著者

Masataka SUZUKI

出版者

The Human Geographical Society of Japan

雑誌

Japanese Journal of Human Geography (ISSN:00187216)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.30, no.6, pp.541-554, 1978-12-28 (Released:2009-04-28)

参考文献数

53

被引用文献数

1 3

---

Spatial perception is the one of the most important problem to decide the behavior pattern in folk society where the people are living with nature. This paper proposes a study of spatial perception in folk society through the orientation in Yaeyama Islands, Okinawa prefecture of Japan. Yaeyama Islands is located in the southernmost part of Ryûkyû archipelago and therefore is the most southern of the whole Japanese area. These islands have been researched by many Japanese and foreign anthropologists, whose conclusions have had an important role in larger studies of Ryûkyûan culture. Using this anthropological approach, we will make clear up the indigenous concept of cosmology and find out the mode of spatial perception in this area.Through the analysis of myth and ritual, we may observe that Yaeyama islanders employ both the relative orientation shifting 30°-45° from the cardinal points and the absolute orientation of the cardinal points indicated by the twelve earthly branches _??__??__??_ . We call the former “folk orientation” and the latter “natural orientation”. It seems to me that “folk orientation” in Yaeyama Islands has been formed by the direction of monsoon because the term of ‘the north’ and ‘the south’ in “folk orientation” is the same as the names of wind. According to the meteorological data, the winter monsoon blows from northeast and the summer monsoon blows from southwest. Then, the pair of northeast-southwest relationship in “natural orientation” coinciding with the compass, is ‘the north-south’ relationship in “folk orientation” shifting 30°-45° from “natural orientation”. As for ‘the east-west’ relationship in “folk orientation”, the same shifting process is observed. For example, in Hateruma Island, one of the Yaeyama Islands, Simazasu in the north-western part of this island is in the islanders' conception very ‘west’ and as such connected with cape Takana in the southeastern edge of this island as the very ‘east’.On the folk village of Yaeyama Islands, these two systems of orientation are used for indicating the direction in ordinary life and make meaningful their spatial perception. For example, among the houses having three front rooms facing generally to the south of “folk orientation”, the male sides being the south and the east in “natural orientation” are superior to the female sides being the north and the west, but in religious affairs, the whole situation is reversed. Generally speaking, the pair of south-east relationship in “natural orientation” will be superior to the one of north-west relatioship. However, at the rituals on island level, cosmological concept based on a dualism that is characterized by superiority of ‘west’ and ‘female’ over ‘east’ and ‘male’, is found out. Though such value systems connected with spatial perception, are changed by the situation and the context, there are some principles formed by the indigenous concept of cosmology.In the above, we have examined spatial perception through the orientation. Lastly I will offer some interpretations of what might be called “Uyân” as it emerges in the “pan” (ritual invocations). In a passage of “pan”, “Uyân” (the deity) is praised. It runs as follows, “yuru nu isïma-ndô pïsu nu nana-ndê pïsê ôru bûyân pïsûyân” (great Uyân, Uyân looming large, who is always present during the five hours of the night and the seven hours of the day.)

著者

Shimpei SEGAWA

出版者

The Human Geographical Society of Japan

雑誌

Japanese Journal of Human Geography (ISSN:00187216)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.47, no.3, pp.215-236, 1995-06-28 (Released:2009-04-28)

参考文献数

94

被引用文献数

4 3 8

---

Buildings are moulded by and reflect order, social relations and ideas. However, how people build not only results from but also exerts influences upon how they think: order, social relations and ideas find expressions in actual buildings.As a message any building has to be decoded by those who use or observe it. But while it is composed of a multiplicity of signs, it also invites a plurality of readings and meanings. It must thus be considered on the basis of whose beliefs or whose view of the world a particular reading and meaning circulated in society is made up.The powerful in society often bring up unintentionaly as well as deliberately a certain reading and meaning of a building. Rather, the dominant are those who manage to present them that may be taken in as unquestioned and thus “natural”. Buildings are major arenas where reading and meaning publicly unfold.The material of my discussion is the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (Beautiful Indonesia in Miniature Park), popularly known as Taman Mini, located in a suburb of Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. It is both a recreation park and a cultural theme park containing examples of traditional architecture, museums, religious buildings, movie theaters, gardens, and other cultural and historical exhibitions and facilities alike. It is designed to provide visitors with an overall insight into Indonesia's people, arts, social customs, history and living environment.My purpose is to reveal the use of the Taman Mini by investigating its design, location and way of representing, considering the socio-political setting of which it is a part. Both in the selectivity of its content and in the signs and style of representation the Taman Mini works to support the order favorable to those who have built it.In November, 1971, when the government was shifting to pro-capitalistic development policies, the President's wife first announced an idea to build a museum-park complex aiming at making Indonesia known to international tourists and raising national consciousness. A few years before, the republic saw the most crucial time in its post-colonial history. Late on the evening of 30 September 1965, army units launched a limited coup in Jakarta ostensibly to remove a group of generals said to be plotting against the then (and first) president. They killed six leading generals, the corpses of whom were later discovered in a well near the present site of the Taman Mini. The coup was crushed in twenty-four hours by special forces commanded by Major General Suharto. These events laid basis for a gradual seizure of power by him and the installation of the so-called New Order.Mrs Suharto's idea immediately came under attack by intellectuals and students, for being for her prestige and a waste of domestic funds, and for the compulsory clearing of small-holder farmlands at the site at a low rate of compensation. She insisted on fighting for her project and declared it was of service to the people to deepen their love for the fatherland. At last the President uttered a statement affirming his full back-up to his wife's project. Construction of the vast park began in 1972, and the opening by the President occurred on April 20, 1975.Some facilities and exhibitions of the Taman Mini are precise replicas with more perfection than their originals. Others are drained from immediate functions and actual life by being replanted regardless of the backgrounds on which they should be. They are all signs of“Indonesian-ness”, and the Park serves as a sketch map showing in public space how Indonesia is organized.The Taman Mini conveys a set of values. The juxtaposition of provincial architectures, houses of worship, folk ways of life, handicrafts, and performing arts visualize the cultural diversity and relativism of Indonesian society.