Asian Anthropology
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Asian Anthropology Asian Anthropology raises important questions regarding the nature of anthropology, and particularly the production and consumption of anthropological knowledge in Asia. Instead of assuming a universal standard or trajectory for the development of anthropology in Asia, the contributors to this volume begin with the appropriate premise that anthropologies in different Asian countries have developed and continue to develop according to their own internal dynamics. With chapters written by an international group of experts in the field, Asian Anthropology will be a useful teaching tool and a fascinating resource for scholars working in Asian anthropology. Jan van Bremen is Professor at the Centre for Japanese and Korean Studies in Leiden University. Eyal Ben-Ari is Professor of Anthropology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Syed Farid Alatas is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. Anthropology of Asia series Edited by Shaun Malarney International Christian University, Japan Asia today is one of the most dynamic regions of the world. The previously predominant image of ‘timeless peasants’ has given way to the image of fast- paced business people, mass consumerism and high-rise urban conglomerations. Yet much discourse remains entrenched in the polarities of ‘East versus West’, ‘Tradition versus Change’. This series hopes to provide a forum for anthropological studies which break with such polarities. It will publish titles dealing with cosmopolitanism, cultural identity, representations, arts and performance. The complexities of urban Asia, its elites, its political rituals and its families will also be explored. Hong Kong The anthropology of a Chinese metropolis Edited by Grant Evans and Maria Tam Folk Art Potters of Japan Brian Moeran Anthropology and Colonialism in Asia and Oceania Jan van Bremen and Akitoshi Shimizu Japanese Bosses, Chinese Workers Power and control in a Hong Kong megastore Wong Heung Wah The Legend of the Golden Boat Regulation, trade and traders in the borderlands of Laos, Thailand, China and Burma Andrew Walker Cultural Crisis and Social Memory Modernity and identity in Thailand and Laos Edited by Shigeharu Tanabe and Charles F. Keyes The Globalization of Chinese Food Edited by David Y.H. Wu and Sidney C.H. Cheung Culture, Ritual and Revolution in Vietnam Shaun Kingsley Malarney The Ethnography of Vietnam’s Central Highlanders A historical contextualization, 1850–1990 Oscar Salemink Night-time and Sleep in Asia and the West Exploring the dark side of life Edited by Brigitte Steger and Lodewijk Brunt Chinese Death Rituals in Singapore Tong Chee Kiong Calligraphy and Power in Contemporary Chinese Society Yuehping Yen Buddhism Observed Travellers, exiles and Tibetan dharma in Kathmandu Peter Moran The Tea Ceremony and Women’s Empowerment in Modern Japan Bodies re-presenting the past Etsuko Kato Asian Anthropology Edited by Jan van Bremen, Eyal Ben-Ari and Syed Farid Alatas Asian Anthropology Edited by Jan van Bremen, Eyal Ben-Ari and Syed Farid Alatas I~ ~~o~;~;n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2005 Editorial matter and selection, Jan van Bremen, Eyal Ben-Ari and Syed Farid Alatas. Individual chapters, the contributors. Typeset in Times New Roman by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd, Chennai, India The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Asian anthropology / edited by Jan van Bremen, Eyal Ben-Ari, and Syed Farid Alatas. p. cm. – (Anthropology of Asia series) Includes bibliographical references. 1. Ethnology–Asia–Philosophy. 2. Ethnology–Asia–History. 3. Philosophy, Asian. 4. Anthropologists–Attitudes. 5. Indigenous peoples–Education (Higher) 6. Racism in anthropology. 7. Asia–Social life and customs. I. Bremen, Jan van, 1946– II. Ben-Ari, Eyal, 1953– III. Alatas, Farid, Syed. IV. Anthropology of Asia series (Richmond, England). GN625.A74 2004 306Ј.095–dc22 2004027729 ISBN 13: 978-0-415-34983-3 (hbk) Contents Notes on contributors ix Acknowledgements xii PART I Introduction 1 1 Asian anthropologies and anthropologies in Asia: an introductory essay 3 EYAL BEN-ARI AND JAN VAN BREMEN PART II Asia 41 2 Indigenous and indigenized anthropology in Asia 43 GRANT EVANS PART III East Asia 57 3 Beyond orthodoxy: social and cultural anthropology in the People’s Republic of China 59 FRANK N. PIEKE 4 Anthropologists of Asia, anthropologists in Asia: the academic mode of production in the semi-periphery 80 JERRY S. EADES 5 Native discourse in the ‘academic world system’: Kunio Yanagita’s project of global folkloristics reconsidered 97 TAKAMI KUWAYAMA viii Contents 6 Korean anthropology: a search for new paradigms 117 OKPYO MOON PART IV South Asia 137 7 ‘Indigenizing’ anthropology in India: problematics of negotiating an identity 139 VINEETA SINHA 8 An Indian anthropology?: what kind of object is it? 162 ROMA CHATTERJI PART V South-East Asia 177 9 From Volkenkunde to Djurusan Antropologi: the emergence of Indonesian anthropology in postwar Indonesia 179 MICHAEL PRAGER 10 Anthropology and the nation state: applied anthropology in Indonesia 201 MARTIN RAMSTEDT PART VI Afterword 225 11 Indigenization: features and problems 227 SYED FARID ALATAS Index 245 Notes on contributors Syed Farid Alatas is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, where he has been since 1992. A Malaysian national, he had his schooling in Singapore and obtained his PhD in Sociology from the Johns Hopkins University in 1991. He lectured at the University of Malaya in the Department of South-east Asian Studies prior to his appointment at Singapore. His book Democracy and Authoritarianism: The Rise of the Post-Colonial State in Indonesia and Malaysia is published by Macmillan (1997). His recent articles include ‘The study of the social sciences in develop- ing societies: towards an adequate conceptualization of relevance’, Current Sociology (2001), 49(2): 1–19; (with Vineeta Sinha) ‘Teaching classical socio- logical theory in Singapore: the context of Eurocentrism’, Teaching Sociology (2001), 29(3): 316–31; ‘Islam, Ilmu-Ilmu Sosial dan Masyarakat Sipil’, Antropologi Indonesia (2001), 25(66): 13–22; ‘Eurocentrism and the role of the human sciences in the dialogue among civilizations’, The European Legacy (2002), 7(6): 759–70; and ‘Academic dependency and the global division of labour in the social sciences’, Current Sociology (2003), 51(6): 599–613. He is currently working on a second book in the area of the philosophy and sociology of social science and on another project on Muslim ideologies and utopias. Eyal Ben-Ari is Professor of Anthropology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has carried out fieldwork in Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong on a variety of topics including Japanese white-collar communities, early childhood education in Japan, Japanese expatriates and the contemporary Japanese Self-defense Forces. In Israel, he has carried out research on Jewish saint worship and social and cultural aspects of the Israeli military. Jan van Bremen obtained his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984, worked in the Department of Anthropology in the University of Amsterdam (1975–86) and joined the Centre for Japanese and Korean Studies at Leiden University in 1987. His specializations are Japanese anthropology and folklore studies, religion and society, and intellectual history. He edited Ceremony and Ritual in Japan: Religious Practices in an Industrialized Society (with D.P. Martinez, 1995); Anthropology and Colonialism in Asia and Oceania (with Akitoshi Shimizu, 1999); and Wartime Japanese Anthropology in Asia and the Pacific (with Akitoshi Shimizu, 2003). x Notes on contributors Roma Chatterji is Reader in the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics. Her research centres around folklore and the public sphere, illness experience and the anthropology of collective violence. Jerry S. Eades is Professor of Asia Pacific Studies and Director of the Media Resource Center, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Beppu, Japan and Senior Honorary Research Fellow in Anthropology, University of Kent. His current research interests include migration, urbanization, tourism, higher education and the development of anthropology in East Asia. He is the author, editor or translator of over a dozen books, the most recent of which include Globalization and Social Change in Contemporary Japan (edited with Tom Gill and Harumi Befu, Trans Pacific Press, 2000), Globalization in Southeast Asia (edited with Shinji Yamashita, Berghahn, 2003), and The Making of Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia (edited with Shinji Yamashita and Joseph Bosco, Berghahn, 2004). Grant Evans is Reader in Anthropology and Director of the Centre for Anthropological Research at the University of Hong Kong. His latest book is A Short History of Laos: The Land In-between (2002). Takami Kuwayama is Professor in the Department of History and Anthropology at the Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido University, Sapporo. He received his degrees from the Tokyo University