著者

桑山 敬己 Takami Kuwayama

出版者

国立民族学博物館

雑誌

国立民族学博物館研究報告 = Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology (ISSN:0385180X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.31, no.1, pp.27-56, 2006-09-29

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This article presents my observations of American anthropology, basedon my 11 years of stay in the United States as a foreign student and later as aprofessor. It provides descriptive accounts of the ways anthropology is actuallypracticed in America. As such, it may be considered an attempt at an‘ethnography of anthropology.’The opening chapter explains my background, both academic and personal,and the reasons why I returned to Japan even after becoming a permanentresident of the United States. The second chapter emphasizes the importanceof putting America in a relative perspective, thereby regarding it as representingonly one tradition out of many possibilities, despite the country’ssuperpower status. This viewpoint is applied in the third chapter, which analyzesthe development of American anthropology by comparing it with thatof Great Britain. The fourth chapter presents my impressions of some of themost influential American anthropologists by way of anecdotes. These illustratethe personal, rather than academic, aspects of American scholarship.The fifth chapter explores social factors in the academic culture of the UnitedStates, particularly the oscillation between obedience to authority and defiancethereof. The sixth chapter compares Japanese and American traditions ofscholarship, and points out that Japan’s strength lies in its versatility, whichcompensates for its lack of depth. In the seventh chapter are discussed someof the problems with which non-Western students are faced when studyingtheir own culture with American or British professors. The last chapter definesJapan as peripheral to the ‘academic world system.’ I conclude with a pleato the next generation of Japanese anthropologists that they should improveJapan’s international standing by conducting world-class research.