ABSTRACT
Looking back at the development of anthropology done by Japanese
people, we find that joint research projects (hereafter JRP), such as
joint fieldwork, joint study groups and symposia, have played a decisive
role, above and beyond individual research efforts. While the Japanese
Society of Ethnology (renamed as the Japanese Society of Cultural
Anthropology in 2004) has offered various types of academic communication at a superficial level at its meetings, JRPs have promoted actual
and practical advances under specific themes. This is not at all unique to
Japanese anthropology, but rather it is a common practice developed in
the advanced countries of anthropology. It was, however, a driving force in the
course of re-establishment after World War II in Japan, and since then has
flourished tremendously, in quantity as well as in quality. Therefore, it
would be no exaggeration to say that JRP is a ‘tradition’ in Japanese
anthropology. In this chapter I would like to focus on the ‘Civilization Studies’ of the
Taniguchi Symposia which were held seventeen times between 1983 and
1998. The symposia had an umbrella theme, namely ‘Japanese Civilization
in the Modern World’ and a specific topic was pursued once a year for the
duration of one week. The principle organiser was Tadao Umesao, then
Director-General of the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku), loca-
ted in the Expo Park, Osaka. He was assisted by two core members, namely
Josef Kreiner (University of Bonn) and Harumi Befu (Stanford University), who represented Europe and North America respectively. These three per-
sons basically attended all the symposia and took up various initiatives. The
average number of participants was around twelve.
