Japanese Journal of Cultural Anthropology 日本文化人類学会 76 (4) 398 - 416 1349-0648 2012 [Not refereed][Not invited]
In recent years, lively debates have been conducted in cultural anthropology on moving beyond Western dualism. Philippe Descola, for example, classified the relationship between nature and humans into four modes in terms of inner and outer continuity, and defined the mode that gains dominance in areas where people are gathered as a social ontology. Acknowledging such an ontology that differs from the West makes it possible to analyze society from different aspects. This paper draws upon those discussions and aims to examine the continuity of animals and humans in the ethnography of North American indigenous people Kaska in particular-who have maintained a closer-knit relationship with animals than most hunter-gatherers. Specifically, first of all, by classifying their knowledge and skills about animals, norm and species, the paper reveals that the Kaska perceive animals as targets with which negotiation is possible, while making use of ecological understanding. In addition, the fact that the presence or absence of rituals depends on whether the animal can be eaten or not suggests that the continuity with the animals-an aim of the rituals-is not necessarily required for all species. The Kaska lead their lives while planning and adjusting their distance from the animals depending on the situation. For example, while it is desirable to be close to the animals during hunting, an excessive degree of closeness in daily life evokes fears of assimilation. Furthermore, an analysis of items such as social relationships among animals that include the Kaska, stories and medicine animals reveals that relationships vary based on the denominations of species or kinship groups and individuals. Among those, the relationship between an individual and animals is the most basic social unit. In cultural terms also, the highest value is placed on maintaining that relationship, and attention is paid to it. Humans can be considered part of a world that is interwoven with animals, a kind of continuity that cannot be divided into modes.
yamaguchi mikako Abstracts of the Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology 2009- (0) 153 -153 2009 [Not refereed][Not invited]
For the Kaska, Canadian indidenous people, hunting is not only activity for resource acquisition but relation with animak spirit and practice a religion. power, such as a relation with animals and make people sick is recognized as realm of "non (medicine)". In this presentation I examine what is Kaska view of religion through the analysis of knowledge and practices of "non" based on field data.
Part of the Moose: Maintaining Continuity Between the Kaska and Animals Through Hunting Activity [Invited]
Mikako Yamaguchi
A Collection of Papers from an International Conference “Japan and Canada in Comparative Perspective: Economics and Politics; Regions, Places and People” 2015/05
狩猟から考える [Invited]
山口未花子, 佐々木俊尚
生活工房連続講座・知の航海 Vol.4 2015/02
Subsistence and religion in the Oshika Peninsula after the March 11 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami disaster
Mikako Yamaguchi
IUAES2013 World Congress: Evolving humanity, emerging worlds 2013/08
カナダ、ユーコン準州における気候変動に対する先住民の認識と対応 [Invited]
山口未花子
第26回 北方民族文化シンポジウム 2012/10
A Struggle for the Co-existence between the European Canadians and the Kaska Athapaskan Hunters. [Invited]
Mikako Yamaguchi
“Continuity, symbiosis, and mind in traditional cultures of modern societies” 2008/11
Teaching Experience
Perceptions of Society Reading culture from the depicted animalsPerceptions of Society Reading culture from the depicted animals Hokkaido University
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science:Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research
Date (from‐to) : 2017/04 -2020/03
Author : Iizuka Noriko
In the comparison of Canadian Indigenous peoples and African hunter-gatherers' views of the environment, we can find a common way of thinking that relates the environment strongly to humans, granting natural resources supernatural powers, such as medicine animals of the Kaska, Totem animals of Tlingit, and various spirits and plants of Baka Pygmy. Fieldwork mixes up these unknown way of thinking with their own, and provides fieldworkers with new perceptions and perspectives. This study explores how to bring similar transcultural experiences to Japanese children and citizens in the classroom. As experimental study of an educational workshop, “play-acting” was proved to encourage students' independent interpretations and dialogue, and it can be the methodology that could approach the “educational methods” of indigenous peoples, which encompass physicality and narrative. It is suggestive to consider sustainability from the perspective of the renewal of human experience.
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science:Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
Date (from‐to) : 2012/04 -2017/03
Author : OKUNO Katsumi
This study group conducted study on "killing animals", a remarkable aspect of the relation between human and animals around the world, focusing on varied subsistence system such as hunting-and-gathering, herding and farming, by especially depending on comparative ethnographic method based on anthropological fieldwork.
Although, lots of articles focus on Scientific Whaling in the Southern Ocean by the Japanese Government, whaling in Japan is diverse. For example, a small-type coastal whaling targeting berardius and pilot whales is legally operated. In order to make clear diversities of whaling industry and whaling cultural complex in Japan, the present research focuses on life histories of wide range of whaling industry workers and stakeholders such as small-type coastal whalers, a whale meat seller in Kitakyushu and an owner of whale meat specialty restaurant in Osaka. One of the results indicates that there are clear differences between commercial whaling and scientific whaling in that the latter needs more sophisticated technique in dissection. This is because the research needs the contents of the stomach. Selected six oral histories will be published by a Japanese publishing house in the end of this year (2016).
In the Arctic where a high index of the global warming was seen in in comparison with a middle-low degree zone, the influence of the climate change to the indigenous socio-cultural system was analyzed based on the information of the recent environment history. From the case study of the inland river basin (Lena River), the high humidity is sensed in the region which affected the frequency and larger scale of spring ice-melted floods, snow-melted floods, and summer rain floods increased. The latter two floods brought a crisis for local live stock farming occupation which only had formed as an adaptation to the spring ice-melted flood. On the other hand, from the case study of coastal region (the Alaska coast) which is sensed as a trend of draught the indigenous communities does not intensively use the low land and the flood plain, which resulted no serious damage occurred. The focus on the micro-environment is the clue for the method of the climate change and global society.