A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan is an unprecedented collection of original essays by some of the field's most distinguished scholars of Japan which, taken together, offer a comprehensive overview of the field. Aiming to retire stale and misleading stereotypes, the authors present new perspectives on Japanese culture and society - past and present - in accessible language. A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan covers a broad range of issues, controversies, and everyday practices, including the unacknowledged colonial roots of anthropology in the Japanese academy; legacies of nationalist research; eugenics and nation-building; majority and minority cultures; class and status; genders and sexualities; urban spectacle and rural 'undevelopment'; domestic, corporate, and educational ideologies and practices; the mass media, leisure, and 'infotainment' industries; women's and men's sports; fashion and food cultures; ideas of nature, life, and death; new and folk religions; and science and biotechnology.
Collectively, these chapters not only demonstrate Japan's significance for anthropological research but also help make Japanese society accessible to readers unfamiliar with the country. A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan is a reference volume for scholars, but is also designed to serve as a primary text for courses in anthropology and sociology, history, and Japan and East Asian Studies.
- ISBN10 1405184787
- ISBN13 9781405184786
- Publish Date 27 February 2008
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Imprint Wiley-Blackwell (an imprint of John Wiley & Sons Ltd)
- Pages 544
- Language English