From structure to social becoming : The past, present and future of South Asian anthropology/sociology

DOI Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 構造から生成へ南アジア社会研究の過去・現在・未来
  • コウゾウ カラ セイセイ エ ミナミアジア シャカイ ケンキュウ ノ カコ ゲンザイ ミライ

Search this article

Description

This article reviews research on South Asian societies by Japanese scholars and discusses the transformations in perception and emergence of new agendas. Japanese studies on South Asian societies in the post-war period can be understood in a broader intellectual context in Japan in which there were attempts to re-evaluate the position of Asia in the world-politics of nationalism, democracy and development. However, anthropology, a discipline which conducted pioneering studies on South Asian societies, tended to pay attention to the importance of local society, ethnicity and civilization beyond the framework of nation-states. From the 1960s, many Japanese researchers began to conduct longterm field work in South Asia through which they produced significant monographs that reflected the complexity of South Asian society. Recent transformation of studies in South Asian sociology/anthropology in Japan can be summarized as change from attempts to grasp the essence of South Asia in terms of structural form to understanding the dynamics of social 'becoming'-the process of emergence and transformation-of social patterns and relationships. This article pays attention to the role of human agency which works upon social relationships and system of meaning in which these agents are embedded. Present day South Asian societies are in the process of moving beyond the colonial dichotomy of community/state, religion/rationality, traditional/modern, etc. through the workings of agency which functions to mediate the colonial dichotomy and create a new dynamism towards a post-postcolonial condition.

Journal

  • Minamiajiakenkyu

    Minamiajiakenkyu 2008 (20), 208-225, 2008

    JAPANESE ASSOCIATION FOR SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top