著者

山城 千秋

出版者

九州大学

雑誌

飛梅論集 : 九州大学大学院教育学コース院生論文集

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2, pp.67-84, 2002-03-27

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The purpose of this paper is to reevaluate the role of community groups, and their activities in maintaining, transmitting and re-creating traditional cultural activities in postwar Okinawa with particular preference to the local youth groups, which have been assigned this social function. Cultural continuation cannot be sustained unless tradition serves as the main medium for re-creation. Therefore cultural transmission requires the younger generation to be simultaneously an innovator and an observer of existing tradition. However, mainstream education research in the postwar era has focused less on continuity and on the wider context of youth group activity than on individual cases. An excessive amount of research has focused, for example, 'co-operative learning', with a consequent emphasis on 'learning content theory' , and 'organization reinforcement theory'. When the activities of local youth groups declined, the focus of research shifted towards a study of groups based predominantly in urban areas. As a consequence of the small size and fluctuating activity levels of such groups, research has largely failed to accurately track the continuity of cultural activities in those communities. Historical research has tended to overlook the social function and educational meaning that youth groups have exercised in local communities. This paper argues that, only by appreciating, as previous research has failed to do, the fundamental role played by cultural activity in youth education, is it possible to truly comprehend the role and essential function of youth groups in the maintenance of cultural traditions in postwar Okinawa.