Asian Anthropology (Anthropology in Asia)

262 Pages·2006·0.89 MB·English

by  Jan Van Bremen

Asian Anthropology
Asian Anthropologyraises 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,
AsianAnthropologywill 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-Ariis 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,
ChinaandBurma
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
First published 2005
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2005 Editorial matter and selection, Jan van Bremen, Eyal Ben-Ari
and Syed Farid Alatas. Individual chapters, the contributors.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
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
306(cid:1).095–dc22 2004027729
ISBN 0-203-30814-X(cid:13)(cid:10) Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0–415–34983–4
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 VolkenkundetoDjurusan 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 Bremenobtained 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).