ABSTRACT
The studies collected in this volume are by anthropologists from a number of different countries and backgrounds. They are about ceremonies and rites in Japan, one of the most urbanized and industrialized countries in the world today. It has widely been asserted that progessive secularization is innate to industrialized societies. It is thought that in an unholy alliance, urbanization, industrialization, and secularization cause the attrition of rites, but research (see Boissevain 1992) contradicts this notion. As rites disappear, in rural as well as in urban areas, others are seen to take their place, reflecting new levels of competition and integration such as those shown in the development of the nation-state. Meanwhile some of the older local rites are being maintained or revitalized in communities that enjoy economic prosperity in the Americas, Europe, and in Asia, in countries like Japan, Korea and Taiwan. 3 The re-emergence of the Dainenbutsu teams described by Halldór Stafánsson (in this volume) illustrates this point, as does Joy Hendry's analysis of gift exchange (in this volume).
