Nature Ritual and Society in Japan's Ryukyu Islands by Arne Røkkum (2006).pdf

Nature, Ritual, and Society in

Japan’s Ryukyu Islands

Despite their small area, the southern islands of Japan can be seen as stepping

stones towards a more nuanced view of cultural osmosis between Japan and the

outside world. Integral to this viewpoint is a comprehensive understanding of the

inhabitants of these islands, including their culture, beliefs, and mores.

Nature, Ritual, and Society in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands contains original ethnography

which explores the mind of the islanders, their relationship with the natural

world, their social relationships, and the rituals which represent and give expres-

sion to these relationships. This book is based on extensive original research,

and includes participant observation. Village priestesses in the southern Ryukyu

Islands verbalize a sense of connectedness with the landscape through their

prayers. Rather than interpreting this oratory as an example of symbolic or meta-

phoric construction, however, the author guides the reader toward a more concrete

experience of the effect induced by the ornate words. This approach allows the

authentic voices of the Ryukyu Island worlds to speak for themselves, and also

sets the work in the wider context of anthropology, Japanese studies, and Paciﬁc

island studies. This book strings together issues of mind, society and nature and

captures the exact moments when impressionistic views of nature are composed

into stylized utterances.

This study will be of great interest to the general anthropological readership

interested in theoretical advances through ﬁeldwork, as well as to Asian studies

scholars.

Arne Røkkum is a professor of Social Anthropology in the Department of

Ethnography, University Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. He

has conducted ﬁeldwork among the Izu and Ryukyu islanders of Japan and

among the Bunun and Yami of Taiwan. He is the author of Goddesses, Priestesses

and Sisters: Mind Gender and Power in the Monarchic Tradition of the Ryukyus (Scandinavian

University Press, 1998).

Japan Anthropology Workshop Series

Series editor:

Joy Hendry, Oxford Brookes University

Editorial Board:

Pamela Asquith, University of Alberta

Eyal Ben Ari, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Hirochika Nakamaki, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka

Wendy Smith, Monash University

Jan van Bremen, University of Leiden

A Japanese View of Nature

The world of living things

Kinji Imanishi

Translated by Pamela J. Asquith, Heita Kawakatsu, Shusuke Yagi and

Hiroyuki Takasaki

Edited and introduced by Pamela J. Asquith

Japan’s Changing Generations

Are young people creating a new society?

Edited by Gordon Mathews and Bruce White

The Care of the Elderly in Japan

Yongmei Wu

Community Volunteers in Japan

Everyday stories of social change

Lynne Y. Nakano

Nature, Ritual, and Society in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands

Arne Røkkum

Nature, Ritual, and Society

in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands

Arne Røkkum

First published 2006

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, 2006.

“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.”

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

Røkkum, Arne.

Nature, ritual, and society in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands/Arne Røkkum.

p. cm. — ( Japan anthropology workshop series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Ethnology—Ryukyu Islands. 2. Ryukyu Islands—Social life and

customs. I. Title. II. Series.

GN635.R9R65 2005

306 ′ .0952 ′ 29—dc22

2005004364

ISBN10: 0–415 –35563–X

ISBN13: 9–78–0–415–35563–6

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