in the labor enforcement is weak, and to late 1970s to western nations was at where foreigners without legal status first led by professional elites, mostly in can find and hold jobs. Of course, they Beijing and Shanghai. Their exodus would prefer to end up in high-wage continues to this day, generally by legal earning areas. In this respect, Japan means. Guangdong is historically the and Western Europe are excellent most important emigrant province, but places, but the immigration controls the pace of emigration there has slowed there are tough, and illegals are often down considerably, and largely relies on deported. USA, on the other hand, is legal means as well. Jiling province on ideal; it is easy to get into; once there, China’s northern borders with Siberia it’s easy to find jobs and there is no fear is sending emigrants mainly to Russia. of been deported. This is why the Yunnan province in the southwest is ‘smuggling fee’ to the USA is the sending emigrants to the neighboring highest, even though most Chinese states of Laos and Burma to engage in emigrants would prefer working in thriving cross-border trades. Japan on account of cultural The major originating province of compatibility and a higher wage level. illegal emigration is Fujian province. In One of the most important addition, there are two minor considerations in selecting a destination December 2004 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 7 is the ease with which illegals can later means going to jobs they are not obtain legal protections and permission familiar with, and that most likely to stay. Great Britain is preferred over require a better command of local most of the other Western European language. All of this adds up to a higher nations because of its relatively lenient opportunity cost, making emigration policy towards asylum seekers. less attractive. Having said all of the above, we have The slowing down of emigration from already witnessed the peak of Chinese China fits in with the experiences of illegal emigration. China’s super-rapid other developing nations. In the 1980s, economic growth in the past twenty when China first began on the path to years has created more jobs capitalist development, it created few domestically. The wage and opportunity jobs, but it also heightened expectations gaps between those staying in China that led to a massive rural to urban and those emigrating are narrowing. migration, and serious social and Fujianese, for instance, have no reason economic dislocations. Those with the to want to leave if they can use a option to leave the country did. Both remittance from their relatives to start Taiwan and South Korea began their businesses right in China. phase of economic expansion in the At the same time, globalization has 1960s, and since then close to two continued to cut down manufacturing million legal emigrants from those two jobs in the developed nations. For a countries have arrived in the USA. The time, employers in the declining emigration pressure in the two industries in those nations have been countries only began to ease in the trying to cut costs by hiring immigrant 1990s when their own economic workers. They have been forcing wages development created enough jobs to ever lower, and working hours ever retain citizens. longer. The garment industries in the China currently is going through the USA and in Europe have depended same cycle. If her economic heavily on Fujianese illegals, but a transformation proceeds without persistent decline in the number of jobs political turmoil, the problems created in such places is forcing illegals to look internationally by Chinese illegal for work elsewhere. This typically migration will gradually fade away as well.
Reconsidering Nationality with Anne Frank
Chen Tien-shi National Museum of Ethnology
Anne Frank is famous for her wartime so that she could be made a candidate The author is an diary, Anne’s Diary, but it is little for the ‘Greatest Dutch Ever’ TV show. associate professor at Minpaku, and has known that she was stateless, and A Dutch national newspaper had raised carried out fieldwork passed away (in 1945) a few years after the question of citizenship in a report among ethnic Chinese writing her diary, without having any about the contest on TV. In the contest, entrepreneurs in legally recognized nationality. As a Anne Frank was elected by viewers as many countries. She has published a book teenage girl, everything she wrote one of history’s greatest Dutch Chinese Diaspora became world famous as a symbol for personalities. Although the Netherlands (Akashi Shoten, all those persecuted and killed during has always recognized Anne Frank as 2001), and numerous the Second World War. She became an one of its own, she never actually articles on ethnic Chinese networks, epitome of courage under Nazi possessed Dutch citizenship. identity, globalization occupation. The house of Anne Frank Anne Frank was born in Germany in and trans- in Amsterdam, where she wrote the 1929 and came to the Netherlands with nationalism. She is diary while her family sheltered, is now her family when she was four years old. now conducting research on stateless one of the must-see sights of Holland. In the mid-1930s her family fled from people. Surely, there is an irreplaceable and Nazi Germany, as part of an exodus of deep connection between Anne Frank German Jews across the world. She and the Dutch, and the ties have lost her German nationality and strengthened as time has passed. became stateless in 1941 when Nazis In October 2004, a Dutch TV station made a law to strip Jews living in other launched an effort to posthumously countries of their nationality. When the award Dutch citizenship to Anne Frank, Nazis occupied the Netherlands and 8 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 December 2004
enforced anti-Jewish laws, her family the majority and minority groups of a hid in an apartment in Amsterdam. society. It is here that an actual gap This became the museum known as existed between Anne and the Dutch, Anne Franks House, where Anne wrote in perceptions of her longing during her about her feelings and thoughts. lifetime and after. Also, the meaning of The programmers of KRO television nationality and formation of identity is have quoted the part of the diary where transforming under globalization, Anne states that she ‘wants to become especially for migrants, members of a Dutch (… meek me Nederlander!).’ Now diaspora and the stateless. her wish for citizenship is a political Transnational flows of money, issue. Even the national assembly has people and information are increasing in joined the campaign to award Dutch the present world. Globalization citizenship to Anne, 60 years after her promotes interdependence and mutual death in a concentration camp. Under understanding on the one hand, and pressure, the Dutch Minister of Justice increases the chances of conflict tried to find a way, but the current law between nation states on the other. only allows living people to be This paradox is particularly significant naturalized. One cannot become Dutch for policies concerning citizenship and posthumously. the protection of human rights of For whom does nationality exist, the migrants. Through my recent research, individual or government? By seeking I have realized that as transnational and claiming Anne Frank as part of population flow increases, more and their national legacy, for a TV show, the more stateless people appear. Today, TV company and participating viewers the kinds of statelessness that may crossed the boundaries of good taste, exist are more diverse than in the time and so did the parliament that made an of Anne Frank. In her time, most order to grant Dutch nationality to stateless people were political refugees Anne. Nevertheless, it is disappointing attempting to escape from conflicts that the government and its legal between nation states. institutions could not break through Usually, a stateless person is defined fixed ideas and laws concerning as someone who does not have the legal nationality. bond of nationality with any state That nation states or governments under national laws. The lack of legal are always responsible for determining bonding with a nation state means that people’s legal status and nationality is the rights and obligations of a stateless common sense. A person’s national person are not well defined. Without status or identity is mostly control by nationality, how can stateless people the government of the country to which identify themselves and how can others he or she belongs, and becomes an identify them? Is the stateless person a important foundation for the individual. world orphan or global citizen? As However, how much truth is there in global citizens, are stateless people the identification of individuals with pioneers for a world without borders or nation states, through legal categories division? such as nationality? Also, why do The Dutch Justice Minister, Mr. Jan people in Holland want to make Anne Piet Hein Donner, in an interview by the Frank Dutch and include her as one of Dutch newspaper Trouw on October 7, their own, now? Why not when she was 2004, said that Anne cannot be still alive and actually living in Holland? naturalized because making exception In the present era of globalization, just for her would not be fair for all the the meanings of border and nationality others who cannot become Dutch, and are changing. My own research is who were in the concentration camps focused on issues related to migrants, as well. He also felt that Anne Frank diasporas, and statelessness. While does not belong to the Netherlands some people have obtained dual only: ‘She is not ours, she is of the nationality or multiple legal statuses world (Anne Frank is niet van ons; zij is through migration, others are living can de wereld).’ without any nationality. To allow people to cross borders, passport, travel It is utterly impossible for me to documents, and identification cards are build my life on a foundation of normally issued by the government chaos, suffering and death. I see the where one’s nationality is based. For world being slowly transformed into many purposes, people are usually a wilderness, I hear the approaching identified according to those thunder that one day will destroy us documents. However, the meaning of too, I feel the suffering of millions. nationality and the formation of identity And yet, when I look up at the sky, I differ in a person’s self perception and somehow feel that everything will in the perceptions of others around change for the better, that this that person. They also differ between cruelty too shall end, that peace and December 2004 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 9
tranquility will return once more. In Stateless still, after 60 years, Anne the meantime, I must hold on to my Frank leads us to reconsider the ideals. Perhaps the day will come meaning of nationality. when I'll be able to realize them! — Anne Frank, July 15, 1944
Why do People Migrate?
Teiko Mishima National Museum of Ethnology The concept of ‘immigrant’ is a social problem of deciding between The author is an invention. The immigrant as person is ‘assimilation and segregation’ associate professor at Minpaku. She has excluded from the receiving nation, not (Emmanuel Todd). studied the social and having the same rights and duties as In the study of migration, an economic situation of nationals. The state controls the analytical frame often follows concepts Soninke people in immigrant with a border that represents and categories established in political Senegal, Mali, and some countries in nation and territory. The immigrant is discussion. International labor Asia. Her main also segregated by invisible borders like migration is often recognized as a result research interest at the culture and the language. of the economic gaps created by the present is Soninke Perhaps the most important border capitalistic world economy. Many of the trade during the last half of the 20th is that of immigration politics. Through push factors in an emigrant’s home century, between politics and policy the state is able to society can be related to the world Africa and Asia. She modify laws and exert discretionary economy. In developing countries, the has published several powers. This is highly evident in the adoption of a monetary economy seems articles on the family structure of Soninke migration of labor. If a labor market inevitable and promotes the desire for a people, emigration to demands cheaper labor forces, the state rich life. There is no doubt that France, rural takes an open stance on migration. migrants are involved in the present development projects During recession, the state rejects the global economy, but this is not the full initiated by immigrant in order to protect its story. Migrants and migration can be emigrants, and the diaspora in Asia. unemployed nationals. The immigrant viewed in other ways. is confronted with legal and illegal For at least a thousand years, the status through no intention of his or Soninke people of West Africa have had her own. In any case, the immigrant is a tradition of moving to other countries, often regarded as a threat to the and they are now taking advantage of economic and cultural borders of the the global age. They are very familiar nation state. Today, with modern with procedures for obtaining formal transport, people can move faster, and entry permissions or other nationalities. movement has become more frequent They have developed a worldwide ethnic and easier in the global community. In network and use this to move actively response, the state has taken greater about the world. Usually, Globalization interest in the politics and regulation of and the transmission of cultural migration to guard its national identity heritage seem contradictory, but, in the and territory. The presence of migrants mobile culture of the Soninke, they has thus become more distinct and coexist. more problematic in society, generally. In general, most labor migrants When we talk about migration move from ‘poor’ countries to ‘rich’ issues, we generally do not consider the countries. The Soninke appear to be migrant’s home society. It is effects in labor workers from the South who the receiving society that claim depend economically on the North. The attention. The immigrant can be seen economic motivations for migration are as a factor upsetting the balance of the commonly recognized, while personal domestic labor market, as well as motivations are ignored. The creating cultural conflict and motivations of migrants have become deterioration in social conditions. more diverse with the rise of Working illegally and over-staying are information and communication symbols of the immigrant, yet the technologies. It has never been easier status of the immigrant depends on the for people to exchange information, discretion of authorities. Whatever maintain long distance relationships, or causes people to move, the state faces perceive economic opportunities. The the choice of accepting migrants as movements of the Soninke have citizens or dealing with them as illegal responded to these changes. entrants. Ultimately, the state faces the One part of Soninke people have 10 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 December 2004
worldwide capitalistic economy, but our understanding of the motivations of people who move should not be arbitrarily limited by our preoccupations with the relationships between nation states. The dynamic and independent economic activities and the movements of the Soninke contradict the economic dependence that is usually assumed in African economic history. During colonization, the Soninke found opportunities to move ever farther afield, especially within Africa, by using the political connections between French colonies. After the independence of African countries, they became pioneers as migrant workers in the French homeland. This was initially viewed as merely a migration of labor. Creation of been mainly occupied with trade In the traditional framework of African style in Bangkok between Asia and Africa since the migration studies, the migrants are 1980s. They buy commodities in Hong considered poor because of their Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai and economic position in France. However, elsewhere in Asia, and export them to they did not all remain migrant major cities in Africa. The trading workers. They built an economic base begins at an individual level, and in the new environment by using their develops domestically and long experience as merchants. This led internationally through the use of to the development of trade between family networks, and because of them; Asia and Africa after economic the motivations are not just economic. opportunities were found in Asia. Many Although migration has an ancient daily necessaries made in Asia are now history, international migration today sold in African markets, even in remote attracts special attention because of the villages. borders created by nation states. The The migration of labor does not start rise of technologies that allow easier simply because of demand and supply migration has been accompanied by for labor. We must give attention to the greater control over territories and actual intentions of the people who boundaries, so that the available space move. For the Soninke, migration for migration has declined. appears to be part of an ethnic culture Why do people move? The widely inherited over many generations. The accepted theory of push and pull receiving societies have a responsibility factors, derived from an economic gap, to understand why people move, even if does not explain everything. We cannot people themselves are not fully ignore the macro system of the conscious of the reasons.
Yup’ik Eskimo Grass Baskets: The Cultural Dimensions of a Tourist Art
Molly Lee University of Alaska, Fairbanks, USA
I have always been interested in how grass baskets, which are called material objects make intangible mingqaaq (meaning ‘sewn basket’) in notions of culture visible. Since 1994, I the Central Yup’ik language, were first have been conducting research on the made in the late 19th century and are cultural dimensions of Yup’ik Eskimo the most widely sold Yup’ik art form women’s grass basket making in the today. Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of southwestern Alaska (Y-K Delta). Though often dismissed as tourist art, December 2004 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 11
The socio-economics of Yup’ik house collecting akutaq (a seal oil and Molly Lee received her coiled basketry berry treat). Dressed in gut parkas, the MA in Art History from the University of Historical and anecdotal evidence arms and foreheads of the ‘mothers’ California, Santa suggests that Yup’ik women made were draped with newly harvested Barbara and her MA coiled baskets for sale, rather than grass. and PhD. in local use, from the start. There are at Grass also helped mark the stages Anthropology from the University of least two reasons for this. First, coiled of the female life cycle. As recently as California, Berkeley. ware is stronger and presumably would the 1940s a girl’s parents honored her She holds joint stand up better to packing and shipping first grass harvest by distributing food appointments at the to faraway patrons than the traditional in the community house. This University of Alaska, Fairbanks, as twined pack baskets (or issran in acknowledged her status as a full Professor of Central Yup’ik). Second, the coiled participant in the subsistence economy. Anthropology and at technique permits a wider range of And after a girl emerged from the the University of decorative possibilities. requisite seclusion during her first Alaska Museum as Curator of Ethnology. The coiled technique probably menstruation, she tied a lock of her Her most recent book filtered down into the Delta from Bering hair on a grass plant to ensure the is Eskimo Strait, but its florescence in the Yup’ik productivity of future harvests. Today, Architecture: Dwelling area is owed in large part to the when store-bought commodities have and Structure in the presence of a ready contingent of largely replaced articles made of grass, Early Historic Period (with Gregory A. middlemen. Moravian mission reports the mingqaaq, as we shall see, Reinhardt), University reveal that as early as 1906, baskets commemorates the key role that the of Alaska Press, from the Y-K Delta were shipped out to harvesting, storing and sharing of grass 2003. She was a the lower forty-eight States to help played in the lives of women in earlier visiting professor at Minpaku from finance missionary operations. times. January to June The mingqaaq’s success as an export 2004. commodity seems to have been Effects of globalization on style immediate. Ethnographic collections in One of the difficulties of researching several major US museums include the relationship between objects and examples of Yup’ik coiled ware from culture today is that indigenous peoples this period. It is probably no have been as affected by globalization coincidence that the spread of Yup’ik as everyone else. Compared to an coiling dovetails neatly with the Indian earlier study I did on baleen basketry basket craze that took North America in the villages of Point Hope and by storm around 1900. Barrow, there are 52 villages in the Alaska Federation of Further evidence for the mingqaaq’s Central Yup’ik area, and grass baskets Natives President Julie Kitka argues the commercial genesis is its relative are made in over half of them. Alaska Native position unimportance within Yup’ik domestic Furthermore, almost two decades after on subsistence rights, culture. The issran is still made and the completion of the baleen study, Juneau, Alaska, used for gathering and storage, but the which focused on two remote September, 1999. Beside her, resting on mingqaaq has never been used locally. settlements in North Alaska, Yup’ik the podium, stands a When I asked one of my Yup’ik women now travel constantly: to Bethel Yup'ik Eskimo basket collaborators to explain the difference and Anchorage for health care and (photo courtesy of between the two, she pointed to an other purposes, and to the many arts Seanna O’Sullivan, issran and said: ‘We use these,’ and, and crafts fairs held in Associated Press) pointing to a mingqaaq, ‘we sell those.’ urban and regional centers around Alaska The many meanings of grass each year. Thus the Mingqaaqs are a product of recent discrete and easily times, but the grass and its harvest, as recognized styles that I have shown, are deeply rooted in once formed the basis of Yup’ik culture, as much a part of the material culture studies annual cycle as the cutting of fish in are now a thing of the July. Long ago, the issran was only one past. For an of many items twined from grass: grass anthropologist, the mats served as room dividers, kayak headaches of sorting out seats and sails, and the insulating the basket styles are grass socks worn inside mukluks. compounded every time Furthermore, next to locally obtained a basket maker boards furs, grass was probably the raw an airplane. material most closely associated with the female gender. On Nelson Island, a ‘Platinum’ grass pregnant woman was careful to orient One remarkable feature herself in the same direction as the of Yup’ik basket grass pattern twined into the grass floor mat (Elymus mollis) is that in she sat on, because if she did so she a few places in the Yup’ik would deliver her baby easily. During a area — particularly fall ceremony, two older men (called around the tiny aanak, or ‘mother’) went from house to (population 49) village of 12 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 December 2004
Platinum on buyers often pass them up. Why the Goodnews Bay — artists, normally responsive to grass is found to grow consumer preference, have continued with brilliant red to turn out the randomly colored stems instead of the baskets is probably explained by their normal creamy white delight in its natural occurrence. At the color. The beginning of the 20th century, the red-stemmed grass is Yup’ik environment provided few color prized by the women choices for basket decoration. Before for its color, which the coming of schools to the Delta, dries to a soft, when crepe paper, carbon paper and luscious lilac. The construction paper were soaked to color is so distinctive make dye for reuse (commercial dyes that when you run did not become available in village across baskets of stores until the 1960s), the only way to made of it at art decorate a coiled basket was to shows or gift shops introduce darker materials such as anywhere in Alaska strips of sea mammal skin into the you can immediately coiling. The choice may also be identify it as Platinum economic. In the mixed grass. Yup’ik women cash-and-subsistence economy of the are uncertain of the Y-K Delta, money is hard to come by, reason for the which may also explain the attraction unusual color. ‘I don’t of free and local natural colorant. know,’ said one of my collaborators when I The Mingqaaq as signifier of the Yup’ik inquired about it, past and present Yup’ik grass basket by Julia Paul of ‘maybe the dirt.’ David Murray Formerly, basket grass had many uses Kipnuk, Alaska (photo (University of Alaska Museum, in Yup’ik culture: Women twined it into courtesy of Barry Fairbanks), a well-known specialist in pack sacks, mats, room dividers, kayak McWayne, University Northern Hemisphere plants, attributes sails, and insulating grass socks worn of Alaska Museum) the color to the unusual mineral inside mukluks. Today, trade goods content of the soil around Goodnews have replaced these items, and the Bay, which, he points out, was the grass basket is the only object still location of the only ground-surface made from the grass. Almost all women platinum mine in North America. in these villages go out to gather grass, The red-stemmed Platinum grass is for themselves, for relatives and friends, used in several different ways. Some and also because the fall is a wonderful women artists make small baskets season to be out on the tundra, even entirely from it, though many consider when it means the fatiguing stoop-labor this wasteful because of its scarcity. A necessary for picking grass. few use the colored stems as a Mingqaaq-making is the sole remaining decorative element. Most often, though, use for grass, and this art form the purplish grass is used alternatively commemorates the many with the normal pale straw-colored now-abandoned earlier uses of grass grass as a background color for the and reaffirms the women’s ties to their bright decorative designs of past culture. The Yup’ik mingqaaq also commercially dyed grass or seal represents abstract notions about the intestine. This produces a mottled pale present. The rising popularity of grass and lavenderish effect, which Yup’ik basketry with tourists has intensified women admire. Consumer reaction, its visibility throughout Alaska. Today, however, is less enthusiastic. To the as rural Alaska Natives battle the untrained eye, the random purplish non-Native establishment, the basket is patches read as having ‘bled’ from the often employed as a symbol for Alaska basket’s bright-colored decorative Natives’ struggle to retain hunting and elements, and potential non-native gathering priority on public lands. December 2004 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 13
various other public and Exhibition private collections are displayed in the three-part exhibition. The first section, The Arabian Nights Origin and History of the Arabian Nights, traces the Special Exhibition mysterious origins of the tales, formation of the Nights as a September 9 – December 7, collection, and the 2004 transmission of this collection to Europe and the rest of the In 1704, the first Western world. Extremely precious rendition of the Thousand and Arabic manuscripts of the One Nights appeared in France, Nights, including the made by the French Orientalist, manuscripts used by Antoine Antoine Galland. Translation of Galland himself for his the Thousand and One Nights, translation, are displayed on later more commonly called the loan from the Bibliothèque Young Scheherazade by comic artist, Monkey Arabian Nights, was an epochal Nationale de France. From the Punch event that triggered off the Minpaku collection, rare early European fascination for European editions as well as Hasan El-Shamy (Indiana orientalia, and consequently the first Arabic editions of the University, USA), Ulrich the phenomenon of what is Nights are also presented. Marzolph (Enzyklopädie des now termed ‘Orientalism’. The The second section, Arabian Märchens, Germany), and Nights played a decisive role in Nights as a Window to the Margaret Sironval (CNRS, forming the general image of Middle East, looks into the gap France), during the two years the Islamic Middle East in between the cultural reality of preceding the exhibition. Europe, which in turn the Islamic Middle East and its influenced the image in Japan. stereotypes through exhibits of Yuriko Yamanaka All the early Japanese objects surrounding nomadic Organizing Committee Member translations of the tales were life, women’s clothing, belly National Museum of Ethnology made indirectly through dance, musical instruments, European versions, so their and the Arabic alphabet. reception into Japan occurred Besides the ethnographical hand-in-hand with the displays, there is a corner Conferences importation of European where visitors can actually notions of the Islamic world. experience the Islamic veil. This Arabian Nights vision The fantasy of the Nights The Social Uses of fostered in the Japanese mind continues to this day to be Anthropology in the is probably, still to this day, a reproduced in various media. Contemporary World major component of the Middle In the third section, Arabian Eastern image prevalent in Nights as Entertainment, we Japan. In this manner, nearly focus on the Nights as a source International Symposium three hundred years ago, the of fantastic imagination, October 28 – 30, 2004 Nights left its homeland to be expanded and transformed regenerated and transformed in through art, theater, movies, To consider how the Orientalist climate of comics, and games. This anthropological knowledge Europe, and subsequently, to section offers a rare chance to should be utilized in the become one of the masterpieces view a series of color contemporary world, this of world literature. lithographs by Marc Chagall symposium was hosted by The year 2004 has been and a 3D computer graphic Minpaku with the joint support officially designated by animation jointly produced by of the Shibusawa Fund for UNESCO as the 300th the cartoonist, Monkey Punch, Ethnological Studies and the anniversary of the first and Minpaku. Japanese Society of Cultural European translation of the The exhibition is the final Anthropology. Twenty-eight Nights. In commemoration, result of years of preparation. A participants were invited from many relevant symposia are team of specialists led by abroad and Japan to offer taking place and publications Tetsuo Nishio has been different views, although all are appearing worldwide. involved in the acquisition of shared an interest in the Minpaku’s unique contribution objects and in collecting film inspirational works of Margaret on the occasion of the footage in the field. A series of Mead. tercentenary of Galland’s joint research projects After opening remarks by translation is the Special incorporating researchers from Makio Matsuzono Exhibition: the Arabian Nights, various fields helped in (Director-General of Minpaku) with Tetsuo Nishio as its chief developing the main concepts and Shinji Yamashita organizer. presented in the exhibition. (University of Tokyo, Over 900 objects from the Our knowledge and ideas have co-convener of the symposium), Minpaku collection and from been enriched by the visits of William Beeman from Brown 14 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 December 2004
University gave a keynote In addition, three films what roles have been played by speech. He referred to Mead’s about and by Margaret Mead social sciences such as work as a relentless educator were shown to the public over anthropology in development to the world on the importance ten days: (1)Margaret Mead: projects, and what of mutual understanding Portrait by a Friend, (2)Bathing relationships have existed between peoples and nations, Babies in Three Cultures, between development agencies and mentioned the continuing (3)Childhood Rivalry in Bali and and research institutions in need to recognize her wisdom. New Guinea. each country? With regard to The first of six sessions was outcomes, and examples of ‘Children and Media’, chaired Katsumi Tamura successful development by Yasuko Minoura Convenor projects, how have evaluation (Ochanomizu University), we National Museum of Ethnology methods made projects examined the contemporary successful, and how have media environment of children anthropologists contributed to in three different cultural Role of Social Sciences evaluation? contexts: Korea, Indonesia and in Development Projects In this workshop we also Japan. The next session, ‘Use discussed the basic terminology of Ethnographic Film’, was of social sciences, strengths headed by Yasuhiro Omori International Workshop and weakness of (Minpaku), the signifance of November 6 – 7, 2004 anthropologists in aid projects, using moving images was and how to bridge great gaps of discussed. The third session, In April 2004, ‘Cultural opinion between the policy ‘Male and Female Today’ was Anthropology in Social Practice’ makers and anthropologists chaired by Matori Yamamoto was adopted as a new research involved with projects. Most (Hosei University), and dealt theme at Minpaku. Under this participants agreed that with the roles and power of title, we have started a basic anthropologists and sociologists men and women within a study to help develop applied can play important roles in family, group, and in three anthropology in Japan. monitoring and evaluating the different societies: urban Historically, development impacts and sustainability of Japan, Aboriginal Australia projects undertaken by Danish aid projects. Several and Foragers of Southern and Swedish agencies in Africa, participants suggested future Africa. In the fourth session, Asia and Latin America have research topics such as an ‘Cultural policy’, chaired by been highly appreciated by ethnographical study of aid Takumi Kuwayama (Hokkaido local people, and appear to policy makers, a study of University), we focused on have been more successful development NGOs, ethical cultural and political issues in than projects undertaken by problems in foreign aid, and a Japan and Korea. The fifth Japanese agencies. This is comparative study of aid session, on ‘Development and despite the fact that Denmark culture across major donor Culture’, was chaired by Junji and Sweden provide much less countries. Koizumi (Osaka University), funding than Japan. With this This workshop signified a and covered modern discrepancy in mind, our first rising concern for ‘anthropology transformations in specific workshop was held with a in action’ in Japan. It may also societies and cultures, special focus on the roles of have been the very first time for especially the transformations socio-cultural anthropology in Japanese anthropologists and called development, and the development projects of sociologists to come together international cooperation Danish, Swedish and Japanese for a discussion of development efforts associated with ODA agencies. Our hypothesis aid. ‘development’, in Middle was that Danish and Swedish American societies. In the development agencies make Nobuhiro Kishigami summary session, Emiko better use of socio-cultural Chief Organizer Namihira (Ochanomizu anthropology in aid projects National Museum of Ethnology University) pointed out how than the Japanese agencies. anthropologists can be At our workshop, Neil conscious of contemporary and Webster (Department of historical issues in their work. Development Research, Danish New Staff The importance of this was Institute for International generally recognized by the Studies, Denmark), Tomas participants. An audience of Kjellqvist (Department for Wil de Jong nearly fifty researchers and Research Cooperation, Swedish Professor, Japan Center for Area graduate students attended, International Development Studies and the presence of younger Cooperation Agency, Sweden) students was notable. The last and Hiroshi Sato (Institute of De Jong holds a PhD in session was open to the public, Developing Economies, Japan) Agricultural Sciences, and an and included a speech by Mary were invited to compare the MSc in Forestry. Between 1982 C. Bateson, President of the policies and outcomes of and 1984, as a research Institute for Intercultural development projects supported assistant at the Peruvian Studies, which was founded by by the three countries. With Amazon National University, he Margaret Mead. regard to development policy, investigated the ethnobotany December 2004 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 15
and forest University of Tokyo Bréhima Kassibo management (2001-2003). He has conducted Human Sciences Institute of systems of research on the modern history Bamako, Mali Bora of Malaysia specializing in Amerindians nationalism and ethnicity in Kassibo is a near the the State of Sabah. His research Colombian publications include ‘Sports, director at border. beauty contests and the Tamu the Human Between Besar: The origins of harvest Sciences 1984 and festival in Sabah (North Institute of 1985 he was Borneo)’ (2002) and ‘From Bamako, in a Research Associate at the Penampang boys to Tambunan Mali, West National Institute of sons: Kadazandusun leadership Africa. He Agricultural Research of Peru and their cultural ‘revival’ ’ currently and studied traditional (2002). leads a agroforestry further. From 1985 scientific research program on to 1995 he was based at the recent institutional changes in New York Botanical Garden. He West African countries, and then moved to Indonesia to Visiting Scholars supervises the training of MA study local forest management and PhD students at the among indigenous forest University of Bamako. Since communities in West The following visitors have been 1984, his main fields have been Kalimantan. sponsored by the National Museum natural resource management In 1995, de Jong became of Ethnology: (fisheries and forests), the Senior Scientist at the Center international migration of for International Forestry Uradyn E. Bulag Malians, and institutional Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Associate Professor, City changes (democratization and Indonesia. Since then he has University of New York, USA decentralization) in West Africa conducted research in Bolivia, from 1990. He has worked with Peru, Zimbabwe, Indonesia and Bulag several institutions in Vietnam, focusing on the received his collaborative research economics and livelihoods of PhD in Social programs. His recent people depending on Anthropology publications include ‘Pêche non-timber forest product from continentale et migration: extraction, national level Cambridge contrôle politique et contrôle policies and legislation affecting University in social des migrations de pêche local forest use, small-holder 1993, and dans le Delta central du Niger tree plantations and the has been (Mali)’ (2000) and ‘Decentralised assessment of national forest working at management of renewable rehabilitation strategies. De Hunter natural resources in Mali’ (2002). Jong has authored numerous College and the Graduate journal articles, book chapters, Center of the City University of (September 21, 2004 and monographs. New York since 1998. Author of - April 30, 2005) Nationalism and Hybridity in Hiroyuki Yamamoto Mongolia (Oxford 1998), and Associate Professor, Japan The Mongols at China’s Edge: Center for Area Studies History and the Politics of National Unity (Rowman and Publications Yamamoto Littlefield 2002), Bulag is completed co-editor of Inner Asia and The following were published by his MA with Toronto Studies of Central and the museum during the period a major in Inner Asia, and is on the from March to September 2004: Area Studies editorial boards of American of Asia at the Anthropologist and Critical ◊ Bulletin of the National University of Asian Studies. At Minpaku he Museum of Ethnology 29 (1), Tokyo in is writing about the creation of 2004. 1995. Prior a Mongolian ‘working class’ or Contents: J. Kreiner, ‘Umesao to obtaining the failure thereof for a volume Tadao’s civilization-theory, his PhD in on Inner Mongolian Modernity viewed in the historical context Area Studies from the to be edited by Yuki Konagaya, of Japanese anthropological University of Tokyo in June and is completing a book science’; M. Mio, ‘Looking for 2003, he served as visiting manuscript tentatively entitled love and miracles: Multivocal research associate at the Inner Mongolian Frontiers of composition and conflicts Institute for Development China and Japan: The Poetics of among believers in a Sufi Studies (Sabah, 1996-1998), Empire and Nation. mausoleum festival of lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Rajasthan, India’; H. Takakura, Sabah (1998-2000), and (July 1, 2004 - June 30, 2005) ‘Gathering and releasing research associate at the animals: Reindeer herd control 16 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 19 December 2004 activities of the indigenous range of information on just peoples of the Verkhoyansky 9,600 artefacts, with the region, Siberia’; S. Yoshida, following data fields: museum ‘Methods of molding Japanese accession number, name and Buddhist temple bells’; and function of the object, the Таксами, Чунер Михаилович, locations where used and where ‘Проблемы у коренных collected, main dimensions, малочисленных народов weight, year of collection, and Севера в ХХ веке’. year received by the museum. In the MMIR database so Basket for dough made by pounding breadfruit, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, ◊ Yokoyama, H. (ed.) The far, 3,493 baskets and collected 1975. Dynamics of Cultures and basket-related artefacts have Society among Ethnic Minorities been recorded. In the public in East Asia. Senri Ethnological database, only 396 are shown Reports, no.50, 377pp., March at present, yet these are 2004. enough to demonstrate the wonderful diversity in the ◊ Nishiyama, N. (ed.) Current world's basketry. The following Status and Issues of Cultural the images were selected from Heritage Management and the public database. Tourism. Senri Ethnological To use images from the Reports, no.51, 279pp., March public database for online or Basket to hold caught fish, Papua New 2004. print publication, please ask for Guinea, collected 1974. permission from the Information ◊ Taksami, C. M. Cultural and Documention Center of the Heritage of the Nivkhi: National Musem of Ethnology, Ethnological Collections in c/o this Newsletter or the main MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter Museums in Japan. Senri contact address on the Museum Ethnological Reports, no.52, website. In general, no payment The Newsletter is published bi-annual- 139pp., December 2004. is required for non-commercial, ly, in June and December. `Minpaku’ educational purposes. is a Japanese abbreviation for the National Museum of Ethnology. The Peter J. Matthews Newsletter promotes a continuing National Museum of Ethnology exchange of information with former From the Archives visiting scholars and others who have been associated with the museum. The Newsletter also provides a forum for Since its foundation, the communication with a wider National Museum of Ethnology academic audience. has had a strong focus on the systematic recording of data MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter is related to its collections. Moving available online at: www.minpaku.ac.jp/publication/ collection data from one newsletter/ medium to another has been a huge effort. In recent years, the General Editor: Makio Matsuzono development of digital Editor: Yoshitaka Terada databases has been a priority. Basket to carry soil, Yunnan, China, Editorial Panel: Kyonosuke Hirai, Yuki These are used for exhibition collected 1997. Konagaya, Peter Matthews, Akiko Mori, and research purposes, and Yuriko Yamanaka. smaller public versions can be Production: Masako Hatada. seen (Japanese language only) Address for correspondence: at the museum website The Editor, (www.minpaku.ac.jp/menu/ MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter, databases). National Museum of Ethnology, Overall, the museum houses Senri Expo Park, Suita, Osaka approximately 230,000 565-8511, Japan. Basket placed on ground to hold Tel: +81-6-6876-2151 artefacts. Of these, data for chickens, Chiang Mai, Thailand, collected 76,659 have been entered into 1985. Fax: +81-6-6878-7503 the multi-media information E-mail: [email protected] retrieval (MMIR) system used by Please note that signed articles museum staff and research represent the views of their writers, visitors. This work will be not necessarily official views of the completed for current collections National Museum of Ethnology. in 2005. Each artefact has to be photographed from different © National Museum of Ethnology angles, and information is given 2004. ISSN 1341-7959 in 21 data fields. Printed by Nakanishi Printing Co., Ltd. The public Digital Database Basket for a baby, Caroline Islands, for Artefacts offers a smaller Micronesia.