Anthropologist in Japan: Glimpses of Life in the Field

Overview

An Anthropologist in Japan is a highly personal narrative which draws the reader into a fascinating cross-section of Japanese life. Joy Hendry relates her experiences during a nine-month period of fieldwork in a Japanese seaside town. She sets out on a study of politeness but a variety of unpredictable events including a volcanic eruption, a suicide and her son's involvement with the family of a powerful local gangster, begin to alter the direction of her research. This volume exemplifies the role of chance in the acquisition of anthropological knowledge and demonstrates how moments of insight can be embedded in a mass of everyday activity. The disturbing and disordered appears alongside the neat and the beautiful, and the vignettes here illuminate the education system, religious beliefs, politics, the family and the neighbourhood in modern Japan. An Anthropologist in Japan is reflexive anthropology in action. It demonstrates how ethnographic fieldwork can uniquely provide a deep understanding of linguistic and cultural difference.

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Author Information

Bio of Joy Hendry

Joy Hendry is Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University. She has 25 years experience specialising in the anthropological study of Japan and is the author of Understanding Japanese Society and Wrapping Culture

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Additional Info

Imprint

Taylor & Francis

Filesize

2.82 MB

Number of Pages

167

eBook ISBN

9780203019818